After ingesting more internet information in connection with a Kansas City Royals' baseball move than I ever thought humanly possible, my jaw has been scraped up off the floor and I'm a KC Royals fan again. I didn't think Dayton had it in him, I really didn't. He listened to me, finally. I don't think it's brilliant, I don't think it's smart, but I do think it's AWESOME. There seems to two camps which have emerged from this trade:
The Thumbs-uppers: We say it had to be done, we're thrilled to have the most legitimate pre-season hype for the Royals in a long time, we don't care about age 26 Wil Myers because even if he is Ryan Braun we would have been Dodgers fans by then, we ignore the James Shield bashers and think this is about the best we could do and we've already renewed our MLB TV subscriptions.
The Thumbs-downers: The Royals gave up WAY too much, there are prospects and then there are Wil Myers prospects, you could have had Anibal Sanchez and kept Wil Myers, Wil Myers over Francouer is the same as adding James Shields and James Shields still isn't enough.
Since I'm giving it two thumbs up let me try to address those who thought it was more Godfather III than Part II:
The Royals gave up WAY too much
Obviously, but I really don't care. The 'what if' scenarios are unlimited so I'm not going to go into 20 years of baseball trades and analyze the ramifications of these types of moves. The only reality is that they had to beat the next guy and this is what it took. Time will tell.
Wil Myers is not your average top prospect
That's possible, but it's also possible that he's much more like Jesus Montero and Justin Smoak than Mike Trout. The bottom line for me is that there is an equally likely probability that James Shields is Justin Verlander in 2013 as there is for Wil Myers turning into Ryan Braun immediately.
You could have had Anibal Sanchez AND kept Wil Myers
Let's just assume that big spender David Glass would have approved this signing (That's a BIG if). Let's also assume that James Shields and he are both 200 inning 3.5 ERA guys over the next two years (good #2s, but not King Felix). Let's keep going and consent that Shields wasn't enough for the Royals to make the playoffs in 2013 or 2014, but they're on the doorstep. Whatever you think Myers will be, would you rather have that and a back loaded Anibal Sanchez contract with 4yrs and 60-65$ million left starting in 2015 or James Shields for two years and that money to pick-up whatever is needed to get the Royals to the next level? I really don't think having Anibal Sanchez at 6yrs/$90 mil is the answer.
Wil Myers over Francouer is the same upgrade
Let's be clear, I hate the fact that Frenchy will be our starting RF this year, and there is no other good solution, but after having written 51% of all PBR posts dedicated toward negative Frenchy analysis, I'll give you something positive. Frenchy is just as likely to put up 2011 Frenchy numbers as is Wil Myers of putting up those same numbers. Frenchy was awful last year, but in 2011 he was above respectable and counting on Wil Myers to have an .805 OPS with 20 HRs and 20 SBs right out of the gate is just as probable as it is that Frenchy will bounce back this year. There it is, the most positive I have been or ever will be toward Jeff Francouer. When the Ryan Ludwicks and Jason Kuebels of the world go for modest prices, Wil Myers has to be one hell of a RF to regret trading three years down the road.
James Shields still isn't enough
Maybe not, granted. However, if he wasn't enough then no James Shields was going to make 2013 another year where we were waiting to see what trade could be made in July so as to have few more prospects for NEXT year instead of possibly seeing the Royals doing the buying at this year's trade deadline. I might not have been around to care about 2014 if 2013 didn't get a lot better than 2012. If you want to fight for hours over the semantics of whether or not James Shields is a true ACE, it could go on for hours depending on your side of the argument. The easiest logic for me to follow is this: the Royals obviously didn't have anyone even close to that discussion before, and now we do.
Is 2013 Finally OUR TIME???
I think I love this trade because it is really the first thing the Royals have done to look like a winner which I have ever witnessed. I never thought that it would be possible for Dayton to give away a prospect like Myers and the fact that I'm surprised for the first time in his tenure is what makes me love this trade so much. Maybe I'm blind and this is the trade equivalent to signing Jason Kendall (well known good clubhouse guy and leader of men), but Dayton I applaud the move. Dayton Moore has absolutely earned the right to save his job by trading the very prospects he groomed. Whatever we may think of him, there is little doubt that those were his prospects being traded. He earned that currency and if he was fired for another disappointing team in 2013, someone else would have reaped whatever benefits Wil Myers gave the 2014-2018 Royals. So this is his trade to live-and-die by, and he will.
