So … there are droughts and there are years it is close. The Slayors are in a drought period. Tampa was in a drought period.. for a while.

Joe, i would like to know this: Are the indians the only team in history to have 4 200+ HR guys come up through there farm system (signed by and developed from) within 5 yrs of each other? The players: Thome, Ramirez, Giles & Sexson (five if Russell Branyan continues to start).

Mornings posted up on my kitchen island will never be the same with you at SI.

One thought and one question.

Thought: I hear all the radio and TV shrillers in KC say “you can’t take time to teach these things (baserunning, hitting behind the runner, etc) at the major league level.” I ask why not. This team can’t do it. There is no fear in the that dugout. Hochevar last night in Oakland letting that guy go to third a prime example. Just once I would like to see DeJesus NOT come back out of the dugout for the next inning after being picked off first. Again. Billy Martin challenged Reggie. Trey is working on his adjectives.

Question: The company line is Dayton has spent money on draft picks, scouting, the latin academy. Any insights as to whether there has been a similar increase in spending on minor league coaches? Are the same slackers that honed DeJesus’s baserunning skills working with our other youngsters?

Also, the Braves have always sucked at moving runners and playing percentage defense- Andruw Jones never saw a cut off man he bypass. That is what kept them from having a trophy room.

This team isn’t like the 2005 team though. There is talent here. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse, but there is big league talent on this team. Players that would play for other teams if they cleaned house next year. The 2005 team probably only had one player (DeJesus) on the entire roster that would have played for another team. Certainly no one on that pitching staff would have been pitching in the big leagues (The Washington Nationals excluded).

(Looking up the ‘96 team online I see that they actually had Pedro Martinez – except that he was lefthanded, and when he wasn’t pitching in San Diego’s cavernous home park, he was worse than if they had the actual Pedro Martinez throwing with his left hand.)

So, good luck with the Royals. The Mets took six years from the ‘93 debacle to be a real contender again. Hopefully they can take the same track; they have to really rebuild from the ground up, and the next couple of seasons could be brutal.

And that is the link between foul movies and foul baseball teams. We avoid watching them! My last Royals game was a stinker against the Twins when Paul Phillips (remember him?) hit a dribbler down the third base line and jogged to first. Except the third baseman fumbled it. Even a catcher’s sprint would have been good enough. But he was out by 3 feet. I didn’t leave then, though I should have, but if that had been my kid at a Little League game I would have been upset. For a guy making a million bucks (and some of those are MY bucks) it was exasperating.

Until I read somewhere that the Royals can throw the ball to the proper guy, remember their ******* sun glasses, know how many outs there are, and run out a ground ball, Royals baseball remains on my Ishtar list. Unwatched!

The all defense team almost certainly would not work. Too few runs = too few wins.

I finally saw an explanation for why a presumably smart guy like DM made the moves that were obviously highly questionable at the time, e.g., Guillen, Jacobs, Benticort, Farnsworth and even Meche):

http://www.kcbullpenboys.com/

“He saw the miserable top to bottom talent in the organization after 2007. He knew his farm was 4-5 years away from providing enough homegrown fruit for a pennant run. He also had pressure to win with the new stadium and new management. He succombed to the pressure and took some dumb risks he shouldn’t have taken. He did this hoping that he could win 80+ games and pick up attendence, establish a more competitive atmosphere at the big league level, help convince Glass for more money, and save a little face before HIS young players arrived. It didn’t work. It failed miserably.”

ps — The Royals should try to trade Greinke this off season (or maybe today) at peak value in an effort to duplicate the Marlins’ Beckett/Rameriz trade.

1) Ishtar
2) Irreconciliable Differences
3) King Kong (1981)