Explaining Moore, Hillman and the Process

The past 3 years have been incredibly frustrating for Royals fans, to say the least.

After a non-competitive decade hallmarked by a lack of investment in player development fans had seen their franchise-once a template for a successful operation-reduced to little more than a AAAA farm club for real big league teams.

In 2006 Owner David Glass hired an up-and-coming executive named Dayton Moore as the GM and hope abounded in Royals Nation.  Fans recognized the move as a sign that Glass was serious about being competitive.

That competitiveness has failed to materialize so far in the Dayton Moore Era and the fan base is justifiably confused and infuriated at the lack of progress after two-plus seasons.

Let’s start with one premise:  that Dayton Moore knows more about baseball than any of us ever will.  Whether or not we agree with his judgment we should concede that his decisions are made with a knowledge of the game, teams, personalities and skillsets that we can’t hope to divine from from being outsiders.  That’s not a pass for mistakes; it’s a statement of fact.  A move that seems silly from an objective perspective can make sense from a more subjective one.  GMDM doesn’t operate in a vacuum where he can make every decision on the pure logic of win-loss cost-benefit analysis; he has his own constituencies to manage politically as well as an owner who may have more skepticism in the process than the fan base.

So rather than rehash the complaints about Moore, I’m going to try something different-I’m going to imagine a portion of Moore’s interview with Glass in the early summer of 2006 that led to his being named General Manager.  This is big on supposition but I believe events bear out much of what I’m intuiting and if close to accurate, may shed some light on some of GMDMs more bizarre statements: “trust the process” and “Hillman has a chance to be one of the very best baseball men in a generation.”

GLASS:  So, Mr. Moore, let me start by thanking you for agreeing to this interview.

I’m interesting in moving through the selection process as quickly as possible, so let’s get right to the point: What’s your vision for improving the Kansas City Royals?

MOORE:  Mr. Glass, let me start by saying it’s my honor to be here.  Growing up in Wichita and working with John Schuerholz, I’ve always been sensitive to what’s happening with the Royals and I’m genuinely excited at the prospect of building the organization into a model franchise.

I wish I could tell you it will be a quick fix but that would be dishonest.  I believe that sustained success can only be built through building an infrastructure of scouting and coaches who identify talented players and develop those players to play sound fundamental baseball from the first day they are in the system.

I’m sensitive to the fact that Kansas City is not likely to have the financial resources to compete with New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago on a dollar basis.  If I wasn’t, you should show me the exit now.  However, I think that there are some advantages that we can leverage to be competitive in the long-term.

The first advantage we can use is to put more money into the amateur draft.  One tactic we use in Atlanta to success is to identify players who are first round talents but may be using college as leverage to get more money.  If we can identify these players and negotiate with them early in the process we can get more first round type talent out of each draft- it’s like getting free draft picks.

Another advantage we have is in using our local talent.  Chipper Jones is an example of a player who the Braves were able to draft and keep as the face of the franchise.  Alex Gordon is a player that the Royals have similar hopes for.  I believe there is talent in the region for the Royals to tap into- Albert Pujols being the most famous example of one who got away and as the General Manager, I would work to ensure that doesn’t happen again.

Finally, we can be very aggressive in scouting Latin America and to a lesser extent, Asia.  There are plenty of players that the Royals have missed out on for a lack of focus in those regions that are not subject to the draft- we can scout and sign players at our discretion based on market conditions.

I believe that drafting and developing players in this fashion will create a pipeline of talented, well-schooled ballplayers who we can use to replenish losses at the major-league level or trade to fill specific needs.

GLASS:  I understand that the Braves prefer drafting high school players instead of collegians.  Can you explain how that helps your process?  I'm concerned that it will take longer for the effects to be felt at the major league level.

MOORE:  That’s a fair description and I’m glad you brought that point up.  I believe that draft-eligible high school players are typically better athletes with higher upside than those who go to college.  Additionally, high schoolers don’t have the bad habits that college players can develop with two to four years outside of a professional environment.  We can get our hands on them and instruct them to play the game the right way.  A third advantage is that with an effective scouting department we can find more diamonds in the rough, if you’ll excuse the pun.  We’ll find talented players who can vastly improve as ballplayers with proper instruction.  I see the farm system as a tool that turns athletes into baseball players, so we’ll focus our scouting efforts on finding players with natural talent instead of going for quick-fix players who produced in college, all other things being equal.

GLASS:  How do you build a team?  What’s your emphasis?

MOORE:  I’m a traditionalist.  I believe in pitching first and foremost, with speed and defense up the middle and power on the corners. When in doubt, I’ll opt for speed and defense over power, for a couple of reasons.  The first is that speed and defense help your pitching.  The second is that I expect baseball to move away from the style of play that we saw when PEDs were in fashion.  The days of 60 home run hitters are gone for awhile and that opens up a space for so-called small-market teams to compete on the basis of pitching, speed and defense.  Another important factor is the stadium: Kauffman is a big ballpark and combined with lower power numbers across baseball, we’ll have to train pitchers to pitch to contact and trust their defense.  Speedy players will also put pressure on the opposing team’s defense.  Combined with timely hitting, you’ve got a recipe to compete.  We’ll get power, too. But it’s likely to be something we have to develop internally.

GLASS:  So you won’t ask for money to go get free agents?

MOORE:  I want to be clear on this: to make this work, I’ll need some flexibility in the budget.  We’ll spend a lot of money on scouting, drafting and developing players, especially pitchers.  Pitchers are the currency of baseball.  You can trade pitchers to fill needs at positions.  At the big-league level we’ll want to identify a solid core of players and lock them up for several years, then make targeted free agent acquisitions or trades to push the team over the top.

Let’s be honest- bringing in a group of free agents at the start of the process is not going to be successful.  There are some nice complementary pieces here, but only a few front-line major league players.  Talented free agents would either want a premium to come here or would ignore the Royals altogether because they don’t see a chance to win here at the present time.

I may be able to trade for a couple of players to bridge the gap between where the Royals are and where you want them to be, but I won’t mortgage the future financially or from a player development standpoint to win immediately.

GLASS:  How do relate with your peers?  Can you make Kansas City a team the GMs will want to deal with even if we’re buyers and not sellers as the team has been recently?

MOORE:  Trading is tricky business-it takes two to tango- but we can get there.  I have a lot of friends in the business and I’m willing to lose a trade or two at the outset to build some confidence while I put together a network of trading partners.  We are not likely to have any disastrous trades in the next 2-3 years because of the lack of talent in the minor league system.  The trades are going to be mostly exchanges of lower-value players.

GLASS:  "Lose a trade or two"?

MOORE:  Sometimes General Managers have to get something in return for a player to save face or make a deal to set up another deal.  There's an element of "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" in trades and no one wants the reputation of being the guy who's always out to get over in trades.  I believe in building relationships and part of that is being able to bite the bullet and overpay on occasion.  As I said before, we're not talking about disastrous, franchise-wrecking trades.  We're talking about exchanges of players that are complementary pieces or players who have fallen out of favor.

GLASS:  So how do we improve the big-league club now?  Is there anything in Kansas City or in the minors that people can rally around until your process churns out players?

MOORE:  I’m likely to keep players like DeJesus and Teahen since they can contribute and are the current face of the franchise- they’ll help us build that bridge to Alex Gordon and Billy Butler, then that core will get the team to our first draft classes coming in around 2009-2011.  Gordon is especially important as someone who can be a face of the franchise.  He looks like a young talented player who can prime the pump and get fans excited about the talent that the Royals will bring up through the minor league system.

GLASS:  Even though you wouldn’t have drafted him.

MOORE:  Exactly.  The fans need to identify with the present and future, not with castoffs from other teams or players who are floundering here.  One star can get the fanbase energized again.  Zack Greinke has the talent to be that player if he can get himself straightened out.

GLASS:  That’s not a lot of players you’re keeping here.  Will rebuilding the big league club be expensive?

MOORE:  May I be blunt?

GLASS:  Please.

MOORE:  There’s a dearth of talent from the big league team to rookie ball.  The players that are coming up are not well-coached, not fundamentally sound.  As I said before, I don’t think free agents will come here, though I’d like to add a frontline starter and a big bat so we have some credibility as the process takes hold.  Other moves for position players are just as likely to be in trades as signing second-tier free agents because of the need to build up relationships with trading partners. 

But first and foremost I need to stock the team up with professionals who want to play ball and know how to conduct themselves in a major-league clubhouse.  Winning isn’t just a matter of talent; it’s a question of character plus talent plus execution.  Finding available players who have all of those traits is not going to be easy whether we trade or sign them as free agents.  Our best chance is to draft and develop those kinds of players.  Draft and develop winners.  But in the meantime we need to cultivate an atmosphere of professionalism with players who want to play and not just use Kansas City as a paid vacation or last boost to their bank account before retirement.

GLASS:  I see.  One more question: have you identified any managerial candidates?

MOORE:  There’s one person who intrigues me: Trey Hillman.

GLASS:  Trey Hillman?  Isn’t he with the Yankees?

MOORE:  He’s currently working in Japan.

GLASS:  Why not choose an established manager?

MOORE:  Mostly because of what Trey brings to the table. Trey Hillman has worked both as a  director of player personnel with the Rangers and as a manager in the Yankees system.  He’s really sharp and has worked on player development in both the front office and in the field as a scout.  He went to Japan and is managing the type of baseball I expect the big leagues to evolve into over the next five years where power is de-emphasized.  And just as importantly, he’s learned to develop a rapport with players, fans and media in a completely foreign culture, one that we may want to tap for talent in the future. He is a man who will immediately grasp what we’re trying to do and be able to make positive contributions in areas beyond just managing the big league club.

He’s got a sharp tactical mind as well but I’m going to emphasize his soft skills.  Trey is a man who is very even-keeled which is what we’ll need the first few years; then as the player development process takes hold, he’ll be the ideal manager to work with young talent, as a teacher, a scout and a manager.

With his combination of skills and experience I think he’s a man who can develop into one of the very best baseball men of this generation.

GLASS:  Mr. Moore, thank you again for coming in.