Teahen Trade

White Sox Receive: Mark Teahen and 1M dollars

I'm fine with trading Teahen as his defense wasn't good enough at 3rd and not much better at a corner outfield position. His bat was average overall, and didn't carry enough pop for a corner outfield position. He was due to make around 5M this year so this deal will save the team about 3M as Getz and Fields make the league minimum. Teahen showed some promise in his time in KC, but now was a good time for it to come to and end.

Kansas City Recieves: Chris Getz and Josh Fields

I like the return on this trade as is, because Getz and Fields as they are now are as good or nearly as good as Teahen, and a lot cheaper.

Here is my take on them:

Chris Getz: My favorite player acquired Getz consistently hit .300 in the minors, but with little pop. He walks at a decent rate and while his defense wasn't great last year, it never had bad reviews in the minors. At worst he's a gritty number at hitter and at best he's a #1 or #2 hitter with his good speed, who will be able to play decent defense at 2nd and allow for Callaspo to be DH'd or traded.

Josh Fields: Fields showed good power 2 seasons ago, when he hit for 20+ home runs. He was a first round pick, so the potential is there. He needs to simply cut down on the strikeout, as his walk rate is good. Fields has the potential to make this trade go from a B to an A.

All-Grit Team and Moore! (How'd you like that play on words?)

So since Willie Bloomquist is now our gritty player with Gload gone he's taken a lot of crap. Well what if DM assembled the All-Grit team! Yes this means bringing back Gload. How many runs would they score?

C- I went with Varitek. His grit, leadership, and good game-calling ability allowed him to get a nice contract despite the fact that he well sucked last year. I can see an argument for Pierzynski, but I hate him.

1B- Gload, no question. He's so gritty he poops sand paper.

2B- Craig Counsell, because when DM signed Bloomquist he called him a Craig Counsell like player. GMDM said " “He’s an on-base guy, a speed-type player and a hustler,” and "He’s a Craig Counsell-type who really plays hard, hustles and knows how to play”. Can we argue with that? Counsell then signed for less than Bloomy.

SS- Eckstein... see any announcer on Eckstein

3B-Inge, because he can play a lot of differant positions ala Teahen, but also catcher. This makes him grittier. A tough pick though.

LF- Willie Ballgame

CF- Aaron Rowand

RF- Eric Byrnes, because he hustles and is a fan favorite

DH- Doug Mientkiewicz, because Kevin Millar's grit is overrated.

The average of this teams lineups is 4.447 with a high/low of 4.582 and 4.292.

The Royals are scoring 4.06 per. What does all this mean? The Royals have a horrible offense and a team put together based on a tangible characteristic that may or may not have any effect on wins is better. Yikes!

Also on Moustakas- I'm pretty worried. Not so much that he isn't hitting, but that he isn't walking. His long term progress will be based on whether he learns to take a walk decently well.

Some Recent Stuff

Josh Anderson- I'm fine with this move in itself. Anderson is a good base stealer, and an okay defender. He can play all three outfield spaces. He isn't a great hitter and doesn't have much patience though. The problem would be that this team already has Mitch Maier, Ryan Freel, and Willie Bloomquist. How many speedy outfielders can a team have? While I do like the commitment to defense, though Bloomquist doesn't play great OF defense, I think this team should be focusing on fixing other holes. My grade on this is a C+.

Ponson released- Excellent move, but should have been an obvious one. Hopefully this is a sign that DM is seeing that this season is done. Ponson doesn't fit in with this teams future, and so they are better served playing Kyle Davies to see if he does. My grade for this is a B, because it was a great move but should have come sooner.

Other moves I'd like to see made:
Mike Jacobs DFA'd/Kila Ka'aihue called up
Jamey Wright DFA'd/ Chris Hayes called up
John Bale DFA'd/ Carlos Rosa called up
Roman Colon sent to Omaha/Lenny DiNardo called up

Lack of Vision

The most frustrating thing about the Royals during the Allard Baird Era for me was a lack of vision. An example of this is signing Reggie Sanders, then not trading him. Reggie Sanders was a role player on contending team. For a team that was rebuilding or should have been rebuilding Reggie Sanders should have only been seen as a means to acquire prospects. It now seems that the front office of the team now under Dayton Moore is having an identity crisis. There are 2 reasons that I say this team is suffering because of DMGM's lack of vision.

1. Age- Much like Baird acquiring role players on a noncontending team, Dayton Moore has made a few moves which don't make much sense for the state the club is in. Moves like signing Willy Bloomquist (having a utility guy who isn't young is okay) and even Jose Guillen were okay (yes he was older and didn't fit in with the youth movement, and yes we paid too much, but the idea was to improve the offense which I suppose could have happened) by at least some point of view. After all, you can't rebuild with just young players (Herm Edwards/Carl Peterson). The move of bringing in a guy like Ryan Freel though seems silly. How does Ryan Freel fit in with this ball club? Ryan Freel is a utility player who does EXACTLY what Bloomquist does. Aside from 2006 his defense has never really been outstanding either. This isn't to say Ryan Freel has no value, but he isn't a fit with the Royals. His roster spot could be better served by letting someone like Kila Ka'aihue play and just keeping Mitch Maier in the OF.

2. Philosophy For Winning- What is Dayton Moore's vision of a winning ballclub? From the moves we've seen, I don't know what he's wanting. The three ways to win would seem to be good hitting and pitching, pitching and defense, or all 3. Moore has made moves to make this club into a decent pitching, terrible defense and offense club. This is obviously not a way to win. Quite frankly it seems like Moore gets ADD when he thinks about his vision for this team. Guillen and Jacobs for power, then players like Pena and Crisp are acquired for defense. What we end up with is a team that has holes on both offense and defense because DM won't stick with a plan. He simply needs to build an offense or a defense. It doesn't matter which, it just matters that he picks one and sticks with it. I would suggest going the route of pitching and defense since it would be cheaper and it has more (no play on words) pieces in place. For this to happen players like Callaspo and Guillen need to go. Try and parlay them into another pitcher and a good AAA 2B and Shortstop. If this team could get an easily attainable infield of Kila/Butler, Brent Lillibridge at 2nd, Chin-Lung Hu at short and Gordon at 3rd this is a better team. If the team can manage an OF of DDJ, Maier (next year Crisp) and Francouer, then the team would be much better on defense. Thats pitching and defense. Plus its not like the offense could be any worse...

Ramblings

SS- Well its a good thing we traded for Betancourt, he went 2 for 4 last night. He's on track to hit .500 the rest of the way. Yay Dayton! Suck on that Seattle, Rany, and all you others who understand these advanced stats. Julio Lugo? Why would the Royals want Lugo? His OBP is higher. Like .350? His defense isn't worse? He didn't cost prospects? Umm your crazy! Yuniesky Betancourt has hit .289, and has Gold Glove potential! Thats why this team picked him up. He is also better than TPJ was so HA!

3B- On a more serious note Alex Gordon is back. Hopefully he can put together a .280/.370/.500 ish line up the rest of the way. Maybe even better. A-Gord also helps out the defense as Teahen will be moved off third.

P- Zack Greinke should have started the All-Star game.

Thats all for now.

Shocked

So yesterday the Royals traded for Yuniesky Betancourt and managed to give up their #3 prospect according to BA last year (Dan Cortes) and lefty Derrick Saito. I'm needless to say not very happy with this move. I'll start by admitting that Dan Cortes seems to me to have always been a little overrated. His ERA's of 3.78 in 2008 and 3.92 in 2009 are backed up by FIP's of 4.4 and 4.28. This isn't a huge difference, but he has been somewhat lucky. His walks (besides his off the field problems) have been his hugest problem going from 3.29 per 9 to 4.24 to most recently 5.6. Another worry with him this year has been that his K/9 has dropped from 8.41 to 6.39. This didn't worry me though since the 8.41 was also at AA. The point is Dan Cortes was a flawed prospect. He was NOT worthless though. Some projected Cortes could possibly be a middle of the rotation starter one day. At worst with his power arm he could have been a decent middle reliever (Robinson Tejada?). The other prospect in the deal Saito had a 9.4 K/9 this year in A ball, but really is too far away to project. The two of them together should have been enough to be a large part of a deal to get a decent baseball player with upside (Yunel Escobar) or a solid veteran (Jack Wilson). Instead they got Yuniesky Betancourt. Betancourt is OPSing .609 this year, and has never done better than .725. He's 27 and has been gone steadily down from that .725 OPS 3 years ago. He has hit .289 before (twice) but his career high in walks is 17 and he has never hit 10 HR's in a season. This MAY have been okay if he were a good glove man at short. Betancourt through this point in the year has allowed 8.3 more runs on defense than a replacement level player. Hes produced 10.7 runs less than a replacement player. He is essentially a below average shortstop at BEST! So how do you give a good pitching prospect and a reliever with some upside for a below average shortstop who can't field and can't hit and has DECLINING skills? Were you dropped on your head as a kid DM? Were you drunk? I've tried to be patient with this team but moves like this really annoy me. I've always said no to the fire DM stuff, but now I don't know. I really don't know.

A Lineup Idea

DH Callaspo
LF DeJesus
1B Billy Butler
3B Alex Gordon
RF Teahen
C B. Pena
2B Bloomquist
CF Maier/Freel
SS TPJ

I guess I should explain this. Callaspo leads off because he's probably the best hitter on the team right now, although arguments for Gordon or Butler are acceptable. DeJesus is 2nd, because he's a good OBP guy usually and he has a good liner/contact swing and can move runners over. Butler hits 3rd, because he's been the most promising hitter thus far and has shown some doubles power. Gordon would hit 4th because I think he's our best power threat and he won't clog the base paths if he has to lead off an inning. He also is a pretty patient hitter. Teahen has been a consistent hitter this year and while he isn't an ideal #5 he's the best remaining hitter. B. Pena plays catcher, because theres no reason not to see what he can do for the rest of the year. Olivo's HR% is awful high this year too, so be expecting a slump. After that Bloomquist is at 2nd because he provides a defensive upgrade over Callaspo and has proven to be decent this year. The 8 & 9 spots provide little offense, but should provide at least average defense. I think this lineup gives the team the best opportunity to score and provides defensive upgrades at 2nd, 3rd, and RF.