The Royals all got the message loud and clear from general manager Dayton Moore: Change is coming.

There was Moore’s public pronouncement Sept. 2 in The Star. And there was the more private meeting, shortly thereafter, in which he bluntly informed the players that (a) he was coming back; (b) manager Trey Hillman was coming back; and (c) not all of them were coming back.

Those paragraphs open a piece by Bob Dutton in today's Star.  And it gets you wondering, given the timing of both the private meeting in question and the beginning of the team's recent tear.

The Royals were floundering, having stumbled along, sleepwalking as it were, through a 7-20 August and beginning September 4-4.  Nothing was going right, and while it seemed that 100 losses was still off the table, the mid-90s were beckoning with the skeletal hand of the anthropomorphized version of Death Incarnate.

But suddenly, Dayton Moore steps into the clubhouse and informs the team that jobs are on the line -- and since then, virtually every member of this team has suddenly begun to Not Suck.  Over the last fourteen days, the team OPS is .877.  That's right, the TEAM.  Let's look at the lineup over the last two weeks, by OPS:

C  Buck:       .406/.481/ .888
1B Shealy:     .364/.620/ .984 (with 5 HR)
2B Callaspo:   .436/.543/ .979 (.543 SLG?  CALLASPO?)
3B Gordon:     .391/.595/ .987
SS Aviles:     .375/.566/ .941
LF Guillen:    .370/.388/ .758
CF DeJesus:    .500/.703/1.203
RF Teahen:     .314/.429/ .742
DH Butler:     .385/.458/ .843 (1.489 OPS over the last week)
    Gathright: .750/.667/1.417 (only 8 PA)
    Ka'aihue:  .400/.538/ .938 (only 15 PA)

Maier has 24 PA with a .573 OPS. Olivo: 20 PA, .500; Pena: 13 PA, .558; German: 17 PA, .527. Gload has had 2 PA, and who cares.

Does this tell us anything?  Well, small sample sizes hardly ever do, but I think we can at least tell who's decided to fight for their jobs, and who just doesn't give a damn.  Guillen and Teahen have failed to step up.  Of course, we're pretty much stuck with one of those unless Dayton finds a sucker.  Everyone else in the starting lineup, though, grabbed their bootstraps and hauled.  This streak has been a total team effort on the part of the offense (which, not coincidentally has scored a ridiculous 81 runs in two weeks).

On the mound, meanwhile, the staff has compiled a combined 2.31 ERA in the last fourteen days.  That's just sick.  Young Hiram has, of course, been a key to this, going 3-0 over that span, averaging exactly 7 IP per start, and coughing up all of 2 ER.  Meche has provided 19 IP, going 3-0, 2.37, while Zack's gone 2-0, throwing 14 innings of shutout baseball.  That's 1-1-2 performance right there.  Duckworth went 1-1, 3.75, which isn't bad at all but doesn't matter in the scheme of things.

Bannister, on the other hand... well, he DID provide two wins, but that's 2-1 5.29 for our boy genius.  He'll be around next year, but he needs to figure out what he's doing.

Soria's thrown five scoreless innings and picked up five saves.  Ram-Ram's tossed 3.2 innings at 2.45.  Nunez, 6 scoreless.  Peralta's pitched in with two scoreless.  Yabuta, 3.1 scoreless.  Jimmy Gobble has provided four scoreless innings.  Bale's tacked on another five.

Indeed, the only problems in the bullpen have been Wells and Lowery each throwing one inning and allowing 1 ER (9.00 ERA, but nothing to sweat over really), Robinson Tejeda allowing 2 ER in 1.2 IP, and... Mahay, whose three-run inning the other night sums up his contribution over the last two weeks.  (He did have another 1/3 inning appearance last week, scoreless.)

I don't think we learn much from the pitching staff, except perhaps that Dayton's meeting had some impact on Davies.  The relievers simply didn't get enough innings to determine whether they've stepped it up; any one of them could have had a balloonish ERA by coughing up a two-run homer.

“We should have been playing this way all year long,” pitcher Zack Greinke said. “We’ve just underachieved. I guess by the end of the year, the numbers aren’t terrible. But we expected more than this.”

Yeah, Zack... that's exactly right.  With the screws put onto them, almost every member of this team stepped it up, which means they could have done better the entire season.  (You, however, get a pass, my young friend, as you have done everything asked of you and more.)

Small sample size... doesn't mean much, but when the boss is looking to slice fat off the payroll in order to go all-in on the next set of building blocks, tanking the last two weeks of the season after being told the layoffs are coming?  Bad plan.  Teahen, Maier, Olivo, German... you've probably written your tickets out of here.  Guillen's probably put himself on the trading block (if that's even possible).  Butler's actually done well over the last two weeks, but in comparison with his own teammates he's not made a big impression, and may find himself as trade bait.

But Buck may have saved his job.  Gathright certainly hasn't hurt his cause, although 8 PA isn't enough to put any weight on even if you're deliberately considering small sample size.  In the pen, Gobble and Bale have asserted themselves, while Davies has probably earned his spot in next year's rotation, while Bannister's put himself at risk of a visit to Omaha.

But I don't see a big trade.  The only real chips are true keepers: Grienke (Dayton's allegedly in the hunt for a starter as it is), Soria, and DeJesus.  DeJesus isn't the chip he could be, either, because his injury situation severely decreases his value.

And now, we prepare for game 162, and a crucial off-season.  It'll be interesting to see what Dayton does -- and whether the team's performance (good or bad) truly influences his decision-making.  If Teahen's not wearing Royal Blue next year, you'll know the answer.

And on that note, after today's game, I bid you all adieu for a few days, as I load up the truck and move to... well, not Beverly Hills.  Grapevine, TX, where I'll be forced to endure the Texas Rangers as my local team.  It's okay; I've done it before, for almost 8 years.  But, you know, the Royals were actually still very good then, so it wasn't quite so painful.