(Note: the first sentence of this post originally said: “I’ll make this brief.”  Yeah, I redacted that). 

Player X most obviously represents Kila Ka’aihue, but you may think of others to plug into that sentence.  The Royals have actually done a decent job of moving players that don’t have futures (in their eyes) in KC—J.P. Howell, Ambiorix Burgos, Billy Buckner, Jorge De la Rosa, Danny Cortes, and __ Gutierrez (I only know minor leaguers not discussed often by Baseball America by their last names.  I’m like a high school gym coach).  It’s important to note that “decent job” here refers only to taking action.  The results of said action—and the soundness of the reasoning behind it—are an entirely different conversation that has to do with judgment (good vs. bad vs. ugly).  As those topics are well covered here at TDERR (The Discerning Eye of Royals Review), I decided it was worth a fanpost to just make, or perhaps reiterate, the obvious point mentioned in the title.

Who am I kidding, this is a Kila Ka’aihue post, 100%.  It was obvious last offseason the Royals didn’t believe Kila was good enough for the major league team when they traded away the 8th inning for Jacobs.  I mean they made a big show of obtaining Jacobs and talked up his power and insinuated that he was a big part of the Royals’ future.  A few of us irrationally hopeful fans held out hope that Jacobs was an experiment and that Hawaiian Punch had a shot to be in the bigs by mid-summer (the fact that this didn’t happen was the final straw that cryogenically froze Rany’s Royals fandom.  It pushed him over the edge.  He’s on a leather couch somewhere, staring at the ceiling, smoking cigarettes and talking about his infancy).  The Irrational Fan Assumption was this:  “The Royals want Kila to prove what he did last year, so they’re obtaining Jacobs as a hedge.  It’s obvious to us (irrational fans) that Kila will show he’s a monster in short order, and the Royals will move Jacobs aside because they like to waste money.”  

The Royals Front Office Assumption* had two main points: Point 1: “We’re skeptical he’s any good.  Can’t hit the fastball.  Not betting on him, get Jacobs.”  Point 2: “Let’s keep him around though, just in case he does indeed turn out to be a monster, and also because moving him would be a big P.R. mistake since he’s known for his excellent OBP and Jacobs is known specifically for his horrible OBP and trading Kila would turn the Jacobs acquisition into a blatant swap: Jacobs for Kila.  Such a blatant swap would be a horrible P.R. move because Dayton JUST finished telling Joe Posnanski in an interview that the Royals HIGHLY value OBP, and the swap would FLAGRANTLY undermine that statement because, again, Kila is so widely known for his OBP skills he might as well become the face of the OBP movement (on posters and everything) while Jacobs, more than ANY other player in all of baseball, is the very antithesis of OBP.  He’s the anti-OBP.  If there were ever an Ultimate Fighting OBP showdown, Kila Ka’aihue and Mike Jacobs would be staring at each other on the billboard.  And by trading Kila, we would be making the explicit statement: WE’RE TAKING MIKE JACOBS IN THE ULTIMATE FIGHTING OBP SHOWDOWN.  WE’RE BETTING ON THE ANTI-OBP.  IN THE HIERARCHY OF QUALITIES WE LOOK FOR IN PLAYERS, OBP IS CLEARLY BELOW WHATEVER IT IS WE SEE IN JACOBS, (okay, I can stop using caps now) despite what Dayton just told Joe Posnanski a few days ago.”

*Question: If you multiply the Royals Front Office Assumption by the Irrational Fan Assumption do you get reality?  Such that: RFOA x IFA = Reality. 

All of that has been covered ad nauseum.  But here’s the reason for my post, my ‘point’ if you will:  If they believed Point 1, which they clearly did, why not trade Kila after his monster 2008 season?  Credit where credit is due, Moore had already worked wonders in this very scenario: Ambiorix Burgos was very highly valued around the league for his explosive arm.  Moore thought the arm was fools gold and so he turned Burgos into Bannister.  If he thought Kila was fools gold, why not turn Kila into ________? (You know the correct name for the blank is Yuni Betancourt, you know that’s true, and we got him anyway, so hey, win-win!).  Unfortunately, Kila’s value, league-wide, is probably now less than half of what it was last offseason.  So my more general question is, if you have a guy who you think is playing over his head, why not trade him immediately?  I mean immediately.  This is the classic fantasy baseball axiom.  I think perhaps I already voiced the Royals answer to the question in Point 2.  Would have been bad P.R.