But if we open the season with MITCH as our starting CF, I’ll be a bit disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, he’s probably better than a lot of guys DM is thinking of bringing in, but I’d like to think there is another Ryan Langerhans out there or a decent CF prospect who can get on base an hit a little that could be available.

I guess its a really bad sign when the most I can hope for from our GM is to do nothing this offseason to “improve” our 100 loss ballclub.

I was a big Mitch fan we he came up, but after seeing him bat the first time he was called up, I soured on him. Now, he may be starting to figure it out and I am back on his bandwagon. If he continues hitting through September, I would say center field is his to lose.

By the way, I was watching a Texas Ranger game on TV and the announcers said that they tried to get John Buck as a back up catcher, but could not pull off the deal. Anybody hear about this ?

where’s Teahen going to roost?

and I think my opinion of Maier is tainted by seeing him in a couple of spring training games in March, where he really hit the ball hard. He hit a homer to right field that might be the longest home run I have ever personally witnessed. I don’t know where that has gone in the bigs, but he is a reasonable fielding CF and his bat is better than most on this line-up. We have bigger holes to fill.

If we have to set and wait for this “Process” to work then why not put the best defensive albeit weak hitting team on the field that we can. DDJ, Maier, and Teahen could catch almost anything that is hit their way. Bring up Logue to be the 4th outfielder and we may have something there. At least it would be fun to watch. If we have to keep Guillen put him at DH so his major flaws wouldn’t be seen on the field.

I still think this team needs to get rid of at least 15 players and rebuild with cheap young talent. Then again, what do I know, I don’t buy things from snake oil salesman named Dayton.

By the way… well written… I give you an A.

and whiile I don’t disagree per se with Meyyotch being an acceptable stopgap or component, part of the problem with this team is that it’s full of guys that are deficient in one part of their game or another. Individually, if the team around them is full of talent, then the player is fine. However, when there’s a roster full of players that are incomplete, you’ve got to make upgrades somewhere.

I will say, I think the talent on this team is better than the record, but talent be damned, when there’s a failure this spectacular there has to be a SERIOUS evaluation from top to bottom. Something is very broken with this team and it needs to get fixed pronto.

I still believe in DM but I am expecting significant changes to this team for 2010 and a significantly better record. This season was unacceptable, and if we do in fact largely stand pat, then you will probably be able to count me solidly in the “fire DM” camp. I expect AT A MINIMUM the following to happen:

Non-tender Jacobs
Non-tender Olivo
Release Wright
Release Colon
Release/non-tender Waechter
Make Guillen the full-time DH

In addition, the farm system better be rated no lower than 10th, and really it should be more like no lower than 5th. If these things don’t happen, I’m probably going to be calling for DM’s head as well.

DM/TH love Olivo. So Buck will get the boot.

And Guillen will be in RF until he gets injured. Guillen decides for himself where and how often he plays, which is just another reason signing him was a mistake.

I do think DMGM will let Jacobs go. I hope Kila tears it up when he gets his call-up in a few weeks, but I’m afraid he won’t get to play much.

Is painting the Gordon demotion as “Gordon vs. Mitch, and Mitch deserved to stay.”

Ugh. Yes, that was the choice.

His defense has never been very good, and this year he’s had a lot of problems just catching the ball, but he’s speedy and he steals more bases than DDJ. Dayton?

Gathright, Freel, Gathwhite (hat tip, DF), and eventually Taveras.

Sort of like how he loves middle infielders that don’t strikeout: Callaspo, Betancourt, Keppinger and he tried to get Hu.

It seems Dayton does have some sort of statistical thought behind his acquisitions, except his conclusions are stupid and completely insignificant towards winning baseball games.

In a sad twist of events, I’m actually pleased that the farm can produce a fourth OF/stop-gap that could rival Lew Ford. That guy killed the Royals and gave the Twins time for cheap.

Coco Crisp be back?

I thought he was under contract

Install Mitch in CF for next year. The Royals are not going to win anything, hopefully everybody realizes that by now. Put Mitch out there on a regular basis and see what he can do. If he can’t cut it, drop him after next year. The CF market doesn’t offer anything that should blow the Royals away at this point, and really there’s very little to lose giving Maier a sink-or-swim year to show what he’s capable of with starter at-bats.