From a story by Dylan Hernandez in the LA Times last week:

After the hailstorm of criticism he received for his high-priced free-agent signings that didn't work out, Colletti was asked whether he felt vindicated when the midseason trades he made pushed the Dodgers to the top of the NL West.

"I have great confidence in what I do," he said. "I know what my relationship with the McCourts is. I don't need to be vindicated."

Colletti could point to how he plugged several holes this season that were created by injuries to the likes of Rafael Furcal, Brad Penny, Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Kent and Takashi Saito.

Though Ramirez and Blake might have thrust the Dodgers into the postseason, moves involving lesser-known players such as Angel Berroa, Pablo Ozuna and Blake DeWitt helped keep them in the race.

On the advice of bench coach Bob Schaefer, Colletti acquired Berroa, a former AL rookie of the year who spent the previous year and a half with the Kansas City Royals' triple-A affiliate. A player who cost the Dodgers almost nothing -- the Royals paid what remained of the $5.25 million owed Berroa and received only Class-A infielder Juan Rivera in return -- was their starting shortstop over the last two months of the season.

A month ago, Hernandez profiled Berroa's comeback with the Dodgers. Yes, that's what he called it:

Angel Berroa said the way he has felt over the last week reminds him of when was the American League's rookie of the year in 2003.

"I've got my confidence back," said Berroa, who spent most of the last two years with the Kansas City Royals' triple-A affiliate in Omaha traveling on commercial planes and sleeping in cramped motel rooms.

Oh, Berroa ended up hitting .230/.304/.310 with the Dodgers during the regular season, eating up 246 PAs. Nevertheless, he's like a double next week away from becoming one of Joe Torre's guys, insuring him a place on the roster for the next five years.

Then there's this bizarre Berroa note, also from the LA Times:

The Dodgers are so confident, Angel Berroa bought a Ferrari

Technically, at least. 

The actual car in question isn't, say, one of these bad boys, which run about 200K, but rather a battery powered, 1/10 scale model.  Cherry red with a racing stripe, the kind of car that would get a man pulled over by battery powered, 1/10 scale members of the Highway Patrol.  Berroa, who also has two remote controlled helicopters and a "Robotic Construction System" in his locker, arrived for the Dodgers' team workout today at the Ravine to find his newest toy at the bottom of a stack of boxes on his chair.  The ones on top were filled with useless athlete paraphernalia.  Shoes, gear, etc. "I don't want that stuff," Berroa said, quickly putting it aside and pulling out the big prize, which he unveiled with a kid-at-Christmas smile before the assembled media.

Jonathan Broxton, who didn't realize earlier in the season his locker would soon be Toys'R'Us adjacent, could only shake his head.  "I don't know how he's gonna get this _________ home," he said with a grin. 

By the end, weren't we seeing more than a few "Berroa is very childlike" stories emerging from the KC clubhouse? Seriously, you read stuff like this, mix in your favorite Emil Brown story maybe, and remember, say, a third of the things you've ever read on Deadspin about these guys, and it honestly makes you feel ashamed you even follow sports. Really, to consider the men of Jockdom longtime inhabitants of High School is too generous. Many are still emotionally and intellectually in Middle School.

George Brett retired after the 1993 season. Since Brett leads the Royals in just about every single statistical category, I thought it would be interesting to examine the Royals leaderboards for the post-Brett era. At random intervals over the off-season, I hope to do just that.

Without further ado, the leaders:

Top 5 Royal HR Hitters Since 1993:

1. Mike Sweeney- 190
2. Carlos Beltran- 123
3. Joe Randa- 86
4. Jermaine Dye- 85
5. Johnny Damon- 65

Its a little surprising to see Joe Randa come out ahead of Jermaine Dye on this list, although Randa did play nearly twice as many games as a Royal (1019 to 547). Randa's final homer as a Royal came on September 25th, 2004 against the White Sox, the only Royal highlight in a 5-1 loss that pushed the Royals to 57-97. Moreover, I've always felt Dye was a little overrated as a player, at least until his random MVP-level season in 2006. After a solid 1999 with the Royals, Dye went nuts in April/May of 2000, hitting .388/.459/.847 with 11 homers. Considering he finished the season hitting .321/.390/.561 with 33 homers, you wouldn't say he was horrible the rest of the way, but he did cease being a truly elite player. Still, thanks to the early season glory he earned an All-Star berth and a disproportionate amount of media coverage. If he'd thrown up his 1.306 OPS in a July/August stretch only the rotoheads would have truly noticed... But anyway, nothing against Jermaine Dye, but he is out-homered as a Royal by Randa.

After Damon's 65, Raul Ibanez comes in at 6th in the post-Brett era with 55 homers, followed by yes... the one and only Angel Berroa with 45. Actually, Berroa's tied with the Mighty Mark Quinn at the moment, but should inevitably pass him.

Last night the Royals improbably rallied against the Reds for three goals in the 8th inning, tying the game at 5. Thanks to some cutesy/stupid pinch-hitter calls earlier in the game, Buddy Bell needed to make one more call to the bench to hit for Todd Wellemeyer with two outs and two men on. Because Matt Stairs had already been burned, Bell called upon Angel Berroa to be the hero, after giving Angel the first seven innings off for rest.

There wasn't a single Royal fan that had any hope of seeing Berroa even luck into a single there. As someone said on RoyalBoard a Berroa at-bat is like a concession at this point. Berroa grounded out of course, and in the bottom of the 8th the Reds took the lead back, letting the Royals get a fresh losing streak going in time for the I-70 series in St. Louis.

It didn't have to be this way, it didn't have to come to this. The Royals don't need Miguel Tejada on the pivot, and they don't need Derek Jeter. They just need someone who's decent, as we're still recovering from the Neifi Perez era.

A part of the 2001 Johnny Damon trade (has it been 5 years?) Berroa came over with Roberto Hernandez -- who's also amazingly still in baseball -- with the fanbase hoping that Allard Baird was able to get something from Johnny Damon, whom everyone knew the Royals wouldn't/couldn't resign.

How did it get this bad? How did Berroa fall from the realm of vaguely useful to truly awful so fast? How much worse can he get before Buddy Bell doesn't play him every, single, day.

Its maddening to watch Berroa play: the errors, the baserunning mistakes, the endless strikeouts. And he isn't Adam Dunn either, someone who works the count and is willing to suffer the consequences; no, he's a free swinging hacker who's not afraid to swing at a ball that bounces.

Angel Berroa is hitting .240/.262/.332 in 2006. He's drawn six walks this season, in 268 PAs. Six.

In the last week, he's hitting .063/.118/.063. As we close June, Berroa's thrown up a .218/.253/.230 line on the month, doing his part to throw a wet blanket on the Royals' miraculous attempt to have a .500 month. One more split stat: on the road, Berroa's perhaps the worst player in baseball, hitting .177/.204/.234.

How did we get to this point? You don't see many players collapse during their age 24 through 28 seasons.

Sure, Berroa probably didn't deserve the Rookie of the Year award in 2003, but he wasn't an indefensible choice either. There was the weird anti-Japanese issue to deal with, as well as the fact that Berroa did play a premium position and did lead the Royals to an exciting 83 win season. Even in 2003, a .287/.338/.451 line isn't cheap, especially when you factor in a still decent baserunning set (21/26) and a defense that hadn't cratered.

Angel Berroa's OPS:

2003: .789
2004: .693
2005: .680
2006: .594

Can you spot the trend?

Thanks to the dogged efforts of the National League to field a miserable product, short stop hasn't been completely transformed to the extent we thought it might be during the "Holy Trinity" days of Nomah, Jeter, Arod (and Miggy). Still, Berroa's not getting the job done, even relative to position and putting aside questions of defense.

Here's how Berroa stacks up among short stops with at least 150 plate appearances:

Batting Average: Berroa- .240 (26th). Well, at least he's better than Juan Castro, Juan Uribe, Russ Adams, Khalil Greene and Clint Barmes.

On-Base Average: Berroa- .262 (28th). Berroa's down with the same group of guys hitting .230ish. Not to be outdone, but Berroa has the fewest walks of any min. 150 PA SS. Even Ronny Cedeno managed a .301 OBP guys.

Slugging Percentage: Berroa- .332 (28th). This is getting repetitive. We're still waiting on Berroa's first triple of the season. Is the homer's power completely gone? Well, this isn't a good way to start your age 28 season.

OPS: (for those that like combining things ) Berroa- .594 (29th). Good work from Angel here, managing to be even less than the anemic sum of his parts. He turned two 28th rankings in OPS' component parts, into a 29th ranking. Look at it this way, his OPS is .060 points below a 55 year old Royce Clayton, in Washington.

Here's a fun one.

Pitches Per Plate Appearance: Berroa- 3.30 (31st). Yep, thats dead last. Nobody's seeing fewer pitches than Angel. Actually, someone is seeing just as few, but still not less, as Juan Castro also sits a 3.30. I can't wait to follow this battle all season. Castro's in the Clubhouse (the minors/bench) with a solid figure, which puts the pressure on Angel. Of course, Angel can also surge ahead over the next three months.

Despite seeing so few pieces, Berroa's been able to manage this:

Strikeouts: Berroa- 45 (13th). At least Juan Castro only struck out 25 times. As we should know by now, strikeouts are an overratted evil on the offensive side. There are strikeouts and then there are strikeouts. Angel's getting strikeouts.

I can't resist this:

Walks Per Strikeout: Berroa- 0.13 (31st). Thats last among short stops. Actually, of the 264 Major League Players with at least 150 PAs, Berroa ranks 262 in terms of BB/K. Only a half-dead Miguel Olivo (.11) and the hacktastic Jeff Francoeur (.11) rank lower. Francoeur's wimped out and drawn 7 walks this season. I guess he's not as manly as Jenn Sterger thinks he is.

Runs Created Per 27 Outs: How would a lineup of all Berroa's fare? How does 2.16 (30th) sound? The positive is that a lineup of all Berroa's would also create a game that lasts about 75 minutes long. For the Juan Castro fans, Berroa triumphs here, as Castro could only manage a 2.04 total. Good thing Gardy chose him over Bartlett, huh.

Since his fluky 2003, the Royals have given Angel the opportunity to make 1095 outs. Counting sac bunts, it looks like this:

2004: 383 outs
2005: 454 outs
2006 (to date): 258

Thanks only to Buddisimo's willingness to bury Berroa at the bottom of the lineup have we been spared more outs. On the season Berroa ranks 4th on the team in PAs, behind the luminous trio of Grudz (299), Minky (286) and Emil Brown (284). No wonder this team can't score.

Meanwhile, Esteban German is hitting .333/.426/.405 and has been granted 133 PAs. Andres Blanco has seen 19 PAs. The only question now is, what does Berroa have to do to see more time on the bench? Strikeout 20 straight times? Hit .150 for a month... oh wait, already happening. The only time the Royals have sat Berroa this season was last week, after he was booed at home. If anything, it was a pro-Berroa, cowardly move by the team, complete with Bell covering for him the next day and saying he was a little banged up. Thats not good enough.

The goal is to win, right?

I know its very unstathead to be overly concerned with lineup order (you should have been around Chicago last year to hear the endless wailing about Sammy and the 5th spot) and all, but this is insane.

"Hmm, who should lead-off tonight? I know, the guy with the .282 on-base percentage. This will be awesome."

Terrible. 100% terrible.

But then again, Ken Harvey is an "All-Star" and a "proven run producer" so its all good.

The quest for the mythical 44 wins continues.