The Sixth Stage
Posted: January 23rd, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 63 Comments »
I thought I had gone through all the stages of Royals grief. Denial? Well, of course. I LOVE denial. That has been my default stage as a sports fan most of my life. Hey, maybe Denny Bautista WILL become a star. Hey, maybe this is the year for Dee Brown. Hey, maybe Jose Guillen’s performance will not fall off a cliff. Hey, maybe Mike Jacobs will not play every day against lefties. And so on.
Anger … I have never really felt much anger about the Royals. I was angry about some of the preposterously cheap moves the Royals have made, and I was angry about the way the organization mistreated Allard Baird at the end, but all that’s something else. I suppose the Yuniesky Betancourt trade probably triggered something like frustration, but only because of the Royals’ continued insistence that it was a GOOD MOVE. It seems pretty clear that Betancourt, because of his striking inability to hit or get on base or field or run or hustle, is not an especially good baseball player, but the Royals continue to say that, no, Betancourt IS a very good baseball player, with a chance still to be great. And that makes me worry that maybe I’m the crazy one.
Bargaining … well, if you want the best for the Royals you must bargain with yourself. Brian Anderson and Josh Fields WERE prospects at one point, right? A healthy Alex Gordon COULD be a good player. Luke Hochevar DID have a few exciting performances last year, didn’t he? Well, didn’t he? The lower levels of the minors DO seem bursting with pitching prospects*. Maybe if the Royals can just endure a couple of bad years, make a couple of moves …
*Though I do think of the Bill James line: EVERY TEAM HAS PROSPECTS. And not only that … every team, every year has exactly TEN prospects in the magazine pages of Baseball America.
Depression … the Jason Kendall signing brought on depression.
And finally, acceptance. Royals GM Dayton Moore claimed in the pages of Baseball America to be interested in “acquiring young major leaguers who are years away from free agency,” and then he and the fellas went out and signed Kendall and Scott Podsednik. This is like last year when Dayton and the fellas claimed to be interested in improving team’s on-base percentage and then scoured the list of available talent and meticulously acquired those who could not get on base.
Well, hey, it just is. The important thing for the Royals to do is find young talent, get that young talent, develop that young talent. That’s what Dayton Moore came to Kansas City to do. And that’s what this team’s future is all about. Doing all they can to make Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer and Mike Montgomery and Aaron Crow and Will Myers and Tim Melville and Noel Arguelles and others into average-to-good-to-great big league players will matter in the long run. The Royals may not like to admit it — they probably SHOULD NOT admit it — but they are treading water until then.
So: Acceptance. That’s the last stage of grief. I figured to have gone through the whole range of emotions. But it turns out that the Royals, unlike actual grief, have a sixth stage.
The Sixth Stage: Bafflement.
Friday, the Royals announced that they signed outfielder Rick Ankiel to a $3.25 million deal. Several brilliant readers have asked me what I think about this … and I have to admit complete bafflement on the subject. My brain is ringing static. It feels like someone asking me what is the square root of Cheyenne. It’s like asking me what is more effective, Tom Hanks or brake pads. The question doesn’t compute.
The Royals are soaked with mediocre-to-bad outfielders. Well first they have David DeJesus, who is actually a good player, though the sort of good player who will leave you wanting more. He can’t run, he probably will not hit more than 15 homers, and while he is above average at getting on base he’s not THAT MUCH above average (lifetime .358 OBP; last year .347). He plays good defense in left field which is a bit like being a punter who who can tackle — handy, but mostly beside the point. Left field defense is so much beside the point that the Royals now seem interested in moving DeJesus to right. DeJesus is the sort of guy who, I suspect, could really help a good team. He’s a bit out of place when he’s a team’s best player.
Beyond DeJesus, the Royals have “right fielder” Jose Guillen, who will get $13 million in his final year of that disastrous signing. He can’t play right field anymore, which is why the position is in quotations, and there’s no reason to believe he can hit anymore either. But he’s getting $13 million, so you have to hope. They just signed Scott Podsednik, who is coming off a decent year that he is 98% unlikely to repeat. They signed Brian Anderson, a one-time big prospect the Royals apparently believe has some untapped talent. They have Mitch Maier, a longtime Royals farmhand who seems to be a lot like Brian Anderson. They also have Alberto Callaspo, a pretty decent line drive hitter who seems to have been bumped off second base. They also have Josh Fields, who has played some left field … the supposedly want to give at-bats though he doesn’t really have a position. They also have a couple of mid-20s prospects who are probably not in the picture but, hey, they’re out there.
It seems to me that the outfield is chock full. It’s not exactly chock full of goodness, but, hey, we’ve been over the treading water bit already.
Then they sign Rick Ankiel. I’m not saying this is a BAD move — I’m so completely confused by it that I can’t even think of terms of good and bad. Ankiel is one of the more famous stories in recent baseball. He was the preposterously gifted 20-year old pitcher who lost his nerve. He was the kid hitter in the minor leagues trying to live the dream. He was the 2007 call-up who hit 11 home runs in 47 games and the next year banged 25 homers in a comeback year that coupled nicely with Josh Hamilton’s resurgence.
And all that’s fine … but what is he beyond the storybook pages? He’s a 30-turning-31 year-old outfielder who has never had 500 plate appearances in a season. Last year, in 404 PAs, he hit .231/.285/.387.
He is a guy with some power and no plate discipline. He is a pretty good athlete with a great arm and shaky instincts. He’s an interesting right fielder because of his arm, but the Royals figure to put him in center where he’s at-best OK. He has a gigantic hole in his swing … he hit .266 in the minors and .251 in the majors, and there’s really no reason to believe that’s changing. People talk about him improving … but guys generally don’t start improving at 31.*
*It’s amazing that decades and decades after Bill James broke down the arc of big league players careers that people still have this fundamental misunderstanding about how baseball players age. Back in 1988, when talking about what he had learned about baseball, he wrote “Ballplayers, as a group, reach their peak value much earlier and decline much more rapidly than people believe.”
For a long time, the feeling was that players peaked from 28-32. Bill James said, no, it’s much earlier than that. There have been many studies done since then, some of them quite fascinating. My takeaway is that MOST major league players, if they are good enough to become regulars, will peak at 26 or 27 and fall off pretty rapidly. The best players — the kinds of players who will play in the big leagues for a long time — may continue to get better at 28 and even 29 and can maintain that high level for a good while longer.
That, of course, makes it tricky to judge: How can you predict who will have long careers and who will not? How can you predict who will maintain their level into their 30s? You would hope that teams are spending hundreds of hours studying this very thing because a good sense of how players age can save a team hundreds of millions of dollars over the course a GMs career. The Royals this off-season have signed a 35/36-year-old catcher, a 34-year-old speed outfielder, a 30/31 centerfielder and this only a couple of years after giving $36 million to a 32-year-old outfielder. I suspect they’re not investing enough study time in the aging process.
To be honest: I don’t know what to think about any of it. It’s not impossible that Ankiel, playing in a comfortable atmosphere in Kansas City, will have a good year. Hey, Emil Brown did. It’s also not impossible that he will be Mike Jacobs. I obviously have my own prediction (.240-.250 average, few walks, average defense the Royals will rave about, 15-20 homers if he gets enough at-bats).
But what makes the whole thing so baffling is that I have absolutely no idea what this is supposed to accomplish. It is just so disconcerting that three and a half years after Dayton Moore was hired in Kansas City, their minor league system is so bereft of Major League ready talent, they are going around the league and signing 30-somethings that nobody else wants. It is troubling that the Royals apparently plan in 2010 is to make fans hope that a bunch of older players will recapture their past glory — or at least their past moderate success.
It is troubling that Dayton Moore’s entirely sensible plan for success — find young players, develop them, bring them to the big leagues — seems to be spinning in the mud. If you are going to be that kind of organization, you actually have to BE that kind of organization. I don’t know if Jason Kendall, Scott Podsednik, Jose Guillen, Rick Ankiel, Yuniesky Betancourt, Kyle Farnsworth, Juan Cruz and so on are are blocking any promising younger players from the big leagues.
But I guess that’s the point: If they ARE blocking younger talents, then the Royals are doing a lousy job of developing players.
And if they ARE NOT blocking younger talents, then the Royals are doing a lousy job of developing players.
So maybe it’s really not confusing at all.
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I agree with every word written. With that being said, I am also looking forward to Joe’s annual ‘The Royals WILL win this year’ column. It will take every grain of Joe’s writing ability to pull that one off…
I’m baffled too Joe. Why sign Scotty Pods if you are gonna get Ankiel too? I mean, I’ve made the mistake before of thinking more moves are coming, so this could be wrong, but I think it signals Guillen solely at DH, or DDJ is going to be traded. I’ve thought for a while that DM is really bad at his job, and this signing does have upside when viewed alone, but to put this together with all the moves made, and what DM says about young players, this just makes no sense. I think Dayton’s panicking and he has this year to go .500 or better or he’s gone.
Whelp, another year in AAA with a .400 OBP for me.
What’s ironic to me (or maybe it’s coincidental, let me check the Alanis rules again) is how many sharp sabremetrical minds would up around the Royals, as baseball fans/writers. I don’t know how this became a hotbed, but it did. If the club ever put one of those guys on the payroll, they’d have a chance . . . well, as much as anyone has a chance in this broken business model of a game.
They signed Rick Ankiel? Man…
I can hear the wife’s sighs of exasperation when I tell her already.
There are smart teams and ‘not smart’ teams. If a bunch of smart teams have passed on a player, then he’s probably not worth putting on your ‘not smart’ team. Yet, ‘not smart’ teams think they can get lucky and find a rare gem that the smart teams missed.
We gave up on the Royals in the middle of last summer. I’ve been a lifelong Royal fan. I always joked about Frank White hitting a home run when I was born though it was likely they were a few hours apart. I watched them as a kid, but fell away as I got older. 2003 brought me back.
And last year, to me, they finally wasted the last of the 2003 capital. I want them to succeed, but I don’t want to watch them anymore. Seeing them sign Podsednik, Kendall, and now Ankiel is just more heartbreak from where I’m sitting.
You’re assuming that Dayton Moore is trying to assemble a baseball team. Perhaps he’s hiring workers for his nuclear power plant.
Years ago I was given one of those 5 kajillion piece puzzles depicting “marbles” by one of my more sadistic relatives for Christmas. The puzzle occupied the dining room table for the better part of a year. Seriously. We ate at the kitchen counter or on TV trays for a year because of a partially completed puzzle.
As time went on, my emotions toward the puzzle ran the gammet. “We can do this in an hour.” “This puzzle is BAD ass.”* “This is going to take forever.” “Burn the *@#!+@* thing!” You get the point.
*Jared Allen never participated in working on the puzzle.
Finally, just enough of the puzzle took shape. I made a commitment to seeing that thing through to completion. Bear in mind, I received it for Christmas. The following Thanksgiving weekend – over 11 months after starting on the thing – my family and I made one final push. Coffee duty was assigned in shifts. Housekeeping operations were scrapped. The Plaza Lights were ignored.
By Sunday morning of that weekend, 450 pieces remained to be seated in their proper spots. By Sunday at noon, three pieces remained. But there were six vacant spots in the puzzle.
Now I fancy myself a rational human being under most circumstances. But on that particular Sunday, I absolutely tore my home apart looking for three pieces of cardboard with pictures of marbles on them. I will not detail how exhaustive the search was, but I think it speaks volumes that I actually disassembled plumbing in my search.
Ok, with all of that as background, where this story becomes relevant is, at some point, somewhere deep down, I had some degree of awareness that The Puzzle couldn’t be completed. Circumstances just didn’t allow it. However, when my then six-year-old son brought out random puzzle pieces from his eight-piece puzzle depicting cartoon trains … Yes. I tried to make them fit The Puzzle. I knew they wouldn’t fit. Hell, they were ten times bigger than the holes we were trying to fill. But I tried to make them fit. Forwards, backwards, upside down.
Looking back, I had invested so much time and effort banging my head against the wall, and I was so determined to complete that damned puzzle, that I, a rational, grown man, tried to fit jumbo-sized, cartoon-train pieces on the off chance it might, somehow work.
That’s what happens when you’re blinded by frustration regarding a situation in which you’ve totally immursed yourself. But from the outside, you know there are gaping holes, and that’s how it is.
Yes, Ankiel is past the ‘peaking’ age of 26-27, but what is he in fielder/hitter years? You have to think of him as having two seperate careers, with the first flaming out and ending early, and the second not starting until he was in his mid 20’s. So maybe as a position player he is still developing and will peak down the road. I know this is ridiculous and I’m grasping at straws, but hey, I’m a Royals fan. You do what you have to do…
shouldn’t dayton be familiar with the marlins, due to his time in the NL east? it’s possible to lose 90 games with a $30m payroll, but the royals seem to prefer to lose 100 games with a $70-80m payroll. brilliant.
wait…what’s a walk?
I don’t know much about the Royals but is it possible the owner said I don’t want to finish behind Cleveland again, I want attendance to go up (and it won’t if we’re in last place again) and I’m not hiking payroll much, either. So Moore is in the horrific place of trying to put together a crappy team that still might win 70-75 games while still trying to develop his minor league players? I honestly have no idea.
He was hurt pretty much all of last year. I expect him to get close to the 2008 numbers. If so, then there is good value and you can trade him at the deadline. I think Dejesus is about to be traded.
1. Pods LF
2. Callaspo 2B
3. Butler 1B
4. Guillen DH
5. Gordon 3B
6. Ankiel CF
7. Maier RF
8. Betancourt SS
9. Kendall C
Man, pretty terrible.
Gest, Fields, Anderson, and backup catcher on the bench.
Circle me, Steve Blass.
Sign Ankiel?
I’ll raise you with trading for Gary Matthews, Jr.
Your move, Dayton!
Yep. Have to think it’s all about keeping fans interested this year. Rick Ankiel is an interesting story. He and Podsednik and Kendall are all somewhat recognizable names. They want fans to come to the ballpark- they aren’t going to come for David Lough (except me and a few select others). I am almost certain Dayton at one point called this year ‘a bridge to 2011′ when we CAN start playing some prospects and have a little more money. I might be wrong. But it sounds like he has admitted this year is entirely filler. So there needed to be some way to get fans in the seats right? Even if it is just Scott Podsednik and Rick Ankiel. I have to admit I think they at least make the team a little more interesting, a little more ’show-worthy.’
If DeJesus DOES get traded you have to get something for him… hopefully. So maybe the lineup doesn’t look QUITE so bad as that, Paul. Maybe.
The Royals approach the offseason like I approach shopping. I’ll go, knowing I need to get a couple vital things. I won’t make a list, because I’m a guy, so I’ll walk in, remember two things and go get those right away. Now, I’m cheap, so I always get the poor quality, discounted versions.
After I get those two things, I feel proud of myself. I saved money and got us some important items. But then I look around and I see the cookies. Oooh, we could use some cookies. Then I see that soda is on sale. Well, I’ll grab some of that too. What’s that? There’s an overstock of Tic Tacs and they’re on sale? Get me three boxes! Wasn’t there something else important I was supposed to get? Milk or eggs or something? Oh well, we’ll make do.
By the time I’m done, I’ve gotten poor versions of the things we need, forgotten some things entirely, and spent way too much money on stuff that we don’t need at all.
And this is why my wife does the shopping. Maybe the Royals should talk to Dayton’s wife…
Ankiel was decent until his violent collision with the wall last season, after which he was awful. If he’s recovered he could be ok. He’s overrated defensively, but he is fun to watch, and he has an absolute cannon for an arm.
Don’t get me wrong…its a terrible signing, but he could be better than people think. The signing is terrible more because of what it represents…absolutely zero young talent for an organization that has been “rebuilding” for at least 7 years.
Here’s the thing about the Ankiel signing – for a team like the Royals it has the potential to turn into something good. If he has a decent year and pops a decent number of HRs, they would have the potential to trade him at the deadline for some kind of a prospect. Maybe not a good prospect, but something.
But this is the Royals we’re talking about. So if he does play pretty well for half a season you know that they will feel the need to lock him up for a few years instead of trading him.
The Process: That was awesome.
Ankiel is a nice player, he has an upside. He can hit 25 homers, and he’s got a cannon arm. He’s the type of guy the Yankees should have signed, a high risk, high reward cheap signing for a team that’s going to win regardless. This seems like the Brad Penny/John Smoltz signings with the Red Sox, only the Royals don’t have a chance next year. They have a good chance of breaking the Tigers’ loss record. I wonder if a team has ever finished 50 games out….
Another perspective:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/royals-sign-ankiel/
Welcome to the world of small-market baseball. It’s the same in Milwaukee, Baltimore, Cincinnati… Not enough money to sign star players, so you sign mediocre players. And when the young players brought up through the system start to develop, they want more money so you trade them.
this is hard – should i hope the royals are so terrible that hillman is fired by june 1 and the big league roster is gutted? because i’m pretty sure i can’t take another summer of that guy, his interviews (makes buddy bell seem chipper), and his lineups (makes bob boone seem consistent). anyway, at least that would be SOMETHING to root for.
On it’s own, there is nothing wrong with signing Ankiel. The 3.75 million (actually 3.25, but there is a 500,000 buyout on a useless mutual option.
The problem is signing Ankiel…and Podsednik, and Anderson. The Royals searching for a center fielder, signed 3 guys who can’t play center. Anderson is an older, worse version of Maier, Podsednik is a never was who had only the 2nd decent season of his career last year at age 33, at least Ankiel has some upside on the short term.
They exacerbate the problem by announcing their intentions to put Dejesus in right with Ankiel in center- This is Lunacy!
Josh Fields is a right handed Mike Jacobs.
Chris Getz has no business taking Callaspo’s spot.
Jason Kendall should be a TV analyst.
AArgh!
1) Joe, don’t you mean “If they ARE blocking younger talents, then the Royals are doing a lousy job of selecting their major-league squad, and if they aren’t, then they’re doing a lousy job of developing players”?
2) I, like you, am puzzled beyond belief at Dayton’s stockpiling of over-30 low-OBP outfielders. Unfortunately, rather than just DFAing Guillén, they’re probably going to trade DeJesus (who is signed to a team-friendly contract) for less than he’s worth.
And they’re probably going to trade Callaspo, too, again for less than he’s worth. Yeah, Callaspo is a two-tool player, but when those tools are hitting doubles and drawing walks, you can forgive below-average defense at second when you’ve got a flyball pitcher out there, and DH him a couple games a week to get his glove off the field but keep his bat in the lineup.
I view the Royals as an ongoing attraction in the real-life theatre of the absurd. As a fan, I’m part of the performance everyday. Why am I a fan? I just AM. It’s my role. I’m waiting for Godot, as it were.
It’s brake pads over Hanks… right? It’s got to be brake pads.
I live in San Antonio TX and like to follow the Royals. I know. I know. Things have deteriorated so much this winter that I don’t know whether to spend $200 on MLB’s Extra Innings so I can watch the Royals.
I have done that for the last 3 years but I don’t know. I thought I would enjoy getting the real story by watching the other team’s announcers. No, that was worse.
My involvement is limited to $200 but I don’t think I want to spend it. I might just take a year off.
Joe – isn’t it possible…just POSSIBLE…that behind the scenes the Commissioner’s Office is coming down hard on the Royals (and Marlins, Pirates, Reds, etc.) for not using their luxury tax money? Combined with the need to 1) field a team for 162 games and 2) have people come to the ballpark for 81, couldn’t there be an explanation here as to why you’d spend ridiculous money on “name” guys? I don’t want to give Dayton Moore too much credit here, but if the plan is to invest in the draft & player development, and the young players are 2-3 years away, and you have to field a team and spend a minimum of $X, wouldn’t YOU consider bringing in a Jason Kendall, a Rick Ankiel, a Scott Podsednik, etc?
Just putting that out there. After the news about the Commish’s Office coming down on the Marlins, this just seems within the realm of possibility.
Maybe the KC brass is secretly planning on developing Ankiel as a CF/RP.
You could bring him in from the OF in the 7th inning, let him pitch for 3-6 outs, and replace him in CF with Pods or Dejesus or one of the other cavalcade of scrubs you guys have.
It’s genius.
I have never felt so much at peace being a Royals fan. I know exactly what to expect this year: Not much. I have also come to the conclusion that we will very, very rarely be good with this ownership in place. The thing is, I would rather have this team than no team.
P.S.
Here is the lineup I would put out there with the players we have now:
LF DeJesus
DH Callaspo
1B Butler
RF Ankiel
3b Gordon
CF Podsednik
2b Aviles
SS Betancourt
C Kendal
The Royals are seemingly throwing a bunch of players at the wall to see which ones stick.
I guess if you have 7 players vying for 3 spots, you pick the best 3, right?
It’s better than signing Scott Podsednik and saying, “There. Centerfield is set.”
Damon and Dye are still available.
Of course Dayton Moore is interested in acquiring good, young players, years away from free agency… every team, even the most ineptly run, want that. So those players are hard to get, especially when you own young players, years away from free agency, are not very good.
But, hey, as long as we take another pitcher in the first round next year, the outfield problem will take care of itself. Ha.
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I don’t know why any of you still care. If the Royals haven’t even made the playoffs in TWENTY FIVE YEARS! then when will you figure out the game is rigged?
Yes, the game is rigged. The small markets are completely overwhelmed by the HUGE markets.
Shoot man, if you don’t believe me then just do the math. There’s a reason why some teams are in the playoffs EVERY SINGLE YEAR and why the Royals ARE NOT in the playoffs EVERY SINGLE YEAR.
It’s not going to change one bit. The game is rigged, rigged, rigged. Is there something you don’t understand?
In addition to MLB being “rigged”, as you put it, we (Royals fans) also have an incompetent owner and a philistine GM. So why do I care?
I love baseball. I love Kauffman stadium half-full on a Thursday night. I love calling friends at 5:30pm, then driving to the game on the spur of the moment, buying $5 tickets, sitting [redacted], and spending $30 on beer.
I love watching a game with my Dad and reminiscing about the 18 inning game that we finally won on an overthrow of 3rd, or the time we saw Bill Pecota pitch.
I care because being bitter and hopeless is no way to go through life.
I care because of Joe and Rany and devil_fingers, and because, with the right person at the helm, it might only take a year or two to reach respectability*.
I care because I like having the Royals around in ANY form.
*Have you seen the moves Jack Zduriehvuiewk is making in Seattle?
Who did the Royals outbid for Ankiel? Was it necessary for them to pay almost $4 million for a guy who was still unemployed in late January?
Each signing that the Royals have made individually didn’t cost that much, but by the end of the offseason, you’ll be able to total up the money they spent on free agents and find much better players who signed for less money with other teams.
Thanks #41, you gave some good answers and you know what you’re getting into by being a Royals fan.
When Jose Guillen is getting over $100,000 for a single hit on a god awful horrible team then I know I can find somewhere else to spend my money. Aside from the $100,000 per hit I truly despise that roid cheatin’ arsehole.
I encourage any fan to take a long, hard look at the reality of KC Royals baseball. They prey on your loyalty, they’ll take your taxes for a newish stadium, they’ll take your money for parking, they’ll have somewhat cheap ticket prices then gouge you for food, drinks and memorabilia. I think the latest Royals crap hat is over $30!
If you insist on being a fan of KC then at least make a small pledge to spend less money until/unless they decide to compete. I think if the fans would finally hit them in the wallet they’ll actually try to change for the better.
I agree with one point that #43 is trying to get across.
I’m loyal to the fans, they’ve suffered long enough. They should take more of the matters in their own hands, especially since they’re paying for the refurbed stadium and the expensive other stuff.
I’m not loyal to the Royals organization or Major League Baseball…nor will I be loyal to these thieves until they show the fans some respect. They just keep taking our money with no apologies, no refunds, no regret. They just wink at each other and laugh hysterically to the bank!
John
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Joe – maybe I’ve missed it, but I haven’t seen you do a post taking on Royals ownership. That has to be the key, doesn’t it?
I don’t want to hear complaints from fans about small markets or whatever – KC isn’t *that* small, and with all that Wal*Mart money, they could afford a decent team if they wanted one, right?
If Baird and Moore are as decent, smart guys as you say they are, they have to be limited in what they do from above, don’t they?
C’mon – dish the dirt on Glass, please. I’m sure there’s all sorts of stories you could share if you wanted to.
Who’s the Next Free Agent Signing for KC? My money’s on Rich Aurilia. Why? Why not?
Well, you figure Ankiel — if healthy — can at least replace the 19 hr and .400 SLG that Jacobs provided. Now you just have to hope someone will step up and replace Teahen’s production.
My fingers felt sad just typing that.
This means the Royals’ lineup will look something like this:
CF DeJesus
2B Callaspo
1B Butler
DH Guillén
3B Gordon
RF Ankiel
LF Podsednik
C Kendall
SS Betancourt
No further comment.
this is not baffling at all. the royals ownership for the last 15 years or so has had no desire or intention of trying to produce a winning, or even competitive, team. they think by putting a few recognizable names on the field, they can put a few more people in the seats. they don’t care. it all starts at the top.
#37. Exactly right, especially with Damon. Word is that the Yankees are giving Damon just a couple of days to mull over a 1-year, small money offer.
The Yanks, if you believe them, say they only have room for $2 million in payroll. They will pay an extra few for Damon, which people are guessing to be around $5 mil.
I see a chance here for the Royals to sweep in with a 1 year, >$5 million offer and stick it to the Yankees for a change. Any chances this will happen?
Knowing the Royals, they will probably try to pick up Damon in order to stick it to the Yankees. Of course, since they’ll need to make room in the outfield, they’ll trade DeJesus … to the Yankees.
DDJ will then go on to have an 80 RBI season batting in the 9-hole. More importantly though, he’ll hit a key 2-run homer in the 7th inning of ALCS Game 4 against Felix Hernandez — turning a 3-2 deficit into an eventual 4-3 victory after Rivera comes in for six outs. The Yanks go on to win the series in 5, and Game 4 is forever known in Yankees lore as “the DeJesus Game.”
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these aquisitions which
i agree baffle to some extent will bring prospects at the deadline and allow
AA players more time to get ready.
Dayton Moore’s ineptitude is so blah. Try taking 4 of the best 15-20 players in your league and going about rendering them completely irrelevant with mindless tinkering and terrible contracts. That’s a much more excruciating type of terrible. Thank you Mr. Minaya!
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
At least the Royals aren’t doing the same thing over and over!
But they are driving their fans insane.
I actually get this signing. He was hurt last year, he might peak later (as he became a hitter later – so while he may be less athletic, he should be much more experienced), he is a name (never underestimate the casual fans’ need for names to see), he wasn’t that much money.
I totally get this signing. I don’t get some of the other moves, but in context of where they Royals are, I get this signing.
And the answer to the question du jour is: Brake Pads. Recent personnel moves make Royals’ fans want to scream, “So STOP already!” Tom Hanks won’t be much help in this regard.
Joe: Love your work, but I don’t understand your bafflement at this particular move, compared to so many others. It’s not a lot of money, Ankiel’s a good athlete, and his unusual career arc makes it just possible that he’ll have an adequate year. But mainly, the Royals didn’t really have a center fielder. Personally I think the Podsednik move is a lot more baffling.
@23:
> Has anybody ever finished 50 games behind
How about the 1962 N.Y. Mets? Won 40; the pennant-winner won 103. You do the math. . . .
As a Cards fan who watched Ankiel quite a bit last year , I can tell you that Rick-the-Stick may also have an undisclosed, persistent shoulder injury, too, that resulted from his huge head-on collision with the wall a bit before mid-season. Best of luck.
Joe – in you esteemable view… Why didn’t the Royals and Mets hook up in a trade? They seemed perfect for each other early in the offseason. Something like:
Meche, DeJesus, and Callaspo for Pagan, Luis Castillo, Omir Santos, a mid-level pitcher and $$$cash.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/304245-will-the-mets-and-royals-find-common-trade-ground
[...] that they signed outfielder Rick Ankiel to a $3.25 million deal,” writes Sports Illustrated’s Joe Posnanski, ex of the Kansas City Star (or maybe still with them? I have no idea). “Several brilliant [...]