take that back…

bicycles without seats!

you could even make a case that he’s shown a willingness to take so-called bad character guys (Guillen, Callaspo, Bradley) but again, Guillen’s non-bargain salary kinda kills the premise

I don’t think DM is actively trying to work a moneyball angle with low SLG guys where he can buy low/sell high.

Heck, for it’s beginning to seem like he looks more at the 1980s style stats: BA / HR / RBI rather than the current BA / OBP / SLG split.

Really, I’m just trying to figure out what the hell he’s doing with the offense. With Allard Baird at the helm*, you always knew what he was trying to accomplish — he just picked incredibly crappy players to implement his plan. For example, he’d say we need to pick up a slugging outfielder, then pick up Juan Gonzalez – right idea, but the player was done. Next season, he’d say we need a slugging outfielder, and pick up Reggie Sanders. He followed his laid out plan, but whether due to poor scouting or lack of money, the players to implement the plan just weren’t good enough.

  * I have another post coming up soon (if I can ever get the table to format properly) on the past 10 years of Royals offense. Baird actually put together some mediocre to decent offensive teams, despite his complete inability to find competent pitchers. Combine the Royals 2002-2004 offense with the Royals current pitching staff and we’d have a team near the top of the division.

With Moore though, who really knows? He stated an offseason goal was to improve the OBP of the team, and has so far targeted two positions: C and 1B. Incredibly, he’s managed to replace Buck and Gload with guys who were even worse at getting on base than them last year. He’s preached plate discipline and hired Seitzer, but of the guys who actually have plate discipline, only Gordon looks safe (Callapso and German are backups, while Teahen, DeJesus, and Butler are seemingly on the trading block).

You could say he’s just trying not to tip his hand so he can go after guys like Francoeur, Betancourt, and Jacobs, but what’s the point? Those guys aren’t (or shouldn’t be) highly valued anyway. It’s entirely possible that our record improves next year due to the improvement of Gordon + the pitching staff, but that the offense is even worse.

I was commenting a week or two ago during the “Gutierrez for Teahen” brouhaha that it was too bad you weren’t around for it.

I know you’re to busy to respond right now, since I’m pretty sure you’re signing a $8.00/hr contract to GM the Royals, though.

Teahen is going to hit 28-37 HRs next year. Problem solved.