Royals: Is There Anything to Gain
By Giles P. Kiser - Guest Writer
07/22/2006
Any baseball fans knows that there was a time in the not-too-distant past when going to a Royals game was not the hapless experience it is today. During the ‘80’s I saw some the best baseball to ever be played at what is now Kauffman Stadium. It was amazing to watch guys like Bret Saberhagen, Paul Splitorff, Freddy Patek, Willie Wilson, Frank White, and of course George Brett take the field and wow the near-sell-out crowds game after game.
Now it’s hard to imagine then NOT losing at least 100 games. Sure, there was the .500 season of 2003, but that was a fluke. The total gutting of that team insured that it would be the last successful season the Royals would see for a long time.
Depending on who you talk to in KC, the reasons for the team’s fall from grace are wide and varied. The scouts can’t pick talent. The payroll is too small. They draft players based on signability rather than talent. Owner David Glass just wants to rake in the profit-sharing money from the league, and so on.
I’m not a fan of David Glass. Never have been. I don’t think he has the guts or smarts to do what needs to be done to really make the Royals a competitive franchise again. At least that’s what I thought until he went out and hired Dayton Moore as his new General Manager. Now, I’m finally willing to give Glass the benefit of the doubt.
Moore worked under John Shuerholtz in Atlanta. He was groomed to take over the GM job when John decided to retire. Moore turned down an offer from the Boston Red Sox to come be the GM of the Royals. Before he took the job, he secured assurances that he would have an adequate payroll and control over personnel matters.
Dayton Moore’s first player move was to trade pitching prospect J.P. Howell for Joey Gathright and minor league middle infielder whose name escapes. Howell was widely regarded as the one true pitching prospect the Royals had, and with the Royals already pitching-starved it seemed like a bone-headed move on the part of Dayton Moore.
I've thought about this trade and it could be interpreted several ways:
1. Moore doesn't think that Howell is going to amount to much. This coincides with the fact that even though the Royals tend to rush kids through the minors that have even a scrap of talent (ie: Affeldt, MacDougal, Grienke, and so on), Howell never really got a shot at the majors.
2. The Royals need defense in the outfield (Well, even more so in the middle infield. Berroa is horrible, but I’ll touch on that later) While they need pitching more, good gloves can do wonders to help a struggling or developing pitching staff. Gathright is one of fastest players in the game and has a good glove.
3. Howell may simply not be the style of pitcher that Moore likes and saw the potential to get something for him.
4. Gammons wrote that the Braves have been after Gathright for a while and Moore traded for him just to deal him to the Braves. That has some conspiracy theory in it, but if true then it shows that Moore can play some chess and strategize three or four moves at a time.
This trade has caused a lot of talk in KC. Fans are pretty evenly split on the trade. While I find it ironic that Moore was talking about pitching being the currency of baseball and then trades off one of their best pitching prospects, I have to look at Howell's meager Triple A numbers to see that this prospect very likely wasn't going to be that great. I'm willing to give Moore the benefit of the doubt for now.
Can Moore pull off a big turnaround? The jury is out. The team, while winning more game these days albeit briefly, is still the worst in baseball. If Moore wants to prove his stripes, here are a few moves he can make before the trade deadline:
- Get rid of Angel Berroa. Trade him if possible, but if not then just release him outright. Berroa is hands down one of the worst shortstops I’ve ever seen play. He doesn’t take to coaching well. Just watch him play sometime and you’ll see that most of the game he’s not even paying attention
- Deal some of the veterans. I’d love to see what the Royals could get for Sanders, Meintkeiwicz, Grudzielanek, Stairs, Affeldt, and so on. This year is a wash, so I’d like to see Moore try and get some young talent to build upon.
- Send down Andrew Sisco. The kid’s confidence is shot. He needs to be sent down to learn how to get outs again and refine his pitches.
- Fire Buddy Bell. He has never been a part of a successful team. He doesn’t know how to win. He has no idea on how to manage a pitching staff and doesn’t have a winning attitude.
- Stop moving Justin Huber all over the place. Huber was up for over 2 weeks with the team and only got a few at bats. This kid is supposed to be one of the burgeoning superstars in the Royals franchise, and they have him ride the pine in lieu of hitting Stairs or Herman at DH instead of giving the kid some at bats. Then after he gets sent down, they move him from frist base to the outfield. He’s said that he simply feels lost now after his major league stint. Who’s playing first now in Omaha? Buddy Bell’s son, Rick, who is hitting below .200.
- Sign Luke Hochevar. You snub top talent and pick a kid in the draft solely based on his signability alone, and then you don’t get him. What’s that all about? Ink him and get him pitching.
- Revamp the coaching and scouting system from the bottom up. Moore has started this already with some new hires in the front office, but more needs to be done. The Royals have had a lot of talent get, well, ruined. Affeldt, MacDougal, Grienke, and so on have had the potential to be star pitchers, but have languished under the subpar direction of Royals coaches.
No one expects Dayton Moore to turn the franchise around in a year, or even four. But maybe Royals fans have something to look forward to. It’s been so long since we’ve seen any progress forward instead of backward in KC that it’ll be refreshing to watch a team that while they may still have a losing record, we ought to see a light at the end of this dark tunnel as the team will be improving little by little each year. That’s the hope of the fans in KC for the Dayton Moore era, only time will tell if this long dark period in what was once the most successful expansion franchise in baseball history is coming to an end.