For the second time in this fledgling season, the Royals head to a National League park, in this case Turner Field to face a foreign squad from the senior circuit. With the red-hot Braves attempting to stretch their winning streak to ten games, one cannot help but wonder what might have been. No, silly, the Royals couldn't have the success that Braves are having. In an alternate universe, however, the Braves could be stuck with a rough approximation of the current Royals squad--less Billy Butler and Alex Gordon, of course.
Yes, in that parallel reality, the Royals would surely still be hoping to have their first above-.500 season in ten years, but what might our lives be like if Dayton Moore were still in Atlanta?
We would have never suffered through the unimaginable putridity of Kyle Davies or the last two seasons of Luke Hochevar. We would have never had the memory of five-plus years of a combination of Jose Guillen and Jeff Francoeur standing in place in right field, never knowing who was hoping more for a ball to be hit directly to the fielder--them or us? Jonathan Sanchez's special brand of godawful would have gone elsewhere. Yuniesky Betancourt, the Futility Infielder, would have simply been cut loose by Seattle, scooped up by Moore at the helm of the Braves or the only other team that has seen fit to waste a roster spot on a baseball player who is unable to hit, field, walk, run, or move more than two steps laterally, the Milwaukee Brewers. No Mike Jacobs. No Yasuhiko Yabuta. No Ross Gload. No Joey Gathright. No Miguel Olivo. No Brett Tomko. No Yasuhiko Yabuta. No Tony Pena, Jr.
What could have been?
If Atlanta wants to keep Dayton Moore, Jeff Francoeur, and Bruce Chen when the Royals leave town on Wednesday night, they're welcome to them.