Dayton Moore Incompetence Tournament - #3 vs. #14 + Meche

From now on, I'm just going to refer to the Dayton Moore Incompetence Tournament as DMIT.  I've got to cut down on my typing workload.  Anyway, all of the #1 and #2 seeds made it to the second round, except for the Meche signing and that is still up in the air.  So I'm going to list the matchups with a little bit of information about them and then we can vote in the comments.  We'll try this and see how it works.

#2 Gil Meche signed a five-year deal vs. #15 John Thompson signed

Dayton Moore signed Gil Meche to a five-year, $55M contract back in December of 2006. 

The good:

• Meche had two excellent seasons (4.4 WAR in 2007 and 5.0 WAR in 2008)

The bad:

• Five years, $55M.  That's a lot of money and a lot of risk over a long-term contract.
• The deal was almost universally panned by both traditional and sabermetric analysts at the time.  They didn't think Meche was that good of a pitcher, and he'd had a significant injury history, and the Royals weren't likely to be in contention over the course of the contract.
• The contract hasn't worked out well for the Royals.  Meche performed very well in two lost seasons for the Royals and then performed poorly for two seasons.  Now he'll be a reliever with inherently limited value to the team in the fifth year.  Were those two excellent seasons really worth a $55M guaranteed commitment?  One could argue that there is a hell of a lot of wasted money in that contract.

Back in 2007, the Royals had some injury issues and need a starting pitcher at midseason.  Instead of going with some younger, in-house option, Dayton Moore brought in an over-the-hill, sub-mediocre former Brave re-tread John Thompson.

The good:

In two starts, Thompson racked up 0.3 WAR

The bad:

He was a crappy pitcher and his acquisition was pointless and wrong-headed.  In a move which would become a pattern for Moore, he chose a crafty veteran who wasn't any good anymore and had once played for the Braves over some younger in-house options who could use a MLB start or two.  He could have given someone else a chance; instead he went for an old former Brave.

#3 Willie Bloomquist signed to a two-year deal vs. #14 Roman Colon acquired by trade from the Tigers for a PTBNL (Danny Christensen)

Bloomie signed for 2/$3.1M despite having been a replacement level player.  He ends up performing below replacement level for the Royals.  Roman Colon was acquired for cheap and ended up pitching like crap for the Royals, but only for 52.1 innings.

#3 J.P. Howell traded for Joey Gathright vs. #14 Josh Anderson acquired by trade

Dayton Moore traded a young pitching prospect with upside for an older OFer whose only skill was speed.  Gathright never panned out.  Howell turned into an excellent reliever for the Rays.  The Royals gave up next to nothing for Anderson and then he had an awful 123 PA's.

#3 Horacio Ramirez signed to a one-year, $1.8M contract vs. #14 Kip Wells signed to a minor league deal and eventually promoted to KC

This is HoRam's second signing.  The first one was a minor league deal, where he was eventually called up to the majors and actually performed fairly well as a reliever.  The following December, Dayton Moore doubled down and gave HoRam a major league deal for $1.8M.  HoRam failed dismally and was DFA'd after only 19 appearances.  Kip Wells signed a minor league deal in 2008 and pitched 10.1 crappy innings.

#3 Ross Gload signs a 2-year contract extension vs. #14 Josh Rupe signs a minor league deal and eventually is promoted to KC

After a barely above replacement level 2007 season, Ross Gload was rewarded with a two-year, $3.2M contract extension.  He then had an horrific, below replacement level 2008 season and was traded to the Marlins for the 2009 season.  KC paid all of his 2009 salary, minus league minimum.  Josh Rupe got a minor league deal, was promoted to KC and pitched poorly for 9.2 innings.