Two things will happen tomorrow, February 27, 2011; the Royals will play their first Spring Training game and the hardly working men and women of Hollywood will dole out tiny statues which signify great achievement in their field. We here at the PBR thought it appropriate to hand out our awards for best performances from the 2010 KC Royals team, here goes:
Best Director: This is a no-brainer...and the award goes to Dayton Moore. After spending the previous 5 years honing his craft as a comedy director, Moore is ready to take on the task of directing the artsy dramatic feel good story of turning an organization from pathetic loser to winners. If the Royals go .500 in 2012, will you remember Jose Guillen? If they are soon battling the Twins for the Central Division crown, will you still bring up the Betancourt trade? If Hosmer & Moutsakas are two of the best hitters in the league, will you still harp on the Kendall signing? Of course not. Yes, there is still a long way to go and we're as skeptical as anyone, but if you went to every team in baseball and said: "would you trade your organization for an organization with the best minor league system and a $30-$40 million dollar budget surplus?" all but about 3 or 4 teams would probably say yes, despite the prospect of losing another 90 games in 2011.
Best Actor: And the Kauffman goes to....Jason Kendall. Surprised? This guy is so type-cast that he deserves the award, no other Royal could pull off such a performance. The gritty-veteran-club house leader-pitcher handing-passed ball blocking-Crash Davis-y role has been so mastered by him that this is more of a life time achievement award for Kendall. He somehow convinced Moore that a 40-year-oldish catcher with no arm and no ability to hit even one home run a year, was worth 2 years and $6 mil. This is pure acting because there are no numerical measures of why this guy is even able to still play baseball at a major-league level, but here he is convincing people that he still has a talent.
Best Supporting Actor: Earning his 6th consecutive (and final) Kauffman for his role as a supporting actor is...David DeJesus! David, this is your farewell gift from the PBR, we really never noticed that you were that good, but you really were a good player for KC. David is probably not ever going to take down that leading actor role, but the guy does his job quite well and probably would have been a great guy to have on the 2013 Royals. However, this year would have been another year being a very solid player on a last place finishing team . David we wish you well. The fact that he was still worthy of a young starting pitcher, while on the DL after a pretty serious injury, should tell you that he is/was a pretty valuable player.
Best Foreign Language Film: The Yuniesky Experiment. This documentary-style film was really something to watch over the past year-and-a-half. Perhaps no player better exemplifies how much baseball has changed in the last 20 years; in 1992 Yuni would have been considered one of the best shortstops in baseball and coming off a year in which he led your team in HRs AND RBIs, while looking good to the back-hand side, he might have gotten a life-time contract. In 2010 that makes you a cast-off, mercy trade chip, when we have laser-guided video analysis which tells us that maybe one too many balls squirted up the middle and you can't cross the modern Mendoza-line (.300 OBP) those other (HRs, RBIs and backhanded plays) stats don't amount to much. Yuni also fits this category so well, did anyone ever hear one word of English come out him? I think he always used Brayan Pena as his translator. I will actually miss Yuni to some degree - not really for anything he did on the field - because it was so much fun watching/reading so many conflicting reports about his worth. Next year will be even more interesting when the Brewers try to prove that you can still win even with a Yuniesky Betancourt on your team.
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, wait maybe Alex Gordon because he still has some questionable cajones, but we'll see if this really is the year.
Best Editing: Trey Hilman, just couldn't waste the opportunity to use the name Tokyo Trey one last time. He wins this category more for the fact that he was the person most in need of self editing when he spoke, seriously the things that came out of that guys mouth were Tobias Fünke worthy. "Trey you blow-hard"
Best Short Film: Rick Ankiel, lets just hope we get more than 92 ABs out of Jeff Francouer - then again maybe not. This was an absolutely excellent signing, I know Rick would like to thank the Academy and the Kansas City fans for giving him this opportunity. I can just picture Ricky up on the stage sheding a little tear for all his time in KC.
Drum Roll Please.
Best Picture: Project 2012, granted it is rare that a preview wins the award for best picture, but every Royals fan is already playing out the story of a rejuvenated, youthful franchise winning Division Titles and reigniting the George Brett vs. Yankees drama that once existed. It all starts now, bring it on!
Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, the PBR will not be reporting live from Surprize, AZ but we wish we were. Rejoice, Baseball is FINALLY here again!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Side Bets
February has arrived and will soon bring the words "Spring Training" into our vocabulary - though most fans east of the Royals Spring Training complex in Surprise, AZ aren't thinking about Spring right now - and our beloved KC Royals will start playing baseball again. After it appeared that we were heading for an uneventful few winter months, this has been one of the most interesting off-seasons imaginable; when your star pitcher gets traded along with your starting shortstop, not to mention your most tenured and recognizable face, then your former star pitcher-moved-to-the-bullpen decides to quit baseball and hand you $12 million dollars and finally your star young hitter gets signed long-term, yeah, you could say it has been a very interesting Royals' off-season. But all of this brings us back to the present, where we are still faced with the thought of bearing through another potentially brutal six months of baseball in KC - albeit one with some hope on the way - with very little to be excited about. Yes, hear ye hear ye, the Royals have THE BEST minor league system in all of baseball, but all of that promise still necessitated (or at least Dayton thought so) the (re)signings of Bruce Chen, Jeff Francis, Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francouer. So what do we do with 2011? The answer: side bets. If you were betting on baseball in Vegas this year, it would take something like 20,000:1 odds to get you to bet on the Royals to win the World Series, however we here at the PBR want to keep things interesting (and the suckers at the table), so instead of betting on the global success of the Royals team we want you to place your bets on individual performances and see if you leave the casino happy. I just hit a royal flush on Norwegian Black Jack, lets go to the clubs, I'm buying!!!! You get the idea, please feel free to place your bets before the season so that you have something to pay attention to during the coming 8 moths of futility.
Before placing any bets read the fine print: All bets assume significant playing time and all injuries void the bets.
#1 Better season; Billy Butler or Zach Greinke, pays 2:1 for Billy. For this to happen, Butler would need a big, big year. You know the worst Zach can do is last year and the best is 2009, so for this to come into fruition, Billy needs something just shy of an Albert Puljos year. I personally don't think he has it in him, but damn he is young. I suspect this will be the most popular bet placed with the PBR Sports Book.
#2 Alex Gordon has a better season than Billy Butler, pays 4:1. Billy has far surpassed Alex in the minor-league-star-turned-MLB-contributor path, but it has really only been in the past two years. Hopefully this year we'll get to see them both play 150+ games together, so do you like the dark horse or the front-runner?
#3 Better year; Brayan Pena or Jason Kendall, pays 5:1 for Pena. Let start to make things interesting. For this category we will only be using the Yost/Moore gauge of performance; games caught. We've heard already that Iron Man Kendall is ahead of schedule (who didn't see this one coming?) during his rehab, but Pena will still have at least a month's head start to hit like Mike Piazza in is his glory years and supplant Kendall as the everyday catcher, though I'm not even sure that would do it. Those odds are tough to pass up, even though we all know how it will play out in the end.
#4 Most starts; Hochevar or Davies, pays 1.5:1 for Hochevar. You might be surprised to see that the payoff is for betting on Hochevar, given that he will probably be the opening day starter, but Davies actually made it through a full season last year and this house won't bet on Luke until he proves something. However, if Davies doesn't get his ERA under 5.00 he might be out of a job come July, still the smart money is on Davies.
#5 Jeff Francis and Bruce Chen each make 30+ starts this year (for the Royals or any other team), pays 20:1. Now those are some odds, but seriously if this happens the Royals will have made out like bandits.
#6 More Home Runs, Francoeur or Gordon, pays 2:1 for Gordon. This might entice some people to lay down money on Frenchie. They are both fully capable of hitting 20+ HRs, but they are two very good examples of how things don't always work out the way they should, good luck to both of them.
#7 More starts in CF; Melky Cabrera or Lorenzo Cain, pays 1.5:1 for Cain. God we hope we're wrong on this one, but all signs point to Melky being your starting CF this year, don't ask why.
#8 More HRs; Wilson Betemit or Mike Moustakas, pays 1.5:1 for Moustakas. We hope we're wrong on this one too, but for some reason I just don't see Mike getting on the squad until later in the year and we at PBR like Wilson so we're (maybe somewhat unreasonably) expecting another big year from him.
#9 Lower slugging %; Getz or Kendall, pays 2:1 for Kendall. We're probably not going to see either of these two in the Home Run Derby during the All Star game, but Kendall was unbelievably lacking in power last year and I can't think shoulder surgery will help things much.
#10 More starts; Sean O'Sullivan or Mike Montgomery, pays 2:1 for Monty. Even after all of the free agent signings seemingly pushing O'Sullivan out of a job, it's still inevitable that someone will get hurt and the first person to step in will be the good Irish lad. Unfortunately, its probably too early to see more than a hand full of starts from Monty this year, but again we hope we're wrong on this one.
Feel free to chime in on any other random side bets you want to propose, we'll be taking money right up until opening day. Spring Training is really only about a week away, wow!
Before placing any bets read the fine print: All bets assume significant playing time and all injuries void the bets.
#1 Better season; Billy Butler or Zach Greinke, pays 2:1 for Billy. For this to happen, Butler would need a big, big year. You know the worst Zach can do is last year and the best is 2009, so for this to come into fruition, Billy needs something just shy of an Albert Puljos year. I personally don't think he has it in him, but damn he is young. I suspect this will be the most popular bet placed with the PBR Sports Book.
#2 Alex Gordon has a better season than Billy Butler, pays 4:1. Billy has far surpassed Alex in the minor-league-star-turned-MLB-contributor path, but it has really only been in the past two years. Hopefully this year we'll get to see them both play 150+ games together, so do you like the dark horse or the front-runner?
#3 Better year; Brayan Pena or Jason Kendall, pays 5:1 for Pena. Let start to make things interesting. For this category we will only be using the Yost/Moore gauge of performance; games caught. We've heard already that Iron Man Kendall is ahead of schedule (who didn't see this one coming?) during his rehab, but Pena will still have at least a month's head start to hit like Mike Piazza in is his glory years and supplant Kendall as the everyday catcher, though I'm not even sure that would do it. Those odds are tough to pass up, even though we all know how it will play out in the end.
#4 Most starts; Hochevar or Davies, pays 1.5:1 for Hochevar. You might be surprised to see that the payoff is for betting on Hochevar, given that he will probably be the opening day starter, but Davies actually made it through a full season last year and this house won't bet on Luke until he proves something. However, if Davies doesn't get his ERA under 5.00 he might be out of a job come July, still the smart money is on Davies.
#5 Jeff Francis and Bruce Chen each make 30+ starts this year (for the Royals or any other team), pays 20:1. Now those are some odds, but seriously if this happens the Royals will have made out like bandits.
#6 More Home Runs, Francoeur or Gordon, pays 2:1 for Gordon. This might entice some people to lay down money on Frenchie. They are both fully capable of hitting 20+ HRs, but they are two very good examples of how things don't always work out the way they should, good luck to both of them.
#7 More starts in CF; Melky Cabrera or Lorenzo Cain, pays 1.5:1 for Cain. God we hope we're wrong on this one, but all signs point to Melky being your starting CF this year, don't ask why.
#8 More HRs; Wilson Betemit or Mike Moustakas, pays 1.5:1 for Moustakas. We hope we're wrong on this one too, but for some reason I just don't see Mike getting on the squad until later in the year and we at PBR like Wilson so we're (maybe somewhat unreasonably) expecting another big year from him.
#9 Lower slugging %; Getz or Kendall, pays 2:1 for Kendall. We're probably not going to see either of these two in the Home Run Derby during the All Star game, but Kendall was unbelievably lacking in power last year and I can't think shoulder surgery will help things much.
#10 More starts; Sean O'Sullivan or Mike Montgomery, pays 2:1 for Monty. Even after all of the free agent signings seemingly pushing O'Sullivan out of a job, it's still inevitable that someone will get hurt and the first person to step in will be the good Irish lad. Unfortunately, its probably too early to see more than a hand full of starts from Monty this year, but again we hope we're wrong on this one.
Feel free to chime in on any other random side bets you want to propose, we'll be taking money right up until opening day. Spring Training is really only about a week away, wow!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Bizaro World
Up is down, down is up and Dayton Moore is a Genius! I had the Jeff Francis signing pegged all wrong (see previous post), not only was it not a bad idea, but apparently it was the best move of the year. Since this declaration comes from a website which has been notoriously critical of Moore, actually that would be the understatement of the year; they think his previous moves make him an incompetent fool who should have been forcefully removed from his job. Less than a year ago the Royals were ranked #29 in their organizational rankings and now they think we've made the best off-season move, not to mention that no one can deny that we have the best minor league system in baseball. The Jeff Francis signing was quickly followed by the Bruce Chen signing, Moore seems to like double-fisting during the off-season; first he steps up to the bar and orders two has-been outfielders and then comes back for two oft-injured lefties. This signing may not be any kind of great fiscal move, but he is automatically in the top three of Royals' fan favorites on a team completely bereft of someone who fans know and like.
All of this transpired around the same time that Tampa Bay was signing players from our trash pile. I say this because the Devil Rays are generally thought of to be a very smart organization and the complete polar opposite of the Royals. Now lil'Willie Bloomquist and Kyle Farnsworth are with the Rays, granted they've signed one-year deals at slightly less per year after spending the previous two years with the Royals. However, considering they are old players who are now two years older, the discounted pay is about right and it makes the Royals' signings of the two not look that bad after all. And in turn, all of this leads me to wonder, is Dayton Moore really that bad, was he any worse than other GMs, have any of his moves deserved the ridicule they got?
Since we now have perfect hindsight, we can look at his most debated and scorned trades and free agent signings during the last few years and wonder if they weren't in fact just a small insignificant part of the ridiculous MLB machine:
#1 Yuniesky Betancourt: His name has produced more words affirming the incompetence of Dayton Moore than any other Royal will, has or ever will again. What the Royals gave up hasn't turned out to hurt them and may never in the end, but the mere fact that Moore was willing to give up anything and pay good money in return for someone who has been called the worst everyday player in baseball drove people insane. In the end no one should argue that Yuni was anything less than a bad/below average MLB player and the Royals paid a few mil for 1.5 years of this service to the team. But, this transaction has turned out to be completely innocuous, the only thing that even remotely makes this look bad is the fact that Mike Aviles made a miraculous recovery from Tommy John surgery and even that is mitigated by the fact that it looked prescient last spring when the only other SS in the organization went down with season ending surgery. That's it, the Yuni story is now over and he is another team's problem. Yuni didn't like to walk, Yuni did not like to go up the middle to get ground balls and Yuni most certainly did not look interested in baseball at times, but this should go down in history as almost a push and certainly not any indictment against Moore's qualities as a GM.
#2 Jose Guillen: Almost immediately hated by fans and statistical analysts alike, this signing of an past-his-prime outfielder for $12 mil per over 3yrs caused some very deserved criticism of Moore. The first year with the Royals he did what was expected; 20 HRs, 100 RBIs and he pissed off other teams, his own teammates and hometown fans. It was downhill ever since. Did this turn out well? Absolutely not, but in the end they got about 1.5 of 3 years at the level of play that could reasonably have been expected from Jose. The real key, however, is to look at this with some historical perspective to other signings that happened and see how it stacks up. 2008 (the year he was signed): Andruw Jones 2yrs/$36 mil+, Aaron Rowand 5yrs/$60 mil, Torii Hunter 5yrs/$90 mil. 2007(the year before he was signed): Carlos Lee 6yrs/$100 mil, Alfonso Soriano 8yrs/$136 mil, Gary Matthews Jr. 5yrs/$50 mil. If you were to compare it to those signings it would probably rank as the second best amongst that group, and would you really rather be on the hook to Torii Hunter for $37 mil over the next two years or be in the Royals position??? The bottom line is that outfielders who hit a few HRs during that time period were overpaid, much as they still are today.
#3 Mike Jacobs: Another guy who doesn't like to walk and plays bad defense, but who was coming off of a 30+ HR season. Using our perfect hindsight, this is one trade that can be viewed as bad because it cost a few mil, Leo Nunez has turned out to be a solid relief pitcher and Mike might never set foot on a major league field again. The real complaint about this trade was that it effectively blocked Kila from getting to the majors that year, which was right after a year when he had dominated in the minors. Put it all together and this was a completely unnecessary move, but in all fairness the idea of trading a relief pitcher at his peak value for a guy who had slugged over .500 makes some sense. But if we wanted a first basemen who gets on base, plays defense AND hits 30HRs we probably could have had Mark Teixeira for about $200 mil and change that year.
No team really wins with big free agent signings and they are probably more often regretted than praised, but Dayton's certainly don't rank at the bottom given what he had to work with and the results that came from them, at best they can be viewed as unnecessary. As for the trades, it can be said that he was probably betting against the house, but if you walk into a Casino that is what you are doing. Its also hard to trade for quality when you have none to give-up in return. You would be hard pressed to say that if you were the GM you could have made the Royals into a contender over the past three years, they had limited funds, very few trading chips and were short on young talent. No matter who you are, nothing good was going to come of that situation.
This is going to take some getting used to, but the Royals are on the verge of being considered a competent organization. Sounds weird, believe us, we know but looking back Moore may not have done anything that really hurt the Royals long term and we now sit in one of the more enviable, non Yankees or Red Sox, positions in baseball; young talent + lots of room to spend = good things to come.
All of this transpired around the same time that Tampa Bay was signing players from our trash pile. I say this because the Devil Rays are generally thought of to be a very smart organization and the complete polar opposite of the Royals. Now lil'Willie Bloomquist and Kyle Farnsworth are with the Rays, granted they've signed one-year deals at slightly less per year after spending the previous two years with the Royals. However, considering they are old players who are now two years older, the discounted pay is about right and it makes the Royals' signings of the two not look that bad after all. And in turn, all of this leads me to wonder, is Dayton Moore really that bad, was he any worse than other GMs, have any of his moves deserved the ridicule they got?
Since we now have perfect hindsight, we can look at his most debated and scorned trades and free agent signings during the last few years and wonder if they weren't in fact just a small insignificant part of the ridiculous MLB machine:
#1 Yuniesky Betancourt: His name has produced more words affirming the incompetence of Dayton Moore than any other Royal will, has or ever will again. What the Royals gave up hasn't turned out to hurt them and may never in the end, but the mere fact that Moore was willing to give up anything and pay good money in return for someone who has been called the worst everyday player in baseball drove people insane. In the end no one should argue that Yuni was anything less than a bad/below average MLB player and the Royals paid a few mil for 1.5 years of this service to the team. But, this transaction has turned out to be completely innocuous, the only thing that even remotely makes this look bad is the fact that Mike Aviles made a miraculous recovery from Tommy John surgery and even that is mitigated by the fact that it looked prescient last spring when the only other SS in the organization went down with season ending surgery. That's it, the Yuni story is now over and he is another team's problem. Yuni didn't like to walk, Yuni did not like to go up the middle to get ground balls and Yuni most certainly did not look interested in baseball at times, but this should go down in history as almost a push and certainly not any indictment against Moore's qualities as a GM.
#2 Jose Guillen: Almost immediately hated by fans and statistical analysts alike, this signing of an past-his-prime outfielder for $12 mil per over 3yrs caused some very deserved criticism of Moore. The first year with the Royals he did what was expected; 20 HRs, 100 RBIs and he pissed off other teams, his own teammates and hometown fans. It was downhill ever since. Did this turn out well? Absolutely not, but in the end they got about 1.5 of 3 years at the level of play that could reasonably have been expected from Jose. The real key, however, is to look at this with some historical perspective to other signings that happened and see how it stacks up. 2008 (the year he was signed): Andruw Jones 2yrs/$36 mil+, Aaron Rowand 5yrs/$60 mil, Torii Hunter 5yrs/$90 mil. 2007(the year before he was signed): Carlos Lee 6yrs/$100 mil, Alfonso Soriano 8yrs/$136 mil, Gary Matthews Jr. 5yrs/$50 mil. If you were to compare it to those signings it would probably rank as the second best amongst that group, and would you really rather be on the hook to Torii Hunter for $37 mil over the next two years or be in the Royals position??? The bottom line is that outfielders who hit a few HRs during that time period were overpaid, much as they still are today.
#3 Mike Jacobs: Another guy who doesn't like to walk and plays bad defense, but who was coming off of a 30+ HR season. Using our perfect hindsight, this is one trade that can be viewed as bad because it cost a few mil, Leo Nunez has turned out to be a solid relief pitcher and Mike might never set foot on a major league field again. The real complaint about this trade was that it effectively blocked Kila from getting to the majors that year, which was right after a year when he had dominated in the minors. Put it all together and this was a completely unnecessary move, but in all fairness the idea of trading a relief pitcher at his peak value for a guy who had slugged over .500 makes some sense. But if we wanted a first basemen who gets on base, plays defense AND hits 30HRs we probably could have had Mark Teixeira for about $200 mil and change that year.
No team really wins with big free agent signings and they are probably more often regretted than praised, but Dayton's certainly don't rank at the bottom given what he had to work with and the results that came from them, at best they can be viewed as unnecessary. As for the trades, it can be said that he was probably betting against the house, but if you walk into a Casino that is what you are doing. Its also hard to trade for quality when you have none to give-up in return. You would be hard pressed to say that if you were the GM you could have made the Royals into a contender over the past three years, they had limited funds, very few trading chips and were short on young talent. No matter who you are, nothing good was going to come of that situation.
This is going to take some getting used to, but the Royals are on the verge of being considered a competent organization. Sounds weird, believe us, we know but looking back Moore may not have done anything that really hurt the Royals long term and we now sit in one of the more enviable, non Yankees or Red Sox, positions in baseball; young talent + lots of room to spend = good things to come.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Holiday Leftovers
The smoke has finally cleared from the Greinke deal and the Royals are left with a payroll resembling that of Tampa Bay, but of course Dayton and his notoriously itchy trigger finger can't just let things be. No, our GM needs to sift through the leftover pile of free agent pitchers and see if he can't take some of that money we saved by shipping off Greinke and lay a golden egg with free agent signings like...Jeff Francis. Yes Dayton! That is exactly the kind of thing that will make myself and legions of Royals fans forget about Zach Grienke, Jeff F-ing Francis, really???
Okay so I'm not going to get myself worked up too much over throwing some spare change at Jeff Francis, and saving the money for David Glass' grandchildren's trust funds doesn't really excite me either, but NO ONE cares. Granted, the fact that our current rotation features Luke Hochevar, Kyle Davies, Sean O'Sullivan, Vin Mazaro and a big fat question mark needs to be addressed. However, it needs to be addressed in Spring Training NOT via free agent scrap piles! The fact that there is a question mark is actually exciting and interesting and is one of the few things that makes me want to pay attention in early 2011. Tell everyone good luck in Spring Training and whomever surfaces as our fifth starter in February and March gets the job. If however, it is apparent that not one of our minor league pitchers is even close to ready for the job, then I'm sure there will still be an unsigned free agent or a trade that can be made. We've already got the message loud-and-clear, 2011 will be a long year, don't try to tell us that we need a veteran fifth starter in order to compete this year because we don't. We will not compete this year, it's obvious, and if we were to compete it wouldn't be by signing the likes of Jeff Francis or Kevin Milwood, it would be because Aaron Crow emerged as the staff ace and Alex Gordon turned in a Ryan Braun-like year and because Lorenzo Cain turned into Mike Cameron (early Mike) and Kila hit 30 HRs and Billy Butler hit .350, but not because Kevin Milwood cheated father time.
Which brings us to the most puzzling rumor...ever. The KC Royals are interested in Carl Pavano??? Carl is the expensive long-term version of Milwood or Francis, it would take all of the money saved in the Greinke trade and probably a little icing on the cake to get him to come to KC. Since this is still in the rumor stage, I'm going to bite my tongue somewhat. However, if Dayton were to put his blinders on and look only at the moderately successful year-and-a-half that Carl spent in Minnesota and completely forget about those Yankee years where Carl made Jose Guillen's time in KC look like a bargain, it might be the worst contract Dayton has ever signed. The deal is a no-win for the Royals of Texas-sized proportions, lets just say it's three years and $25 mil, and Carl earns that money in 2011 by going 10-10 with 180 innings and a 3.90 ERA, but naturally the Royals finish 72-90. Great, good Job Carl, starting in 2012 he will be spending two years blocking tryouts for pitchers the Royals are counting on to be superstars for the next 5 years and paying him $8 mil for this valuable service. Enough said, I'll continue to bite my tongue until this becomes a nightmarish reality.
If you want to see a good indication of just how badly the Royals did in the free agent market during the last few years, you have to look no further than who is still available on the market about a month before Spring Training gets underway. Surprisingly, Willie Bloomquist, Kyle Farnsworth, Jose Guillen and Scott Posednik have not yet been made serious offers and Bruce Chen is still waiting for that multi-year deal. Juan Cruz didn't make the list, but that is because he is no longer considered a baseball player and any reputable magazine listing him as a free agent would be laughed at. Brain Bannister recently took his name off the list by signing to play in Japan, Sayonara Banny, we'll miss you this year (especially if Carl Pavano takes your place). So far one of the biggest winners is Rick Ankiel, who will be taking his classy sportsmanship to D.C. this year where outfielders get a 50% premium to play. By far and away the biggest winners were John Buck and Miguel Olivo, both of whom signed multi-year deals after putting up solid seasons when the Royals chose not to sign either of them in favor of Jason Kendall, who won't be joining our team until later this year (good thing we gave him that extra year). And for a further walk down memory lane take a look at some of the other names on the list: Johnny Damon, Octavio Dotel, Chad Durbin, Mike MacDougal, Ron Mahay, Jeff Suppan, Mike Sweeny, and I believe that Jermaine Dye is still considered a free agent just to round it out. It's been awhile since we've had a premier free agent leave in a KC jersey, I guess Raul Ibanez probably has signed the biggest deal after ending the season in a KC uniform and without being traded first, someone help me if I'm wrong.
Please tell me if you would tune into just one more game this season if we signed Carl Pavano, Jeff Francis, Kevin Milwood or any pitcher left on the fee agent market??? Dayton, take a vacation, we don't need anything else this year, your job is done until the trade deadline when, hopefully, you can trade Melky Cabrera for a box of cracker jacks and start bringing up a slew of minor league talent.
Okay so I'm not going to get myself worked up too much over throwing some spare change at Jeff Francis, and saving the money for David Glass' grandchildren's trust funds doesn't really excite me either, but NO ONE cares. Granted, the fact that our current rotation features Luke Hochevar, Kyle Davies, Sean O'Sullivan, Vin Mazaro and a big fat question mark needs to be addressed. However, it needs to be addressed in Spring Training NOT via free agent scrap piles! The fact that there is a question mark is actually exciting and interesting and is one of the few things that makes me want to pay attention in early 2011. Tell everyone good luck in Spring Training and whomever surfaces as our fifth starter in February and March gets the job. If however, it is apparent that not one of our minor league pitchers is even close to ready for the job, then I'm sure there will still be an unsigned free agent or a trade that can be made. We've already got the message loud-and-clear, 2011 will be a long year, don't try to tell us that we need a veteran fifth starter in order to compete this year because we don't. We will not compete this year, it's obvious, and if we were to compete it wouldn't be by signing the likes of Jeff Francis or Kevin Milwood, it would be because Aaron Crow emerged as the staff ace and Alex Gordon turned in a Ryan Braun-like year and because Lorenzo Cain turned into Mike Cameron (early Mike) and Kila hit 30 HRs and Billy Butler hit .350, but not because Kevin Milwood cheated father time.
Which brings us to the most puzzling rumor...ever. The KC Royals are interested in Carl Pavano??? Carl is the expensive long-term version of Milwood or Francis, it would take all of the money saved in the Greinke trade and probably a little icing on the cake to get him to come to KC. Since this is still in the rumor stage, I'm going to bite my tongue somewhat. However, if Dayton were to put his blinders on and look only at the moderately successful year-and-a-half that Carl spent in Minnesota and completely forget about those Yankee years where Carl made Jose Guillen's time in KC look like a bargain, it might be the worst contract Dayton has ever signed. The deal is a no-win for the Royals of Texas-sized proportions, lets just say it's three years and $25 mil, and Carl earns that money in 2011 by going 10-10 with 180 innings and a 3.90 ERA, but naturally the Royals finish 72-90. Great, good Job Carl, starting in 2012 he will be spending two years blocking tryouts for pitchers the Royals are counting on to be superstars for the next 5 years and paying him $8 mil for this valuable service. Enough said, I'll continue to bite my tongue until this becomes a nightmarish reality.
If you want to see a good indication of just how badly the Royals did in the free agent market during the last few years, you have to look no further than who is still available on the market about a month before Spring Training gets underway. Surprisingly, Willie Bloomquist, Kyle Farnsworth, Jose Guillen and Scott Posednik have not yet been made serious offers and Bruce Chen is still waiting for that multi-year deal. Juan Cruz didn't make the list, but that is because he is no longer considered a baseball player and any reputable magazine listing him as a free agent would be laughed at. Brain Bannister recently took his name off the list by signing to play in Japan, Sayonara Banny, we'll miss you this year (especially if Carl Pavano takes your place). So far one of the biggest winners is Rick Ankiel, who will be taking his classy sportsmanship to D.C. this year where outfielders get a 50% premium to play. By far and away the biggest winners were John Buck and Miguel Olivo, both of whom signed multi-year deals after putting up solid seasons when the Royals chose not to sign either of them in favor of Jason Kendall, who won't be joining our team until later this year (good thing we gave him that extra year). And for a further walk down memory lane take a look at some of the other names on the list: Johnny Damon, Octavio Dotel, Chad Durbin, Mike MacDougal, Ron Mahay, Jeff Suppan, Mike Sweeny, and I believe that Jermaine Dye is still considered a free agent just to round it out. It's been awhile since we've had a premier free agent leave in a KC jersey, I guess Raul Ibanez probably has signed the biggest deal after ending the season in a KC uniform and without being traded first, someone help me if I'm wrong.
Please tell me if you would tune into just one more game this season if we signed Carl Pavano, Jeff Francis, Kevin Milwood or any pitcher left on the fee agent market??? Dayton, take a vacation, we don't need anything else this year, your job is done until the trade deadline when, hopefully, you can trade Melky Cabrera for a box of cracker jacks and start bringing up a slew of minor league talent.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Happy Ending (mostly)
He's Gone, our Zach has left the building. I had been praying all along that this wouldn't happen before the season started, but recent events all but killed any prospect of this happening and so the Royals did what they had to do. Without worrying too much about the specific prospects, this is pretty much the best possible outcome for everyone involved. It was finished fast, we didn't have to drag it out for another week and in the end everyone should be happy, perhaps most of all Zach Greinke.
Zach now finds himself on a club that will compete and, in my opinion, could make it to the World Series if no one gets hurt and they all perform at their peak levels and Philly chokes (lots of ifs but they have a pretty solid base). He will be surrounded by players that have won previously and who are professionals; as opposed to the rag-tag group of mutts that he has spent the last few years playing with. Its Milwaukee, he doesn't have to worry about the big stage, pressure or rabid fans AND he gets to swing the bat (I'll start the over under on Greinke HRs next year at 3). The Royals don't have to face him next year - barring the most unlikely world series match-up in history - and as a Royals fan you can still root for Greinke; Toronto, Texas and especially New York would have been tough to stomach. For Zach, it couldn't have turned out better and if you still hold a little bit of love for him as a fan it's a fitting place for him as well.
The Royals got, more or less, what they wanted; a defensive whiz SS and a possible legit starting CF (the "up-the-middle" guys) AND they got rid of Yuniesky, which is no small feat by itself. If Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain can play their as advertised above average defense and resemble something approaching the level of major league hitters, then they will be as valuable as Greinke would have been next year. The pitchers sound good in theory and if one turns out to be who is projected to be, along with the position players, the Royals will probably win long-term in the deal. The players we got in return have a surprising amount of big league experience, I had foreseen the Royals picking-up players that we wouldn't see for a year, but we might actually see three of the four play the whole season at the big-league level, which would be a big surprise and make the deal much more palatable. They're dirt cheap, we save the $27 mil on Greinke's contract and get a bunch of league minimum players, I'm not sure what the savings mean at this point, but in 2011 the Royals could conceivably spend big-time bucks on a worthy free-agent or go the predictable Billy Butler long-term extension route.
The relatively sweet and quick ending to this story should leave Royals fans and Zach Greinke relieved and able to enjoy the Holiday season a bit more. It's sad to see him go, but he's definitely in a better place now, and most likely so are the Royals.
Zach now finds himself on a club that will compete and, in my opinion, could make it to the World Series if no one gets hurt and they all perform at their peak levels and Philly chokes (lots of ifs but they have a pretty solid base). He will be surrounded by players that have won previously and who are professionals; as opposed to the rag-tag group of mutts that he has spent the last few years playing with. Its Milwaukee, he doesn't have to worry about the big stage, pressure or rabid fans AND he gets to swing the bat (I'll start the over under on Greinke HRs next year at 3). The Royals don't have to face him next year - barring the most unlikely world series match-up in history - and as a Royals fan you can still root for Greinke; Toronto, Texas and especially New York would have been tough to stomach. For Zach, it couldn't have turned out better and if you still hold a little bit of love for him as a fan it's a fitting place for him as well.
The Royals got, more or less, what they wanted; a defensive whiz SS and a possible legit starting CF (the "up-the-middle" guys) AND they got rid of Yuniesky, which is no small feat by itself. If Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain can play their as advertised above average defense and resemble something approaching the level of major league hitters, then they will be as valuable as Greinke would have been next year. The pitchers sound good in theory and if one turns out to be who is projected to be, along with the position players, the Royals will probably win long-term in the deal. The players we got in return have a surprising amount of big league experience, I had foreseen the Royals picking-up players that we wouldn't see for a year, but we might actually see three of the four play the whole season at the big-league level, which would be a big surprise and make the deal much more palatable. They're dirt cheap, we save the $27 mil on Greinke's contract and get a bunch of league minimum players, I'm not sure what the savings mean at this point, but in 2011 the Royals could conceivably spend big-time bucks on a worthy free-agent or go the predictable Billy Butler long-term extension route.
The relatively sweet and quick ending to this story should leave Royals fans and Zach Greinke relieved and able to enjoy the Holiday season a bit more. It's sad to see him go, but he's definitely in a better place now, and most likely so are the Royals.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
They like me, they really like me
Dayton Moore awoke Tuesday morning to see that his IPhone had 37 missed calls and 14 new voice mails, the Powder Blue Room was able to intercept some of the voice mails and conversations, the following is a text version of what transpired:
Dayton Moore's IPhone Voice Mail #5:
Brain Cashman (BC): Dayton, this is Brian Cahman from the New York Yankees, I'd appreciate it if you'd give me a call at your earliest convenience, this is my unlisted number DO NOT give it out under any circumstances and call me back from a pay phone.
Dayton Moore (DM) returning BC's message: Hi Mr. Cashman, this Dayton Moore, General Manager of the Kansas City Royals returning your phone call.
BC: Dayton, you can call me Brian now, I need your help, you've got to give me Greinke. Are you calling from a secure phone? I'm in Montana in my panic room, 1000 ft underground, no one knows where I'm at. I had to flee after Cliff Lee signed with the Phillies, the Steinbrenners are threatening castration. I think George has returned from the dead to haunt my dreams, I haven't slept for 50 hours, I can't go back without Zach Greinke.
DM: Well Brian, I'm going to tell you what I've told everyone, let me get my calling sheet for GMs who find themselves in these situations; "We are not actively pursuing a trade with insert player X, I mean Zach Greinke, we will certainly entertain all reasonable offers, but..."
BC: Dayton, cut the bullshit, you like prospects, I don't care about them, you want to talk about the achievements of 20 years olds, I have to win the World Series every year! Do you understand that I'm calling from the the New York Yankees, I just gave $50 mil to a senior citizen. We buy players, that's great if you want to develop them for us, we'll just buy them for $100 mil 5 years later. You can have ANYONE in our minor league system, no problem, I just can't go home until I have Zach, please Dayton they're going after my family next.
DM: Uh...We're not actively shopping Zach, if you have an offer please contact me with said offer and we can discuss it.
BC: Are you an f-ing robot, didn't you hear me? You can have anyone, take our top 5, just give me Zack so I can sleep you little Monkey!
DM: Hold on Brian, I've got another phone call coming in...
BC: F$## You, !!!!!!!!!##$$^&&&&&J####kljd....
(DM puts BC on hold to take the incoming call, wondering if this was really Brian Cashman, the same guy who just last week said he was too busy to go grab lunch at the GM meetings, and who previously made him use his secretary for all communication, or was it Theo Epstein and Bill James prank calling him again)
DM: Good afternoon, Dayton Moore Head General Managing person for the Kansas City Royals.
Nolan Ryan (NR): Dayton, good buddy, it's Nolan Ryan, how's things up there in KC, I hear its colder than a well diggers ass up in your neck of the woods.
DM: Who is this really? I'm the General Manager of a Major League Baseball team with the most talented minor league players in the game, I don't have time to joke around.
NR: Dayton, are you bat shit crazy? This is Nolan Ryan, used to pitch a little bit, now I own the Texas Rangers.
DM: REALLY!!?? The Nolan Ryan, I have to say sir I'm a big fan, I believe this is the first time we've actually spoken, how can I help you?
NR: Dayton, look here, you ain't talked to that Yankee bastard Cashman yet, have ya? Never mind, listen you've got that horse of yours that I'm lookin to get over here to our team, what it'll it take to make this happen?
DM: I believe you've been misinformed Mr. Ryan, I'm a baseball General Manager, I don't have any horses.
NR: Dayton, are you high, Zach Greinke, I need him in Texas, now I know you want a bunch of little ponies for that big stud of yours and I think we got just the group of young bucks you need, what do you say you come down to my ranch, we'll go hunting with some former presidents and make this happen.
DM: I'm sorry, but I don't own a gun, maybe we could meet at my office.
NR: What is wrong with you son? Whatever, call my secretary and set it up.
(Dayton hangs up his IPhone, forgetting about Brian Cashman, thinking he is the most popular man in the world, he finally gets to talk with people who have nothing to do with the Braves organization, he is now a real live GM, tears form in his eyes as begins to watch more minor league film of Eric Hosmer and Mike Montgomery)
The time is now Dayton, this is why GMs get paid the big bucks, choose wisely because you will probably never be this popular again. Everyone is waiting on your call as to what to do with Zach Greinke, the ball is in your court now.
Seriously, could this guy have gotten any luckier? This decision might literally make or brake the Royals as a franchise and this is the guy who gets to make the decision, thankfully Greinke's stock might be so high right now that he can't screw this one up, or can he? What do you do if you're Dayton?
Dayton Moore's IPhone Voice Mail #5:
Brain Cashman (BC): Dayton, this is Brian Cahman from the New York Yankees, I'd appreciate it if you'd give me a call at your earliest convenience, this is my unlisted number DO NOT give it out under any circumstances and call me back from a pay phone.
Dayton Moore (DM) returning BC's message: Hi Mr. Cashman, this Dayton Moore, General Manager of the Kansas City Royals returning your phone call.
BC: Dayton, you can call me Brian now, I need your help, you've got to give me Greinke. Are you calling from a secure phone? I'm in Montana in my panic room, 1000 ft underground, no one knows where I'm at. I had to flee after Cliff Lee signed with the Phillies, the Steinbrenners are threatening castration. I think George has returned from the dead to haunt my dreams, I haven't slept for 50 hours, I can't go back without Zach Greinke.
DM: Well Brian, I'm going to tell you what I've told everyone, let me get my calling sheet for GMs who find themselves in these situations; "We are not actively pursuing a trade with insert player X, I mean Zach Greinke, we will certainly entertain all reasonable offers, but..."
BC: Dayton, cut the bullshit, you like prospects, I don't care about them, you want to talk about the achievements of 20 years olds, I have to win the World Series every year! Do you understand that I'm calling from the the New York Yankees, I just gave $50 mil to a senior citizen. We buy players, that's great if you want to develop them for us, we'll just buy them for $100 mil 5 years later. You can have ANYONE in our minor league system, no problem, I just can't go home until I have Zach, please Dayton they're going after my family next.
DM: Uh...We're not actively shopping Zach, if you have an offer please contact me with said offer and we can discuss it.
BC: Are you an f-ing robot, didn't you hear me? You can have anyone, take our top 5, just give me Zack so I can sleep you little Monkey!
DM: Hold on Brian, I've got another phone call coming in...
BC: F$## You, !!!!!!!!!##$$^&&&&&J####kljd....
(DM puts BC on hold to take the incoming call, wondering if this was really Brian Cashman, the same guy who just last week said he was too busy to go grab lunch at the GM meetings, and who previously made him use his secretary for all communication, or was it Theo Epstein and Bill James prank calling him again)
DM: Good afternoon, Dayton Moore Head General Managing person for the Kansas City Royals.
Nolan Ryan (NR): Dayton, good buddy, it's Nolan Ryan, how's things up there in KC, I hear its colder than a well diggers ass up in your neck of the woods.
DM: Who is this really? I'm the General Manager of a Major League Baseball team with the most talented minor league players in the game, I don't have time to joke around.
NR: Dayton, are you bat shit crazy? This is Nolan Ryan, used to pitch a little bit, now I own the Texas Rangers.
DM: REALLY!!?? The Nolan Ryan, I have to say sir I'm a big fan, I believe this is the first time we've actually spoken, how can I help you?
NR: Dayton, look here, you ain't talked to that Yankee bastard Cashman yet, have ya? Never mind, listen you've got that horse of yours that I'm lookin to get over here to our team, what it'll it take to make this happen?
DM: I believe you've been misinformed Mr. Ryan, I'm a baseball General Manager, I don't have any horses.
NR: Dayton, are you high, Zach Greinke, I need him in Texas, now I know you want a bunch of little ponies for that big stud of yours and I think we got just the group of young bucks you need, what do you say you come down to my ranch, we'll go hunting with some former presidents and make this happen.
DM: I'm sorry, but I don't own a gun, maybe we could meet at my office.
NR: What is wrong with you son? Whatever, call my secretary and set it up.
(Dayton hangs up his IPhone, forgetting about Brian Cashman, thinking he is the most popular man in the world, he finally gets to talk with people who have nothing to do with the Braves organization, he is now a real live GM, tears form in his eyes as begins to watch more minor league film of Eric Hosmer and Mike Montgomery)
The time is now Dayton, this is why GMs get paid the big bucks, choose wisely because you will probably never be this popular again. Everyone is waiting on your call as to what to do with Zach Greinke, the ball is in your court now.
Seriously, could this guy have gotten any luckier? This decision might literally make or brake the Royals as a franchise and this is the guy who gets to make the decision, thankfully Greinke's stock might be so high right now that he can't screw this one up, or can he? What do you do if you're Dayton?
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Yes, we are that predictable
The double meaning embedded in the title goes both for the Royals and the Powder Blue Room, yes we're going to talk about the Jeff Francouer and Melky Cabrera signings, because that is just what a reputable Royals blogger does, even if they know full well that the item has already been talked about to death. Only within this micro realm of sports news would the signing of two outfielders for less than the price of Carl Crawford's bonus garner so much attention and scorn. There is no way to spin this in a positive light; we are that pathetic, predictable and hopeless (both the Royals and their followers), but in the long run this signing won't affect anyone. Apparently we've added two more of the worst offensive players to our already inept battling line-up, probably because that is just the best we could do. It hurts to be so helpless.
The problem really isn't the money or the production of these two players, it is just the fact that we are so frickin obvious; not only is there the whole ex-Brave & Dayton Moore combo, but we did the EXACT same thing last year. What happened here is just a classic case of boredom at the GM meetings, when people stopped calling Dayton Moore to ask about Zach Grienke because he was asking for the entire AA starting line-up from the teams' minor league system, he noticed the reminder on his Outlook calendar telling him to call Francouer's agent. His agent probably had this standard one-year $2.5 mil package that he offered every team in need of an outfielder, Dayton simply said "I'll take it!" Then when Melky's agent noticed this he called Dayton and offered Cabrera for the last minute half price blue light special and Dayton couldn't say no. Most likely our beloved owner told Moore that his budget was no more that what he saved on the DeJesus contract and thus Dayton took that to mean that he Had to spend somewhere around $5 mil, basically what Theo Epstein and Brian Cashman had as a travel and food budget to sign free agents. Working with this in mind, Dayton took his Wal-Mart allowance money and weighed his options; old middle relievers, back-up catchers, fourth outfielders, hmmmm??? He took deep personal stock of his previous actions and judged that his relief pitcher and catcher track record of signings hadn't worked out so well, but he felt that with last year's minor success of Scott Posednik (and to a much lesser degree Rick Ankiel) he was on a roll with outfielders and pulled the trigger on these two guys.
Really what options did the guy poor guy have? I wan't to mock him, but he couldn't even have afforded to resign either of the two catchers he let go last year, would you rather see him bring in another Juan Cruz? Should we have opened up the bank and signed, let's say...Juan Uribe for 3 yrs $25 mil, if he would accept the generous offer to come play for our awful team instead of the Dodgers? We're a long way from even being able to consider going crazy and throwing $125 mil at a premier free agent and most mid tier free agents would ask for an extra year or 20% on their contract because we have become about the least attractive place to sign in all of baseball. So I'm not sure what the hell you do with that kind of money in this insane market. We now have complied an outfield consisting of the biggest group of sad-sack losers that you could possibly put together. Melky, Alex and Frenchy have fallen so far from the big time promise they once held that maybe this collective group therapy will just work. Most likely it will not work and if they all play the whole season the Royals will be contending for the worst outfield ever assembled (I know there is someone out there who's got this stat???).
I wish that I could be angry about this, but I'm just not that concerned with who will be roaming the Royals outfield this year because more likely than not, they will not be very good; be it Mitch Maier, Gregor Blanco, Jarrod Dyson, Melky or Frenchy. I just hope that one day we'll be able to do something as crazy as offering 32 year old outfielders with two years of big league experience $127 mil, but for now this is the best we can do. Please don't trade Greinke!!!
The problem really isn't the money or the production of these two players, it is just the fact that we are so frickin obvious; not only is there the whole ex-Brave & Dayton Moore combo, but we did the EXACT same thing last year. What happened here is just a classic case of boredom at the GM meetings, when people stopped calling Dayton Moore to ask about Zach Grienke because he was asking for the entire AA starting line-up from the teams' minor league system, he noticed the reminder on his Outlook calendar telling him to call Francouer's agent. His agent probably had this standard one-year $2.5 mil package that he offered every team in need of an outfielder, Dayton simply said "I'll take it!" Then when Melky's agent noticed this he called Dayton and offered Cabrera for the last minute half price blue light special and Dayton couldn't say no. Most likely our beloved owner told Moore that his budget was no more that what he saved on the DeJesus contract and thus Dayton took that to mean that he Had to spend somewhere around $5 mil, basically what Theo Epstein and Brian Cashman had as a travel and food budget to sign free agents. Working with this in mind, Dayton took his Wal-Mart allowance money and weighed his options; old middle relievers, back-up catchers, fourth outfielders, hmmmm??? He took deep personal stock of his previous actions and judged that his relief pitcher and catcher track record of signings hadn't worked out so well, but he felt that with last year's minor success of Scott Posednik (and to a much lesser degree Rick Ankiel) he was on a roll with outfielders and pulled the trigger on these two guys.
Really what options did the guy poor guy have? I wan't to mock him, but he couldn't even have afforded to resign either of the two catchers he let go last year, would you rather see him bring in another Juan Cruz? Should we have opened up the bank and signed, let's say...Juan Uribe for 3 yrs $25 mil, if he would accept the generous offer to come play for our awful team instead of the Dodgers? We're a long way from even being able to consider going crazy and throwing $125 mil at a premier free agent and most mid tier free agents would ask for an extra year or 20% on their contract because we have become about the least attractive place to sign in all of baseball. So I'm not sure what the hell you do with that kind of money in this insane market. We now have complied an outfield consisting of the biggest group of sad-sack losers that you could possibly put together. Melky, Alex and Frenchy have fallen so far from the big time promise they once held that maybe this collective group therapy will just work. Most likely it will not work and if they all play the whole season the Royals will be contending for the worst outfield ever assembled (I know there is someone out there who's got this stat???).
I wish that I could be angry about this, but I'm just not that concerned with who will be roaming the Royals outfield this year because more likely than not, they will not be very good; be it Mitch Maier, Gregor Blanco, Jarrod Dyson, Melky or Frenchy. I just hope that one day we'll be able to do something as crazy as offering 32 year old outfielders with two years of big league experience $127 mil, but for now this is the best we can do. Please don't trade Greinke!!!
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