FanPost

David Glass, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Wal-Mart

David Glass is the devil. He is a cheapskate. He is running the Royals like he once ran Wal-Mart and is making money hand over fist by maintaining a ridiculously low payroll. He has ruined baseball in Kansas City. He needs to be replaced or the Royals need to be contracted by the MLB.

The calls for David Glass’ head have been constant since I came of age as a baseball fan. I first started to understand baseball during the Lima Time phenomenon and when Runelvys Hernandez had the potential to be the Royals’ ace. 2003 was a magical year in Royals Baseball, where the Royals competed despite a ludicrously low payroll.

In fact, since 1997, the Royals’ payroll had been near the bottom of the league every year. Even worse though, was the way the Royals’ handled amateur signing. Their failings in that arena led to the worst farm system in baseball prior to Dayton Moore’s arrival and tales of their heavy-handed tactics and miserliness in signing bonuses made them a laughingstock.

In 2007, fairly or not, Allard Baird was fired. Perhaps hamstrung by David Glass’ budget, or perhaps due to the front office’s inability to scout or develop talent, Baird was made the scapegoat for the decades of failure. When Dayton took over, "the process" was promised. The disillusioned fans, myself included, laughed at the promises and the failed major league signings. But underneath the failures in evaluating major-leaguers, a trend was developing. Payroll went from 47.6 million to 67.1 million from 2006 to 2007, the first year of the Moore administration. In 2009, payroll reached 70.1 million. In 2010, payroll was 71.4 million, good for 20th in the league.

More important however, has been the development in the farm system. Fans are currently rejoicing in the fact that the Royals have the top farm system in baseball. How has this happened? One big reason has been the increase in spending on bonuses for amateurs. The Royals have caught a handful of prospects that dropped in the draft due to signability concerns and paid them above slot. The Royals have signed international prospects to multi-million dollar bonuses. David Glass has provided the necessary funding to make the farm system better, which will likely result in a better major league team. And, if the Royals continue with a 70 million dollar payroll when Mission 2012 arrives, they could be one of the best teams in baseball, with loads of homegrown talent in pre-arbitration years and a few free agent mercenaries to fortify the ranks.

The point is, David Glass is no longer the problem. Yes, he is probably the biggest reason for the decades of failure that were the 90s and 00s. But behind his checkbook, Dayton has made progress in turning this thing around. So please, for the love of Wal-Mart, stop complaining about the ownership.

Year

Payroll

Rank

1997

31.23

25

1998

32.91

23

1999

16.53

29

2000

23.13

30

2001

35.42

29

2002

47.26

24

2003

40.52

31

2004

47.61

24

2005

36.88

31

2006

47.29

28

2007

67.11

24

2008

58.25

27

2009

70.11

21

2010

71.41

20

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.