With the trade deadline looming and the continued pursuit of the roster/organization on everyone's mind  it's worthwhile to take a look at the moves Dayton Moore has already made. Part I takes a look at how the position players with the big club. Stay tuned for Part II (big league pitchers) and Part III (minor leaguers).

It was 2006, Lebanon and Israel were doing their thing, FEMA did a "heckuva job" in New Orleans and the Royals were supposedly beginning an era of competence (as per Posnanski after Opening Day) thanks to a bizarre December spending spree that brought in Mark Grudzielanek, Doug Mientkiewicz, Joe Mays, Paul Bako and Reggie Sanders. (Vintage RR posts here and here.) Meanwhile, the franchise was a full season behind the Beltran trade and preparing for the Jackson County Stadium Tax Subsidy Vote. In a stunning coincidence, Bud Selig "promised" Kansas City an All-Star game pending a proper allocation of JC's limitless public monies.

To a surprising extent, the 2006 lineup, as Moore more or less inherited it, remains the 2008 edition. You can find good teams that have had more turnover than this:

	2006	2008
C	Buck	Buck
1B	Mientkiewicz	Gload
2B	Grudzielanek	Grudzielanek
3B	Teahen	Gordon
SS	Berroa	Pena
RF	Sanders	Teahen
CF	DeJesus	DeJesus
LF	Brown	Guillen
DH	Sweeney	Butler
B-C	Bako	Olivo
Bench	Graffanino	Gathright
Bench	German	German
Bench	Stairs	Aviles
Bench	Costa	Callaspo

The 2006 Royals went 62-100.

You can quibble with some of these slots as they are crudely defined here -- for example, I'm considering Gathright a bench player in the table above, although he's actually played more innings in CF than anyone else -- but for quick and dirty purposes these are the positions according to the organizational masterplan for the two seasons. As in Gathright's case, for some of the players "bench" may not be quite the right label, but more or less it works, and I've included only the additional players who logged significant playing time.

What stands out is how much holdover there has been. Three of the positions are exactly the same, although perhaps not without some controversy. Buck is still the primary catcher, Grudzielanek is still at second base and DeJesus is still in center. Moreover, Mark Teahen remains an everyday fixture in the lineup, although he's shifted from third base to the outfield, and Esteban German is still a utility player. When you factor in that Alex Gordon and Billy Butler, lineup cornerstones if everything goes well, are also Baird-era draftees, the 2008 lineup remains a very Allard creation.

Subjectively and intuitively, the 2008 edition should be better than their 2006 progenitor: the holdovers (Buck, Teahen, DeJesus) should be hitting their peaks, Emil Brown has been upgraded to Jose Guillen and a decline-phase Mike Sweeney has been converted to supposed prospect and pure hitter Billy Butler. Miguel Olivo is a huge upgrade over Paul Bako. Unfortunately, the sum of their parts just hasn't quite added up to being much more better than the Minky era. The 2006 team ended up averaging 4.67 runs per game, better than the current squad's 4.06 average.

Huh?

To start, the holdovers, DeJesus somewhat excepted, have failed to truly break out. Grudz and German are still around and are, as the man sang, still the same. We wait still on Gordon and Butler to truly arrive. Seemingly really easy upgrades at SS and 1B have turned into, umm... Tony Pena Jr. and Ross Gload. This bears repeating. Just find someone better than the worst overall player in the game (Berroa) and one of the weakest first basemen (Minky). He couldn't do it. Where have you gone Doug Mientkiewicz? Jose Guillen has had one insanely awesome month and two bad ones. Finally, although Miguel Olivo has out-hit Paul Bako, Dayton Moore's first big league pickup, Joey Gathright, has eaten up a ton of playing time over the last three seasons and consistently failed to hit. In 237 plate appearances this year, Gator has three extra-base hits. Three. In 248 last year, he had eight. Gains like the Bako/Olivo and the Brown/Guillen exchanges have been mitigated by players like Gathright.

Over the last few months there's been a persistent meme that Moore is focused on rebuilding -- really, "building" should be used throughout this post, since it was so long ago that anything around here was actually built -- the organization's pitching coffers, and that the lineup will be more of a patchwork project. And while it isn't yet clear that the team's lineup core is actually enough of one to bother building around, it was certainly more than there was among the hurlers. Sure, in 2008, Butler and Gordon are disappointments, but they are near locks to improve, at least a little bit. There are problems however, and Moore is not immune criticism for his utter failure to upgrade the roster at two slots, SS and 1B, that looked to be no-brainer/any AAA lifer would have been better. He hasn't found better bench options than what Allard managed in Stairs/Costa/Graffy and it's possible he's done worse.

Lastly, there's the large but mysterious issue of defense. The quality of the team's defense is harder to definitively pin-down, but according to BP's defensive efficiency data, the 2008 squad is, relative to competition, an improvement. Then again, the 2006 team was terrible, posted a D-Eff of .682, good for 28th best in baseball and 13th in the AL. The current team stands at 19th overall and 9th in baseball. (Although the pure number, .698, is not much different.) So regarding defense, Moore has taken a terrible team and produced a below-average one.

The Royals hired Moore on May 31, 2006 and after over two years of his stewardship, the offense is worse than the bad one he inherited.  Considering that he also had nothing to do with Butler or Gordon, and with no notable position prospects in the system, we must conclude that Dayton's handling of the position players in blue and white has been akin to Argentina's performance in the Falklands War: at best, a disappointment, and at worst an abject failure.

 

Look at it this way, the Cardinals have lost 7 straight, and they are in a pennant race. So it could always be worse.

Before 12,022 captivated fans at the K, the Royals fell to the Twins 8-2. Remember when we intoned that we were already playing with house money given Jorge de la Rosa's production of one good start? Well, he pitched like someone who would be traded for Tony Graffanino tonight, allowing 5 earned runs, 4 hits and 4 walks in an inning and a third. Season ERA: 8.59. I believe at this point we trade him to the Devil Rays (J.P. Howell), release him outright (Joe Mays) or keep him around for another three years (Runelyvs Hernandez, Denny Bautista, Jeremy Affeldt, Steve Stemle). The Royals have a plan, and insomuchas continuing to live represents a dogged determination to not die, well, the plan's working.

This isn't the time to cut and run.

In all seriousness, this is in line with what we expected from Jorge (which MUST be pronounced "Georgie" for no reason). One shot of good, two shots of bad and a nebulous feeling that we're getting somewhere. Other than our inspirational quest to win 63 games, nothings at stake here other than RSTN ratings and the health of opposing hitters.

And so it goes... 6-0 before the Royals had batted twice, with everything over except a failed attempt to outscore Andres Blanco's error total.

Which didn't happen.

Silly me who was excited about Blanco's callup and the potential of the Royals reverting to the still flawed yet worth exploring concept of a no-hit, all-glove SS. Despite the protestations of many, I held firm to the idea that Blanco was solid with the glove. In fact, he may be. But after his breakdown tonight, he'll neither curry favor with Buddisimo or deserve our collective benefit of the doubt.

Did you catch the sportswriter of the three? Get used to sights like this Luke Hochevar, you became a millionaire today, and sincerest congrats on the beginning of your Royals career.

Heartiest salutations to Grudz, who has hit in 10-straight games. If Javy Lopez can clear waivers, then lets hope that Grudz can. I'm thrilled to death with the possibility of another C- prospect joining our ranks, and as we all know in life anticipation is often sweeter than the thing to come.

The good news is that despite it all, the internet will solve something Doug Mientkiewicz knows at the very center of his soul. Between multiple visits to Royals Review, Minky took the time to chat with fans on the team site.

Have Richard Lewis and Dougie ever been seen at the same time?

As if responding to my wondering aloud if the players actually do these chats, KCROYALS.COM has gone the extra-mile, offering photographic evidence that Minky was on hand and on line Thursday to chat. Color me fanboy, but its kinda cool that these guys are willing to do these silly things... I wonder how many guys turn down the team's suggestion to come along for the webride?

I especially enjoyed this exchange

Andrea_Mientkiewicz: What do you do in the offseason? Is your family nice?

Mientkiewicz: No, especially my sister! I'm kidding. My family is great, a little crazy but I wouldn't change it for the world. Now go put up my hurricane shutters.

I'm amused, stunned and vaguely weirded out all at the same time. There were a few responses like this, along the lines of the "do you need to relieve some stress Mark" from some random at St. Mary's College last week.

Last week we noted that Dougie was actually having a fairly pedestrian defensive season, a sentiment he echoed in the chat,

Mientkiewicz: Me? No. I rank this as one of my most disappointing defensive years. That being said, the only other year I felt I played worse was the year I won it! As far as Grud, there is no better second baseman in the game than him. The fact that he does not have one is a tragedy.

So is his nickname "Grud" or "Grudz"? And of course... There was a "Steel" reference.

bucky44: How much longer do you want to play this marvelous game of baseball?

Mientkiewicz: They are going to have to rip this jersey off my back. As long as I'm upright and can leave enough in the tank to throw batting practice to Steel, I will keep playing.

Yea, I 've decided now, its actually an awesome name. Now he's just got to become a badass and his life will be set. If he ends up looking and acting like me, and is named "Steel"... not so good.

Finally, a reading from the Book of Sterger (if you click this link, kill yourself). This week at SI.com, Jenn focuses on a particularly hard-hitting set of questions ranging from her thoughts on Vegas, male facial hair and flattery towards women. While absolutely stunned at the question from "John" from Texas, her handling of a SAT II-tough chewing tobacco question is an affirmation of the human mind.

I wait eagerly for her next word.

Later this season division titles will be won, leading inexorably to pennant winners and eventually another champion. Based on twenty to sixty at bats, a new doxology of the "Catechism of Clutch" will be compiled, complete with new saints and sinners. We'll spend half the winter likely thinking, "I still can't believe [Team X] won the World Series", and then, somewhere between the Super Bowl and Spring Training, it'll sink in, and we'll start looking ahead to the 2007 season. Positive history, the stuff that actually happens will be recorded and to the extent possible by our kind, remembered in some sense of the word's potential.

Sometimes history is unmade rather than made, the manifest events that don't end up happening because something mundane took its place. For most of us, slogging away in an anonymity bound only for oblivion, this is our fate. As Larkin said, "nothing, like something, happens anywhere".

Right now, across the dark heartland of the summer night, something terrible is dying, being erased from the history books of the future: The Kansas City Royals, almost inexplicably, are moving towards a merely terrible 2006 season, but they won't be the worst team of all-time.

June 3 Record: 13-40
July 2 Record: 27-52

In their last 26 games, the Royals have gone 14-12, winning more games in that span than they had in their first 53. The Royals have raised their season winning percentage from .245 to .342, which is harder than it sounds. Sure, its also fairly difficult to play that bad for the first two and a half months, but for once, its time to focus on the positives. Especially after a strangely magical 8-7 11 inning win in St. Louis.

We may be bad, but you can start putting the Royals and the Pirates in the same conversation now, and the Cubs aren't far behind.

Offensive Heroes of the Last 30 Days (from MLB.com sortables):

John Buck: .283/.386/.567
David DeJesus: .346/.443/.510
Emil Brown: .329/.385/.506
Matt Stairs: .288/.377/.500
Mark Teahen: .310/.362/.506
Doug Mientkiewicz: .292/.383/.449

Honorable Mentions:

Joey Gathright: .292/.414/.375 (in 9 games as a Royal)
Esteban German: .273/.333/.394

Thats almost a functional major league lineup core and two helpful fringe players if you look closely. Teahen's actually had two mini-flaming hot streaks and a terrible two weeks in between, which sorta gets obscured in his channeling of 1999 Joe Randa. Needless to say, its time to revive the TEAHEN FOR ALL-STAR!! campaign.

Together, Minky and Emil Brown are almost making Allard Baird seem wronged, while the emergence of a over .900 OPS John Buck is making the Beltran deal (which also included Teahen) look like a victory. Remember, the Royals didn't trade away 5 seasons of Carlos, they traded away two months...

On the whole, the offense has been surprisingly good, although a bit lucky. In the last 30 days the Royals are 9th in baseball in runs scored, at 144 in 28 games. This despite having a modest team OPS of .746, which ranks 21st. A team line of .267/.341/.405 doesn't exactly belie future success, but the Royals have clustered hits enough to milk out an above-average number of runs.

And sure, Buddy still indulges his Angel-fetish (.216/.255/.237 in his last 26 games) with pathological dedication, but at least we can relish the fact that the Gathright trade doesn't look entirely dullard-tastic yet. Royals Review, if it stands for anything, is about affirmation.

Pitching Heroes of the Last 30 Days:

Mark Redman: 4.42 ERA (38.2 IP)
Mike Wood: 4.56 ERA (25.2 IP)
Brandon Duckworth: 5.57 ERA (21.0 IP)
Elmer Dessens: 3.18 ERA (17.0 IP)
Jeremy Affeldt: 3.31 ERA (16.1 IP)
Jimmy Gobble: 2.25 ERA (16.0 IP)
Todd Wellemeyer: 1.13 ERA (8.0 IP)

Despite struggles from Self-Appointed Team Effort Inspector Scott Elarton (5.60 ERA in his last 27 IP) and the hurtful exposure of the real Bobby Keppel (6.18 ERA), the Royals have amazingly fielded an acceptable American League pitching staff. Sure, Brandon Duckworth's ERA is 5.57, but considering the context of his innings -- "hey, can you pitch for us? OK, cool, umm, here's a uniform" -- its the prettiest mid 5.00 ERA since, I dunno, sometime when some other random came in off the street...

Moreover, in a fascinating development, Buddy Bell continues to get good work out of Jimmy Gobble and Elmer Dessens nearly every night. Sure, the purported "stopper" Burgos has been, umm, "mercurial" during the hot streak (9.26 ERA), but we can't have everything go right. Gobble's even struck out 12 men in his 16 innings of work, which raises the question: why isn't every failed starter converted to reliever for awhile? It may be a reverse Weaverism, but given the current state of how pitchers are handled ("you've failed at this for 4 other teams, lets see what you can do for us") I don't see how it can be any worse.

The team ERA since June 2nd is at 5.09 (25th), essentially the mark of a sketchy staff, but not something that can't be worked around enough for a random run of .500 baseball. Considering the Royals' team ERA in April was 5.95 and an incredible 6.51 in the month of May. Still, we return to a more frightening question: is not a historically bad season a good thing for the franchise. As someone -- was it once Pat Riley? -- said, nothing clarifies like losing. On those grounds, yes, its hard not to imagine a 43 win season having a purgative effect, even in a media market as relatively tame as Kansas City, and even for an ownership as both fossilized and arrogant as la familia Glass.

On the other hand, we've already had the closest approximation of drastic change that I think we can expect with the firing of Allard Baird and the Dayton Moore hire. From here, its a more philosophical question, which depends on how you view a Major League roster. Is there some inherent difference between a 45 win team and a 55 win team, or a 65 win team? Does that difference usually manifest itself as something that can be easily added to, or is the scale different. Last week I lamented that a 120 loss Royal team could improve by 30 games -- itself extremely difficult -- and still be a 5th place team. Others felt, citing the 2003 Tigers, that the easiest portion of the path to respectability is those first 20 wins of improvement. If thats the case, then it may still be a net negative if the Royals don't lose 121 games this season, because the organization may feel more comfortable with what it has.

This is a blank truth thats hard to swallow, yet not hard to believe. But, regardless of what kind of GM Dayton Moore is, you have to believe he wants to do better, he wants to win, he wants to make a name for himself. That motivation should be there, no matter how the team plays. If Dayton's dumb enough to fall in love with Buddy Bell or Angel Berroa or Dougie, then so be it, it was probably going to happen anyway.

So Joe Posnanski, where's that precious competence you promised after Opening Day? We're less than two weeks into the season, and if anything the Royals look worse than ever, a pitching staff in shambles, a bizarre and punchless lineup, wholly arrogant ownership and curious (at best) daily decisions by Allard and Buddisimo.

Your Team, Your Town. You're Payin' For It.

Make that 2-9, and 0-6 on the roadie. Despite the return of David DeJesus, and some good play from Mark Teahen and Shane Costa, the Royals fell again to Tampa, 9-5. Still, the lineup isn't functioning right now, with Sweeney posting another 1-4, Minky throwing down an O'fer in the middle of the lineup, and Buddisimo Bell continuing to blackball Matt Stairs damn near out of baseball.

Even worse, the Royals ruined the season debut of Mark Redman, who was decent through 5 IP, allowing only 3 ER. Steve Stemle came in and quickly blew up the game, turning a 4-3 lead into an 8-4 def' before 11,853 thrilled fans in Florida.

The Royals have scored 45 runs this season, good for 28th "best" in baseball (although with one more Giants run tonight against the Dodgers the Royals could drop further). The team's cumulative batting line is .240/.291/.401, which includes the worst team OBP in baseball. (Amazingly, there are quite a few NL teams that are slugging less than our Royals.)

Shockingly, the offense isn't even the biggest problem. The Royals team ERA stands at an incredible 7.45 which stands a full run higher than any other team in baseball (take that Pittsburgh). The Royals are allowing the highest OPS in baseball (.906 ... think about that for a second, against the Royals, every player is an All-Star), with the second worst K/BB ratio to go along with all the hits, a pathetic 1.19.

Take a look at some individual stats from the pitching staff:

Anchoring the bullpen is Jimmy Gobble's 19.64 ERA, along with Andy Sisco's at 12.60, and Steve Stemle's 15.00. By those standards, Luke Hudson's 6.14 ERA and Mike Wood's 6.48 are acceptable.

No sarcasm can mask my appreciation for Elmer Dessens 1.17 ERA however, however fluky it may be.

From the starters, we've been treated to some good work from Scott Elarton, a 3.60 ERA in 20 IP and some "competent" performances from Bautista, who's now on the DL. Still, we've also been horrified by Joe Mays' ungodly 12.86 and Jeremy Affeldt's 14.73.

At the plate, we've watched a similarly well-distributed range of awfulness. Sweeney's struggles are well-documented, and he's currently at .125/.282/.250. Still, Doug Mientkiewicz was voluntarily brought in to play for us, and he's not much better at .235/.289/.324... an OBP under .300 is an OBP under .300.

Which brings us to about half the lineup. Angel Berroa's established quite a standard of failure the last two seasons, and is right where he belongs in '06: .282/.300/.333. Mark Teahen is at .235/.270/.382 while Tony Graffanino (who's been DHing and playing first) is at .154/.154/.385.

On the positive side, we have indeed gotten good work from Reggie Sanders, who's sitting at .282/.300/.564; and Emil Brown's been familiarly OK, at .237/.356/.421. (At least someone in the lineup is getting some walks.) The lovable Mark Grudzielanek is at .279/.319/.395, which isn't terribly good, and belies the overall impression that he's played well early. Lastly, John Buck has been John Buck, although we're still waiting for his first home run.

And, as I become increasingly obsessed with, Matt Stairs has been granted 6 PAs this season, which is three less than Paul Bako and 31 less than Minky. I just don't get it.

Since the Royals are now officially taxpayer funded, don't we deserve to ask, "where's the competence Mr. Glass?"

The Good Ole Days...

So Joe Posnanski, where's that precious competence you promised after Opening Day? We're less than two weeks into the season, and if anything the Royals look worse than ever, a pitching staff in shambles, a bizarre and punchless lineup, wholly arrogant ownership and curious (at best) daily decisions by Allard and Buddisimo.

Your Team, Your Town. You're Payin' For It.

Make that 2-9, and 0-6 on the roadie. Despite the return of David DeJesus, and some good play from Mark Teahen and Shane Costa, the Royals fell again to Tampa, 9-5. Still, the lineup isn't functioning right now, with Sweeney posting another 1-4, Minky throwing down an O'fer in the middle of the lineup, and Buddisimo Bell continuing to blackball Matt Stairs damn near out of baseball.

Even worse, the Royals ruined the season debut of Mark Redman, who was decent through 5 IP, allowing only 3 ER. Steve Stemle came in and quickly blew up the game, turning a 4-3 lead into an 8-4 def' before 11,853 thrilled fans in Florida.

The Royals have scored 45 runs this season, good for 28th "best" in baseball (although with one more Giants run tonight against the Dodgers the Royals could drop further). The team's cumulative batting line is .240/.291/.401, which includes the worst team OBP in baseball. (Amazingly, there are quite a few NL teams that are slugging less than our Royals.)

Shockingly, the offense isn't even the biggest problem. The Royals team ERA stands at an incredible 7.45 which stands a full run higher than any other team in baseball (take that Pittsburgh). The Royals are allowing the highest OPS in baseball (.906 ... think about that for a second, against the Royals, every player is an All-Star), with the second worst K/BB ratio to go along with all the hits, a pathetic 1.19.

Take a look at some individual stats from the pitching staff:

Anchoring the bullpen is Jimmy Gobble's 19.64 ERA, along with Andy Sisco's at 12.60, and Steve Stemle's 15.00. By those standards, Luke Hudson's 6.14 ERA and Mike Wood's 6.48 are acceptable.

No sarcasm can mask my appreciation for Elmer Dessens 1.17 ERA however, however fluky it may be.

From the starters, we've been treated to some good work from Scott Elarton, a 3.60 ERA in 20 IP and some "competent" performances from Bautista, who's now on the DL. Still, we've also been horrified by Joe Mays' ungodly 12.86 and Jeremy Affeldt's 14.73.

At the plate, we've watched a similarly well-distributed range of awfulness. Sweeney's struggles are well-documented, and he's currently at .125/.282/.250. Still, Doug Mientkiewicz was voluntarily brought in to play for us, and he's not much better at .235/.289/.324... an OBP under .300 is an OBP under .300.

Which brings us to about half the lineup. Angel Berroa's established quite a standard of failure the last two seasons, and is right where he belongs in '06: .282/.300/.333. Mark Teahen is at .235/.270/.382 while Tony Graffanino (who's been DHing and playing first) is at .154/.154/.385.

On the positive side, we have indeed gotten good work from Reggie Sanders, who's sitting at .282/.300/.564; and Emil Brown's been familiarly OK, at .237/.356/.421. (At least someone in the lineup is getting some walks.) The lovable Mark Grudzielanek is at .279/.319/.395, which isn't terribly good, and belies the overall impression that he's played well early. Lastly, John Buck has been John Buck, although we're still waiting for his first home run.

And, as I become increasingly obsessed with, Matt Stairs has been granted 6 PAs this season, which is three less than Paul Bako and 31 less than Minky. I just don't get it.

Since the Royals are now officially taxpayer funded, don't we deserve to ask, "where's the competence Mr. Glass?"

The Good Ole Days...