Finally, not that you asked, but here's my Official Royals Review Trade Deadline Prediction Proclamation: Mahay, Grudzielanek and one stunner/out-of-nowhere guy (i.e. not Olivo) get shipped.

-Trading Deadline Extravaganza Open Thread

So much for that.

For weeks I'd been warming to the idea that Dayton might pull of a massive, franchise-altering (or so it would seem) move, in size and scope, something along the lines of Teahen, Olivo, DeJesus and a B prospect to San Diego for Cla Meredith, Paul McAnulty, a C prospect, and Brian Giles's expiring contract. As someone who devotes a large portion of their time writing about the same things, a trade like that would have been a boon for Royals Review, both in terms of my own enjoyment and in site traffic and activity, the sort of mega-deal that goes from looking brilliant to idiotic and back three or four times a year. Obviously, that didn't happen, and may never. We still know very little about Moore as a General Manager, and while he made a flurry of moves during his first year in charge, that culling was to be expected for a variety of reasons.

What wasn't expected, by this uninformed outsider -- does anything like the trade deadline expose our desperate ignorance and related desire to know more? -- or anyone else was that not a single trade would be made. Not one. Considering for a moment Dayton's memorable, though potential apocryphal dictum that pitching is the currency of baseball, it was stunning and bizarre to watch essentially an entire industry end up in the same position as the Royals: standing still. Pitching currency, perhaps, like the real thing, rests on a paradox: its only valuable if you're willing to part with it. Baseball is in a weird place right now: teams continue to spend millions each off-season on free agents while simultaneously  valuing, perhaps over-valuing, their prospects and the dream of cheap labor. None of the moves this weekend, aside from most notably and most tellingly Ned Colletti's involvement in the Manny trade, was a pure veteran-for-prospects deal. If this dynamic holds, we may be in for a string of very boring deadlines. Unless a team is stupid or stacked (like the B

Returning to the boys in blue, it's impossible to know what offers Dayton pushed and what offers he eventually turned down when discussing, most obviously but not limited to, the man of the hour Ron Mahay. In something like the inverse of finding out about an unexpected pregnancy, all we know for certain in this case is that nothing happened. The significant caveats of ignorance aside, Dayton deserves at least mild criticism for failing to move some combination of Mahay, Nunez or even Ramon Ramirez. Reliever performance is extremely variable, potentially even inherently so, and in not selling high on the trio mentioned above, Dayton made an implicit bet that, for his guys at least, that won't be the case. Sadly, just looking around our own division, from the ever-changing fortunes of Juan Rincon, Rafael Betancourt, Jimmy Gobble, Joel Peralta, LaTroy Hawkins, Andy Sisco, Shingo Takautsu and on and on, we can see that it is.

Crucially, if Dayton is truly adept at putting together a bullpen, then he needs to fully leverage that skill rather than doing it once and standing still. Trade Ramon Ramirez now, then find the next version, along with another asset in your pocket. It would be an ironic, although not uncommon, bit of professional failure if Dayton merely turned his initial finds into fixed, high-priced known commodities. A case can be made that Nunez and Ramirez are too cheap to part with lightly and that they will be so for years to come. As for Mahay, unless the Royals think they desperately need him for 2009, it remains very difficult to see the point.

The hesitance to flip any of his relievers relates to another concern going forward: the roster isn't near good enough to see so little movement. Joey Gathright should have either been traded or offered an assignment to Omaha a year ago, for example. Not only that, but Moore has also voluntarily extended the Royal legacies of, most infamously, Ross Gload and Mark Grudzielanek. We've talked enough about Gload in the past few days, but we've long been resigned to his inexorable presence. Grudzielanek, on the other hand, has now been trade bait/trade rumor bair for three straight seasons, a staggering number. As a player, in the present tense, Grudzielanek isn't really a problem: he's hit .300/.340/.413 as a Royal with good defense and a mediocre health record. That line doesn't kill you at second base, but it also isn't pushing the Royals closer to contention. Essentially, its one spot in lineup where they aren't losing ground, which is an unsatisfying form of victory. Weirdly, he's "developed" into the team's #3 hitter, which, much as if I was named the best looking guy at a party, says more about his manager and his teammates than it does about him. Grudz is a hard-player to really get excited about as a fan: there is no positive arch here, either for him or the franchise. The ultimate stopgap. Watching Mark Grudzielanek is like wasting two hours watching Daylight on USA on a Saturday afternoon. Well, at least you weren't asleep.

Grudz is a batting average and doubles guy with no speed at this point in his very well-compensated life, and maybe that just isn't good enough anymore. Still, it's difficult to see him as much different than Ray Durham, who fetched cash and two minor leaguers from the Brewers. When Grudz signed with the Royals in December of 2005, did anyone, anyone think that he'd still be a Royal on August 1, 2008? 2008! After skipping from LA to Chicago to St. Louis (talk about a steady decline) it looked like Grudz had fully entered the Reggie Sanders/Greg Maddux postion of his career, only that never happened. By the time this season ends, he'll likely be north of 350 games played as a Royal, a significant number in his career history and the history of the franchise.

Mark Grudzielanek's Career

And so, here we are. Mahay now, Nunez now, Grudzielanek now, Teahen now, Olivo now. Bannister now, Davies now.

If Joakim Soria, the eternal waiting for the Gordon/Butler breakout, and the days when Greinke starts aren't enough for you after 109 games, we do have one fascinating new thing to enjoy.

The final two months of the MItch Maier Era.

Last week, we took a look back at the changes Dayton Moore has made to the big league roster since taking over during the 2006 season, specifically the position players. Part II examines the pitching staff, which has been subject to a much more radical transformation.

Dayton Moore inherited a bad team in 2006. The Royals would only win 62 games, which was actually their highest win total in three season. The '06 Royals couldn't hit, were bad defensively and were terrible on the mound. Although Moore's earliest moves were aimed at upgrading the offense (Gathright, amazingly, and Shealy) it quickly became apparent that his top priority was building a pitching staff. And for good reason, for while the offense was bad (12th in the AL in runs scored), the '06 pitching staff was legitimately worthy of the label "historically bad".

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Did the Royals not speak to the media after the game? I've just read the AP game story, the official website story and Dutton's story with the Star.

No quotes.

Obligatory fangraphs representation:

via www.fangraphs.com

• Full disclosure here: I more or less took this game off, although from the 7th on I was sporadically checking the score via my phone. Every once in awhile we've all got to pull a Rhoden. I didn't goto see Hancock however, I just watched some History Channel. Oh Monsterquest, you always rope me in, and you always let me down.
• Ross Gload went 3-4 and is now hitting .278. Trade him for a PTBNL yesterday.
• David DeJesus drew a walk to start the game. No one else followed his example.
• Banny almost turned in a helpful outing. Almost. Your Banny ERA update is  5.24.
• Billy Butler hit a double! We'll have that slugging percentage up to .350 any day now! I love getting excited about Royal prospects...
  
• Someone with an office job should check for me early tomorrow morning, but Buck may not be a sub-replacement level hitter (-VORP) after tonight's big game.
• I enjoy the box score oddity of Ramon Ramirez's blown save: 0.2 IP, 2 Ks, 0 Hs, 0 BBs. Blown save. Looking at the replays of the balk, I have no idea. Konerko certainly sold it.

Ramon Fernandez Ramirez, tell me, if you know,
Why, when the singing ended and we turned
Toward the town, tell why the glassy lights,
You jerked your neck forward
The lights in the fishing boats at anchor there,
As the night descended, tilting in the air,
Mastered the night and portioned out the sea,
Fixing emblazoned zones and fiery poles,
Arranging, deepening, enchanting night.
They called you for balking

Thaaaaaaaaa Yankees win.

Helluva game, and a revenge contest for Johnny Damon, who went 6-6 (although in effect 5-6, as he was gunned down trying to stretch a single into a double).

Lots to discuss, but maybe not much to say?

• Huge day by Guillen. Two homers, two guys thrown out on the bases and a single to boot.
  
• Another long day for the bullpen (after a rough May).
• A tough outing for Banny (even though it was a day game).
• More flukey excellence for Aviles, who I now believe leads the team in extra base hits.
• Royals drew two walks in a 12-11 marathon. I believe this ties a season high in walks drawn. (kidding)
• Your Tomko ERA update: 6.34
• Your Ramirez ERA update: 3.49.

I had one of those "where is my car?" moments this morning in the parking lot of Target. I was visiting this particular quality department store because part of me keeps stubbornly insisting on the rest of me engagin in activities that require running. As a result, I needed to replenish my sock supply. Hanes 6-pack with extra padding in the heel and toe. Yeah, I knew you wanted to know that. Anyways, it started to rain, and I had no idea where the van was parked. I can name off the top of my head the starting line-ups for all of the major league baseballs teams, but that particular bit of information, curiously, did me little good. Anyway, I finally found my way through the showers to sanctuary in the form of a Ford Freestar. It took way too long. In other words, I think I know exactly how Zack Greinke felt in yesterday's game.

Anyway, we have a lot coming up in the next couple weeks--as Will touched on in the fanshot--but there were a couple things I wanted to bring up today:

* Chris Lubanski, potentially useful MLB platoon player? It doesn't sound like much for Chris to aspire to, but recently someone brought up in a comment Lubanski's splits. Lubanski, after an awful start, is now up to .268/.337/.497. Yes, that's still not very impressive for a corner outfielder in the PCL, but Lubanski could still improve overall. While we're not talking about a potential star, of course, Lubanski is more interesting to me than stiffs like Costa Now!, Maier, and the Amazing Aviles, as Chris has raked left-handed pitching to the tune of .308/.359/.598 and has actually retained some prospect status as he's moved up through the system. He could stand to work the count more, but that line is pretty nice even for a hitter's league. If Lubanski can keep up the good work, I don't see any reason not to call him up late in the year to see how he can do as a DH/OF versus righties. He will very probably never live up to his draft status, but let's not let that obscure that he could be useful. I mean, could he be that much worse than the undead Ross Gload? Especially if Lubanski keeps making progress this summer?

* By the way, Gloadie, I don't blame you for being you, but you can't blame me for hating it. Are you one of the vampires in the video? (And yes, this is my attempt to trump Will's Nada Surf post for "lamest band referenced.')

* We need to get an official RR-sanctioned nickname for Ramon Ramirez, because it should be pretty apparent to us now that the guy is pretty neat to have on this pitching staff. By WXRL Ramirez edges out Ron Mahay for the spot of best non-Soria reliever on the team. In 25 innings, Super Captain Laser Hero (that's my nomination for his nickname, I went to the Kenny Mayne school of overstatement) has struck out 30, amassing a 3:1 K:BB ratio. During that span, he's given up exactly 0 dingers. That's a 10.66 K/9 and a sparkling 0.0 HR/9, for those of you scoring at home...or sitting alone in your underwear in your mother's basement. In other words, that's "closer material" (I won't get in the fact that today's bullpen usage is so hideously backward compared to some other advances FOs and managers have made) stuff that Ramirez is throwing. Could he be the best reliever on a good team? Looking at his cube page it's clear Ramirez has always had good K-rates and that his performance in 2008 isn't necessarily an outlier when taken in the context of his very good 2006. In 2007, he was injured a lot, and mad props to Dayton Moore for this pick-up. Anyway, we won't see Ramirez as a closer candidate until Soria is moved to the rotation, so it's academic for now. Still, I'm on record as saying Ramirez or Nunez could handle the job if Joakim graduates to starter status.

* Gil Meche appears to have recovered from his workload hangover after posting a 3.69 ERA in May with good peripherals to back it up. It's interesting to note, however, that despite Meche dragging to start the year after last seaon's career-high innings and pitches total, Trey Hillman hasn't deigned to give Meche a break. Now, there are some pitchers who can weather high "PAP" totals, but I'll once again point out that I don't think Meche is one of them. From those of you unfamilar to the system, Category 1s are 100 pitches are less, Cat2s are debatable if they're harmful depending on the pitcher, and Cat3s and Cat4s are...scary when you've invested in a pitcher for three more years after 2008. Great to see that Daisuke Matsuzaka is all the way down to 23rd on this list. Thank you, Tito.

Elsewhere in the beisbol world:

* Will Carroll reports that John Smoltz is out "for the year ."

* John Brattain of The Hardball Times has some tough love for Blue Jays "star" Alex Rios.

* Also from THT, Frank Thomas's copy of the Oakland Athletics schedule has been leaked. Does Mike Sweeney have a similar list? Nah, I say, he's too nice and boring.

* Start your ESPN insider free trial right now if you want to view Keith Law's draft article. Unlike a lot of the ESPN hacks, Law's actually pretty good at what he does. Unlike a lot of the ESPN hacks, Law's a Scouts Inc. guy. Go figure.

* Rob Neyer seems to think Ozzie Guillen's days are numbered. I am inclined to disagree. What a surprise.

That's all I've got for now. What say ye?

Where do you begin?

A lot of good things happened tonight, but somewhere in the last hour everything went haywire. Forget the beginning of the inning, just zoom ahead to after Ramirez had already recorded two outs, from that point the Twins went single, single, single, homer. Live by the single (the Royals had 14 on the night) , die by the single and the well-timed homer.  Whats the old saying, fortune and misfortune are two threads of the same rope. Or something like that.

Thank God Dayton Moore and Trey Hillman changed the culture of the organization, because you can really see how it's paying off. Go back to Posnanski's 50,000 word interwoven vignettes story from Spring Training. Remember what Hillman did with those chairs! Pitching is the currency of baseball, and this team is not going to lose games on fundamentals!