Dan Glass is obsessed with losing winning!

since 2006, that you still can’t put most of the blame on Moore. I might be willing to come closer to 50/40 Glass/Moore. But, I think that Dayton would probably rather have started the 2008 season with a decent, young corner OF prospect with potential in RF (and maybe used the $36M on another starting pitcher). Problem was, he didn’t have any such prospects. That’s all on Glass (and maybe to some extent on the scouting/drafting of previous Glass-hired regimes).

Dayton does definitely have a nice setup, and I can’t see Glass firing HIM anytime soon. And Dayton doesn’t strike me as a guy who would can Hillman just as a face-saving/job-saving move, or to just “do something.” He’ll stick with him unless and until he’s made a (fairly) independent decision that he just isn’t satisfied with Trey’s managing ability.

How few trades he’s made. Some of that is a product of a slowing trade market I suppose, but I really thought he’d be wheeling and dealing in an attempt to completely overhaul the roster. Instead, he’s relied heavily on what he’s arguably worst at – identifying free agents.

And I don’t want to let Glass off — SI was out of date, but, yeah, pre-2006 he was very much in Loria’s league as one of the worst owners in sports. And that hurts a great deal. And Glass’s actions are a big reason why there isn’t a better fan base now. Who knows, maybe his cost-benegit guys thought is was better to just be a welfare-queen team than to put more effort out.

The truth is, though, given the current budget and the division, it’s not unrealistic for them to be more competitive, if not necessarily contending this year. But Dayton did what guys like him do — his good moves and the good young potential he was left with (Greinke of course, but Gordon and Butler are cheap [for now] ML ready talent] have been wasted in the millions he spent on mediocre talent. I’d be willing to live with a “cheap” offseason if it meant more money was available down the line; e.g., think about how the Guilen contract screwed up opportunities this offseason. I can’t wait to see what sort of players the Royals will miss out on in 2009-10 due to the HoRam/Farnsoworth/Bloomquist mess.

I don’t think DM or Trey are terrible. If given a $100 million payroll and a roster as good as say, the Astros, I think they could probably keep that team around .500 every year and maybe even get lucky and make the playoffs now and then.

But we need an EXCEPTIONAL GM and manager to lead this team out of the hole it has dug for itself. I am not confident Dayton and Trey are that exceptional team.

I’m not offering a grace period, per se, just that he has done good enough work with the minor league system (turning an expansion-team-caliber farm system into a Top 10 one, according to some systems, is no easy job) to warrant sticking out for awhile.

If he begins a firesale here in another month-or-so, or hell, if he just admits one mistake (whether it be Jacobs or Farnsworth or Olivo), and deals them, that will be ap ositive sign. The real telling tale, I think, will be this offseason. If he fails to show that he’s learned his lesson, and goes after the same types of players (or players who are good in other things, but are just as awfully overpaid), then that should be the time when we should all doubt a turnaround. Becasue, by all accounts, this approach has failed. By a bunch. If he can’t see that, then he probably has no hope in ever assembling a good-enough major league team to compete. At least not without a $200 million payroll.

And even then…