"The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem you had last year"

The Royals, on the day GMDM assumed his duties, had the following problems to deal with:

Shorstop unable to hit at an acceptable level.

Lack of sufficient power production in the corner outfield, corner infield, and DH spots.

Inadequate pitching - both starters and relievers.

Lack of outfield defense sufficient to cover the demands of a large home ballpark.

Four years later, stop and ask yourself which of these problems GMDM has solved.

By my count, I can give him credit for improving the pitching. He gets credit for Meche, and for Soria, which might be the best thing he has done for the Major League roster to date.

Attempts to address the corners/DH power production have been fruitless. Guillen was an absolute disaster. Butler and Gordon help - but those finds belong to Baird.

Attempts to address the shortstop situation have been laughably bad. Tony Pena Jr., followed by Yuniesky Betancourt? Horrendous.

Attempts to address the outfield defense have been abysmal as well. So far, Moore has obtained Gathright, Podsednik, Freel, and the craptastic Anderson brothers, among others.

What could Moore have tried differently in these areas? Well, given the budget constraints and the pathetic state of the system he inherited, I don't think he could have been expected to fix all of these woes; however, he certainly could have given a look-see to Kila to see if perhaps his scouts were wrong. He certainly could have traded some of his assets, such as DDJ or Soria, to potentially solve several of these problems in the future.

Sorry for rehashing the GMDM past - just saw that quote, and thought it was REALLY an appropriate one to contemplate when evaluating the state of our beloved franchise.