Royals Enjoy Their Best Eleven Days Since 1985
by Freneau on Jan 26, 2011 1:04 PM EST
in Kansas City Royals News
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Print- January 14: Royals Sign SP Jeff Francis. The contract is reasonable and nearly everyone loves or at least likes the deal.
- January 15: Royals Sign SP/RP Bruce Chen. Thanks to his curious background, a random scream of Will Ferrell, and Chen's unintentionally funny FOB style comedy, Bruce has become a fan icon. A surprisingly popular move amongst Royals fans.
- January 19: Gil Meche Retires. Meche's retirement saves the Royals something like $12 million dollars. Meche becomes a hero, and a lingering PR disaster is avoided. Royals receive very little negative PR for the contract ending so ignominiously. Fans begin dreaming of ways the Royals can spend the newfound money.
- January 22: Royals Sign Billy Butler. At first, the terms of the deal were merely favorable to the Royals. Then it came out that the club got an option year for a 5th season tacked on. Butler is one of the team's best players and probably, along with Soria, the most truly popular and appreciated. This is especially so after his comments about Greinke and his solid Good Ole Boy image.
- January 25: Baseball America names KC MLB's top farm system. Hardcore fans knew this was coming for months, but the news reached the mainstream audience on the 25th, when BA made it official. The Royals announced the news themselves in a number of ways, including a few Dayton Moore interviews. A two day media victory lap is to be expected.
The Chen and Francis signings were good for some short term positive buzz. Meche's retirement, given the money that it allegedly frees up, is significant in, at the least, the medium term outlook of the franchise, while also sparing the Royals of a painful Meche defeat tour in 2011. The Butler move, along with the farm system news, are significantly positive developments regarding the long-term prospects of the organization. If the Royals have had a better fortnight since October of 1985, I certainly don't recall it.
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Our Fan Fest's are always...
…roaring successes, right? The Caravan seems to do better. – TL
"Sir,--It has been wittily remarked that there are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third and most aggravated is statistics." *The National Observer* (June 13, 1891): p. 93-94.
This is the first year in at least 5 or 6 years that I haven't gone to the Caravan...
But the Royals in their infinite wisdom decided to send guys back to my area that all had been here in the last 2 years… So since I had nothing new to sign… I passed.
Your 2010 Royals Review Fantasy Football Keeper League Champion
Pitchers and Catchers report Feb 13, 2011
by averagegatsby on Jan 26, 2011 3:55 PM EST up reply actions
"We Believe!" and "Lima Time!"
Maybe some points in 2003 were the most exciting in the last 10 or 15 years? But as that was a false zenith, 2003 definitely was not the best of times in retrospect.
It has been a nice 10 days. Some positivity is nice going into what is going to be a real dog of a season.
Checkout Royals minor league notes at www.14for77.blogspot.com
Vin Mazzzzarrrro Cy Young contender
you heard it here first
Making watching baseball as fun as doing your taxes.
My Twitter feed.
by Matt Klaassen on Jan 26, 2011 2:17 PM EST up reply actions
At least this time
the season will be just as bad as the many before, but with the knowing things can and are likely to change. I wonder though if the Royals will have a “Terry Pendleton signing” moment like the Braves did in the 1990/1991 offseason.
by Cap Midnight on Jan 26, 2011 7:34 PM EST up reply actions
Not all games from April 2003
The game that started the slide:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR200304270.shtml
- .-. ..- … – / – …. . / .—. .-. - .. . … …
by Jeff Zimmerman on Jan 26, 2011 1:28 PM EST up reply actions
Seems like a period in June would have been better. IIRC, they had a really good streak in June which made them look “for real.”
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jan 26, 2011 1:31 PM EST up reply actions
I think the worst possible thing that could happen is this years team
somehow hanging in the race for a while.
Frenchy would probably get extended, a SP (OSullivan or Chen) could be in the rotation in ’12 and a couple prospects would get flipped.
Checkout Royals minor league notes at www.14for77.blogspot.com
Hosmer for Rafael Furcal!
Yes, you can come up to Ontario and kill me when it happens after 18-11.
Making watching baseball as fun as doing your taxes.
My Twitter feed.
by Matt Klaassen on Jan 26, 2011 2:18 PM EST up reply actions
Didn't they rock right after the All-star break?
The prophecy has been fulfilled.
by mitchfreakingmaier! on Jan 26, 2011 1:58 PM EST up reply actions
I was sooooo pumped about these eleven days:
December 7, 1989
Signed Storm Davis as a free agent.
December 11, 1989
Signed Mark Davis as a free agent.
December 15, 1989
Traded Charlie Leibrandt and Rick Luecken to the Atlanta Braves. Received Jim Lemasters (minors) and Gerald Perry.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
by RoyalsRetro on Jan 26, 2011 1:45 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Also
December 8, 1992
Signed David Cone as a free agent.
Signed Greg Gagne as a free agent.
Signed Curt Wilkerson as a free agent.
December 9, 1992
Traded Jeff Shaw and Tim Spehr to the Montreal Expos. Received Mark Gardner and Doug Piatt.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
FTW
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Jan 30, 2011 2:21 PM EST up reply actions
March 31-April 12 2003
Royals start the season 9-0. I remember being ecstatic!
by YouDon'tPhaseMeGobble on Jan 26, 2011 2:28 PM EST up reply actions
Another alternative
Everyday through Greinke’s first 5 starts in 2008. That was arguably the greatest 5 game stretch from a starting pitcher of all time.
by YouDon'tPhaseMeGobble on Jan 26, 2011 2:31 PM EST up reply actions
2009?
- .-. ..- … – / – …. . / .—. .-. - .. . … …
by Jeff Zimmerman on Jan 26, 2011 2:35 PM EST up reply actions
18-11!!!
Your 2010 Royals Review Fantasy Football Keeper League Champion
Pitchers and Catchers report Feb 13, 2011
by averagegatsby on Jan 26, 2011 3:55 PM EST up reply actions 4 recs
I always get beaten
to the wisecracks I was planning to make. Rec’d
Chaim Mattis Keller New York City's # 1 Royals fan!
Missed one from the last 14 days
Some team besides the Royals signed Willy Taveras
- .-. ..- … – / – …. . / .—. .-. - .. . … …
by Jeff Zimmerman on Jan 26, 2011 1:25 PM EST reply actions 4 recs
Moore not signing him is a bigger shock than the Meche retirement
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jan 26, 2011 1:26 PM EST up reply actions
Well, I wouldn't go...
…that far. – TL
"Sir,--It has been wittily remarked that there are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third and most aggravated is statistics." *The National Observer* (June 13, 1891): p. 93-94.
honestly, I'm glad for the Royals
but Meche shouldn’t have done it. I mean, it was “honorable,” but I hope fans don’t hold it against players when the don’t do what Meche did.
Sorry i"m so “pro-players” lately, it’s just really struck me lately that when a player underperforms a contract and gets hurt, people always whip out the “stealing money” line, but when a player outperforms his contract (Longoria and almost every non-horrible pre-FA player, for example), they pull out the “hey, he signed the contract” thing.
/obnoxious moralizing
Making watching baseball as fun as doing your taxes.
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by Matt Klaassen on Jan 26, 2011 2:22 PM EST up reply actions
The more honorable thing to do would have been play and give the money to charity.
All Meche did was make a rich man richer. It’s cool that he did it, but that money could be better used.
Did KK say that?
I immediately retract that statement
Has that rich man been raking in big profits since he took over the Royals?
If Forbes is to be believed, he’s spent a very high percentage of revenues on the organization. I’m not a big David or Dan Glass fan, but I think they are basically like 95% of MLB owners. They invest revenues in the team and take a small profit (except for really high revenue teams where the ownership takes larger profits). So I don’t see why people are saying that Glass is just going to pocket this money. There will be limited opportunities to use it over the next 9 months, but you can bet much of it will be invested in the amateur draft and international F.A.’s. And then I think you can expect significant increases in the MLB payroll next year.
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jan 26, 2011 5:22 PM EST up reply actions
How did those leaked reports last year show the teams were profiting?
I can’t remember
Checkout Royals minor league notes at www.14for77.blogspot.com
He is going to make interest off of the money in the meantime!
That shows how greedy he is!
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
If he were an honorable man, he'd give that money to charity
A MLB owner shouldn't be taking profit. That's un-American.
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jan 26, 2011 5:39 PM EST up reply actions
if he were an honorable man
he would give the money to me
"Things could always be worse." - Buddy Bell
by buddyball on Jan 26, 2011 5:50 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
There's nothing more American than greed and turning a profit.
Since when do all these gun-toting rednecks not believe in free enterprise and capitalism? All of the sudden they want their competitive sports to be socialist?
I guess they just want their favorite team's owner to be a very specific kind of philanthropist
They want him to not treat the multi-million dollar business that he owns like a business. They want him to treat it like a public service where he spends his personal wealth on the team to take a loss every year. They basically want him to make a gift of his millions to the people of Kansas City. I guess it’s fine to want that, but it’s not realistic to expect that. Like it or not, baseball (and every major sport) exists as a nation-wide entertainment phenomenon that we can all watch on TV and follow a million different ways on the internet because it is a successful business.
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jan 26, 2011 5:59 PM EST up reply actions
While I do agree with you about 90%
I do consider major pro sports franchises (i.e. MLB, NFL, NBA) to be a very special kind of business. There are clearly a huge number of issues that should, and do, affect how those businesses are run. By the owners’ own desire, many of those businesses have becoming increasingly tied to the public domain (i.e. tax breaks and public dollars spent on stadia). There is also the socialistic element of equal opportunity (in some sports more than others, such as the NFL’s salary cap) within the larger capitalist context.
So, while an owner can and should be expected to turn a profit, that owner should also understand and agree that their ownership of the team certainly does have an element of the “public trust” to it. They aren’t purely capitalistic enterprises, and they shouldn’t be run that way.
by Sweep_the_Leg on Jan 26, 2011 6:30 PM EST up reply actions 2 recs
What did Deadspin say that the '07-08 Marlins, Pirates, Angels and Rays profited?
I didn’t go through them. Did anyone?
Checkout Royals minor league notes at www.14for77.blogspot.com
IIRC, it was the Marlins and Pirates in particular who had payrolls that didn't
quite match the revenue sharing money they were receiving. A lot of speculation was thrown around about what the non-payroll overhead of these teams is, but there was no definitive proof as to how much profit was made. Nevertheless, having a payroll that’s less than your revenue-sharing income does not look good.
The whole problem with the world is that fools & fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. ~ Bertrand Russell
by SagehenMacGyver47 on Jan 26, 2011 7:31 PM EST up reply actions
I agree
…that perhaps there is an element of public trust. In my opinion, that means that an owner shouldn’t merely seek to maximize profit. S/he should attempt to build a winner also. While those two ends aren’t mutually exclusive, it is clear that some owners try to do the first without much regard for the second. For the record, I don’t think Glass is one of those owners, certainly not during the Dayton Moore era.
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jan 26, 2011 7:38 PM EST up reply actions
now that you are using a real name
you seem nicer.
"Shot by my own men."
by StonewallPDS on Jan 27, 2011 9:22 AM EST up reply actions
*@%$ YOU BOTH!!!!!!!
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jan 27, 2011 11:58 AM EST up reply actions
No,
I just want him to stay true to his word – he has said he wants to break even.
To clarify, if he wants to profit, I have no problem with that – capitalism is a tenant of this country; however, DON’T come out and say you merely want to break even UNLESS you actually mean it!
"We're gonna win with pitching and defense" General Manager Dayton Moore, circa winter 2009
"Where did all these Indians come from?" General George Armstrong Custer, circa summer 1876
Even where the owners of the more profitable teams are making more money,
wasn’t there a study (or maybe a Posnanski post) in the past year or two showing that all of the teams spend roughly the same amount of their revenue stream on payroll?
Hating life as a Royals fan 365 days a year at Royalscentricity
by Old Man Duggan on Jan 26, 2011 8:19 PM EST up reply actions
I think the Forbes annual numbers show this
Of course outliers like the Yankees spend a smaller percentage of their revenues, because those revenues are soooooo huge.
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jan 26, 2011 8:27 PM EST up reply actions
Damn you, man
I had finally trained myself to stop pretending to begetting mad and condescendingly calling you “Scott” in the middle of one of our clever attempts to pretend we disagreeviolent arguments, and now you go and do this.
My new blog: Those Other Guys. Critiques welcome.
Don't worry
There are other condescending names we can come up with. We’re very resourceful.
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jan 27, 2011 2:07 AM EST up reply actions
I AM SO SICK OF THE CONSTANT STREAM OF NEGATIVITY FROM THIS SITE
We haven’t even seen what Billy Butler will do in a (smaller) Royals uniform yet!
Making watching baseball as fun as doing your taxes.
My Twitter feed.
by Matt Klaassen on Jan 26, 2011 2:16 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Re Butler
This is especially so after his comments about Greinke
Can someone direct me to said comments? I’d do it myself but something tells me a search for “Greinke” “Butler” on this site might take a while. Thanks in advance.
dont have the link handy
but he basically made a handful of “we only want guys here who WANT to be here” kinda comments…
typical meaningless after the fact macho jock posturing, but people loved it
I've got to be honest
I kind of liked it when Butler said that. Don’t get me wrong, I do not begrudge Greinke for wanting to pitch for a winner now, but I liked that Butler was of the mind that Greinke could go screw if he thought he was too good for the Royals (even though he was).
Hating life as a Royals fan 365 days a year at Royalscentricity
by Old Man Duggan on Jan 26, 2011 8:23 PM EST up reply actions
Agree 100% w/ Will on this one.
Butler had all kinds of incentive to back the org on this one.
Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.
People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball...Rock Chalk Talk
here you go.
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20110124/SPORTS0302/101240362/Butler-excited-Royal?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
by fightwookies on Jan 26, 2011 10:18 PM EST up reply actions
Maybe this is the best 11-day stretch
but August 13 should be a national holiday because of what happened on that date in 2010: Freedom from Guillen Day.
The Era of Good Feelings is Over
Friends, we have lost Dusty Hughes.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
Runelvys Hernández has added Dusty's biological and technological distinctiveness to his own.
I.e. He ate him.
"I DARE you to make less sense."
by dejackso on Jan 26, 2011 10:52 PM EST up reply actions 2 recs
June 5th, 2008
Royals draft Eric Hosmer, Michael Montgomery, and John Lamb. That’s a lot of value. Also Johnny G.
Not To Say This Isn't A Great Point
It is. It has been a positive fortnight for the Royals — one that we can immediately appreciate.
by WestCoastRoyal on Jan 27, 2011 2:16 AM EST up reply actions
probably have to check back in 5 years,
you could be more right, or less right, depending on how things shake out
The whole problem with the world is that fools & fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. ~ Bertrand Russell
by SagehenMacGyver47 on Jan 27, 2011 5:42 PM EST up reply actions
Question
I saw on a twitter feed that the Rockies signed Kila Ka’Aihue and I figured I’d wander over here to ask if this is actually true
Some hope?
by rockiesfan4ever on Jan 27, 2011 12:14 PM EST reply actions
Dang
I really was impressed with Kila when I saw him play last year
Rockies announce the cloning and subsequent signing of players named "Carlos Tulowitzki" and "Troy Gonzalez"
by rockiesfan4ever on Jan 28, 2011 11:26 AM EST up reply actions
when was this?
i wish i wouldve seen it
Fire Everyone
by billybeingbilly on Jan 30, 2011 10:51 PM EST up reply actions
September
.274/.361/.548
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jan 30, 2011 11:08 PM EST up reply actions
ehhh...september performances dont impress me....
especially when they follow awfulness. ive been tricked by september too many times.
Fire Everyone
by billybeingbilly on Jan 31, 2011 12:28 AM EST up reply actions
I'm not saying any given month is particularly meaningful
But this little mini-thread was dealing with times in which Kila looked impressive. There were some. Will there be more in 2011? Hard to say. I don’t know what to expect from him.
You may know me as NYRoyal.
by Scott McKinney on Jan 31, 2011 1:54 AM EST up reply actions
Small Sample Sizes
So it was probably my perception
Rockies announce the cloning and subsequent signing of players named "Carlos Tulowitzki" and "Troy Gonzalez"
by rockiesfan4ever on Jan 31, 2011 12:27 PM EST up reply actions
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