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.

Tyler Sample Interview

Royals pitching prospect Tyler Sample recently gave me an interview. Here it is:


ME: What’s the biggest difference between your 1st and 2nd year of pro ball?

TS: There is a lot of difference! My first year I was somewhat out of shape, I wasn't very strong and my mechanics needed some work. All of these lead to some control issues! This year I worked really hard though the offseason and all through spring training and extended to work on these issues and really learned and better understand how to pitch.

ME: What kind of work specifically have you been doing to improve your weaknesses?

TS: Well I stayed in Surprise AZ during the offseason, working out at the facility. As far as making my mechanics better I have just been going through them with some of our pitching coaches watching and also doing dry pitches in the mirror so I can see and feel what I am doing.

ME: I see. What do you feel your strengths are as a pitcher at this point in time?

TS: My stuff is my strength... I have good stuff; I am just working hard at harnessing it at this point.

ME: What are your best pitches in your opinion?

TS:My fastball is my best without a doubt, then my curveball and my change-up has made a lot of progress I am really happy with it at this point. My curve ball is my second best.

ME: What pitcher current or past would you compare yourself or your style of pitching to?

TS: Well I like to think that compare to Josh Johnson... We have a similar body type... similar pitching style. So that is who I would most like to model my game after.

ME: What pitchers did you look up to as kid?

TS: I looked up to mostly the power guys! Guys like Nolan Ryan, Rodger Clemens. Also Roy Halladay being that he is from Colorado.

ME: What team did you root for? I'm guessing the Rockies?

TS: Actually no... I mean I never really had a "team" growing up but I always liked the Yankees.

ME: Not the Yankees! Ha just kidding. So back to your playing career, what was draft day like for you last year?

TS: It was definitely nerve racking, exciting, suspenseful just a whole lot of emotions all in one day.

ME: Where did you think you would go and what did the Royals say to you after they picked you?

TS: I didn't know where I was going to go, but I did think I was going to go earlier. After the Royals picked me they just said congratulations and welcome to the Royals.

ME: Did they lay out any kind of path to the big leagues that they expected you to take? If not, when do you hope to be up?

TS: No they never laid out a path... I knew they drafted me as a project so its up to me and how fast I progress. That is gonna be how quickly they move me up the minors. My goal to making the Majors is 4 years.

ME: What other goals do you have for your baseball career?

TS: I am just trying to be as effective as I can with my pitches and progress as much as I can at this point.

ME: Thanks for the interview!

TS: Your Welcome

Now on another note I'd like to apologize to Billy Butler. I've bashed him on here before, but that was just me being frustrated with the team losing. He's been one of the few bright spots for the major league club this year.