In August of 2003 the "Believe!" Royals were gamely fighting through a threeway pennant race against two superior teams, the White Sox and Twins. While the Royals famously had a 7.5 game lead on July 17th, that cushion was amazingly lost by August 1st, when the White Sox caught the Royals at 57-50. Still, displaying the pluckiness that made them a lovable, though flawed team, the Royals didn't fold right away, eventually building another three game lead just three games after being caught, and holding onto first all the way until August 20th, when they lost 8-7 to the Yankees and fell to 65-60.

On August 26th, with the Royals just a game back, Allard Baird acquired Rondell White from the Padres in exchange for Brian Sanches and Chris Tierney, two minor league pitchers. On the day he joined the Royals, in 4395 career PAs, Rondell was a .287/.343/.470 hitter. White was 31 at the time and had recently been named an All-Star, despite the fact that he was years removed from his best years in Montreal.

For most of the season the Royals had been playing Michael Tucker in left field, however Tucker broke his right tibia and hit the DL on the 5th. Tony Pena Sr. fielded 107 different lineups in 2003, and as I can tell, other than Beltran playing most of the time in center, just about every variation of a Guiel/Ibanez/Tucker platoon was employed, with Ibanez also starting 18 games at first. And don't forget Desi Relaford playing nearly every position as well. In retrospect, Pena deserves credit for how nicely he integrated a number of semi-overlapping parts into what was a functional and sometimes above-average offense.This has all been a very long way of saying that in part, but only in part, White replaced Ibanez in left, with Raul shifting sometimes to 1B or DH or RF.

What wasn't complicated was that White hit as a Royal, posting a .347/.400/.613 line in his 85 PAs in blue. Being Rondell White, he didn't quite play everyday, appearing in just 22 of the team's final 32 games (ok that was a cheap shot... it appears many of the missed games were part of Pena's ever-shuffling of the lineup and a semi-platoon with Raul.

Rondell won his first two games as a Royal, going 3-6 with a walk and five RsBI in successive wins over Texas. After that, White went somewhat underground, posting an 0fer on back to back days, then, after a solid game in a loss to Arizona, Rondell missed games 139-142, then only appeared as a 9th inning pinch-hitter in a 7-1 loss to the Indians. That loss dropped the Royals to 73-70 and 4.5 games back, the farthest they'd trailed since early June. The next day, with the Royals desperately needing a win Rondell responded, stroking a key two-out double of off former Royal Chad Durbin in the first inning that gave the Royals a 2-0 lead behind former Indian Brian Anderson. In the 5th, with the Royals now trailing 6-4, White singled, part of a 5-run inning that would see the Royals take a 8-6 lead. The eventual 9-7 win pulled the Royals back to within 3.5 games in the Central.

The Royals lost their next two games, a 6-5 killer to the Indians, then a crushing 3-0 loss to the Tigers, who were one of the worst teams of all-time that season, wasting a golden opportunity to gain ground in the Central. Still, the Royals were only 3.5 games out, a large margin with only two weeks to play, but not an impossible one.

We all know how this story ends, the 2003 Royals couldn't catch the Twins or hold off the White Sox and ended up at 83-79 and in third place. They didn't play terribly down the stretch, but they couldn't muster a miracle either. Rondell White however, after looking like more or less an irrelevant acquisition, was not to blame. From game 148 through 161, Rondell hit .391/.451/.739 with four homers and fourteen RsBI. Unfortunately, the Royals only went 7-5 in those games, which included an incredible 15-6 loss to the aforementioned Tigers. In two signature games, Rondell went 3-4 with a double and a walk against the rival White Sox in a 7-1 win and 4-4 in a 12-6 drubbing of the Tigers.

Sadly, Rondell's final game as a Royal came during the penultimate contest of the season, a 19-3 beatdown by the White Sox. In the top of the 7th, trailing 15-3, White was replaced in left field by the immortal Dee Brown after going 0-2. We can only imagine how sadly Rondell watched the final game of the season, a 5-1 loss, from the dugout.

Considering that the Royals also received cash to help cover part of White's prorated $5.5 million dollar salary, we would have to consider the Rondell White trade as one of Allard's finest moves and perhaps the best in-season pickup he ever made. Fellow 2003 acquisition Brian Anderson was also a success, as he more or less maintained his career year status as a Royal, allowing just a 3.99 ERA in his seven starts as a Royal. Unfortunately, the Royals were fundamentally not an 85 win or even a 75 win team, and as fluky performances from Desi Relaford and Lima Time cooled, the worthy contributions of White and Anderson could only help sustain .500 play as opposed to pushing the Royals over the top.

White would play four more seasons in the Major Leagues, appearing in more than just 100 games once, his 2004 season with the Tigers. In two seasons in Detroit White battled injuries put still managed to post above average OPSes despite playing in Comerica (108 and 122 OPS+s respectively). In 2006 he signed with the Twins, a natural fit given Minnesota's proclivity for old guys who can't play anymore (but they play the game the right way!). In '06 White hit .246/.276/.365 in 99 games, though it took one final post-DL tear for him to get his line that high. In his final 45 games that season White hit .321/.354/.538. In 07 however, he was done, hitting .174/.235/.321, saying that he was 99% retired after the season and that his body hurt. Thankfully for Rondell, he earned over $35 million playing baseball and he remained a popular man.

If there had been a Royals Review in 2003 I'm sure a few people, myself maybe included, would have expressed worry that giving up two pitching prospects for a two month rental was too high a price to pay. Clearly, we would have been wrong., as neither Sanches or Tierney emerged with the Padres to make the Royals look bad. Sanches, somewhat weirdly, has actually surfaced with the Nationals the last few years, while Tierney -- a 7th round pick -- never made it above A ball and appears to be out of baseball.

And so, nearly five years after he came into our lives, let us lift our glass in public pledge to Rondell White... and maybe a little halfway toast to Allard Baird as well.

After another dismal performance, let us remember happier times, with a post from the archives. -RR

In honor of Election Night in Canada, let us take a look back at the Royal career of Michael Tucker, who patrolled the outfield in blue and white for a magical four seasons (95-96, 02-03). Thanks to that tenure, Tucker garnered 1380 at-bats as a Royal, 38th most in team history, and two ahead of Rey Sanchez.

Tucker bravely played through the SARS scare of 2002.

Tucker was the Royals' #1 pick in 1992, 10th overall out of Longwood College in Virginia. Only three years later, Tucker debuted with the '95 Royals, playing in 62 games as a rookie. As a rookie, Tucker posted a respectable but weak .260/.332/.384 line in 177 at bats. A true Royal, Tucker successfully stole 2 bases in 5 attempts, along with 4 homers, 17 RsBI and 10 doubles. In 1996 Tucker moved into a regular role, tying the immortal Bip Roberts for 8th in team ABs. In 1996, Tucker hit a disapointing .260/.346/.446, hardly better than his rookie campaign, yet somehow good enough to earn a chance to earn over 250 outs. The one small improvement was in Tucker's power numbers, as he inched towards respectability with 18 doubles and 12 homers -- good for 3rd best on the team -- and 195th in baseball (ok, I made that up).

On March 27, 1997, Tucker and Keith Lockhart were traded to Atlanta for Jamie Walker and Jermaine Dye. Without a doubt, it was one of the finer Royal Front Office moments of the 1990s, as Dye blossomed into a borderline elite-level player. Tucker continued his .260/.330/.450 level of production throughout the rest of the decade, including two seasons in Atlanta and another two in Cincinatti. With the 2000 Reds, Tucker enjoyed perhaps his career year, hitting .267/.381/.511 with 15 homers in part-time duty. Traded to the Cubs during the 2001 season, Tucker was traded back to the Royals in December of 2001, the Royals taking on $2.2 million salary.

And how happy we are that they did!!

Tucker responded with a horrible performance, generating little to no power out of a corner OF spot, hitting .248/.330/.406 in 144 games. As you'll happily remember however, this was better than the newly signed Chuck Knoblauch could manage... and, well, I guess 12 homers is 12 homers. And, Tucker's long rumored speed game emerged, with 23 steals, good for 9th in the AL.

In 2003, although we couldn't know it at the time, Tucker's second tour of duty was coming to an end. With an acute sense of dramatic heroism, Tucker responded with gamely adequate play, hitting .262/.331/.440 with 13 homers. As the '03 team scratched its way to 83 wins, Tucker's performance seemed better than that, as a each at bat actually held meaning. However, Tucker -- long reckless -- was becoming a liability on the basepaths, stealing 8 bases in 18 attempts... which, umm, isn't very helpful. Tucker's 13 homers tied him with Ken Harvey for 7th on the team, and his 55 RsBI was only four behind Desi Relaford in his career year. Desi Relaford, people.

Being 33, an established veteran, and not very good, it was inevitable that the Giants would pursue Tucker, and they did. Despite not being spectacular, or even a positive influence on a team's offense very often, Tucker has been insanely consistent. Check out his yearly homer totals:

1996: 12

1997: 14

1998: 13

1999: 11

2000: 15

2001: 12

2002: 12

2003: 13

2004: 13

2005: 5

That would be even cooler if he was a catcher, could hit even .280, or could steal bases at a better than 50% clip regularly. Still, well, he was there, and in his four years he left an indelible mark on Royals' history. Last season, as the Giants battled the Tribe on June 12th, fans stood and cheered as Tucker collected his 1,00oth hit.

Tucker currently sits at 29th on the immortal Royals' HR list, with 41, just behind Hammerin' Hamelin and Dean Palmer. Watch out for Angel Berroa, who lurks at 36, and Matt Stairs at 31. With 204 runs scored, Tucker is 35th on the all-time list, one run ahead of Tom Goodwin and five runs behind the legendary Raul Ibanez. With 15 triples, Tucker is 28th all-time, one triple ahead of a guy named Bo Jackson. (Never heard of him.) Finally, Tucker is 27th all-time, with 43 steals... hey hey 43 steals, 41 HRs... quite the power/speed combo. Tucker has made over $14 million dollars in baseball.

We'll always have the memories from those four magical seasons, Mike.

A brainchild of Royals Review reader "daveyork", the Mark Quinn Award is given annually to the most disappointing Royal hitter. Last season, Ryan Shealy, the preseason favorite, took home the hardware, thanks to a .221/.286/.308 campaign highlighted by a .113/.186/.208 that served notice that he wasn't messing around.

But to truly be a Quinn candidate, you can't just be bad, you have to truly disappoint when many held high hopes for you. While the Royals have had more than their share of disappointments over the years, it takes a special combination of circumstances to truly be a Quinn candidate. Essentially, you need to quickly rise to glory, then almost immediately fall off the face of the planet. Remember, here's the Mark Quinn career path:

Mark Quinn Through the Years:

1999: .333/.385/.733, 6 HRs (64 PAs)
2000: .294/.342/.488, 20 HRs (535 PAs)
2001: .269/.298/.459, 17 HRs (465 PAs)
2002: .237/.301/.368, 2 HRs (81 PAs)

Quinn peaked at age 26 and played his last Major League game at age 28.

Unfortunately, the composition of the current roster -- a blend of exciting young players and fairly generic veterans -- isn't conducive to the true spirit of the Quinn Award. Mark Grudzielanek, for example, might have a bad year, but he's 500 years old, and we all knew it had to end sometime. No, we were excited by Quinn, who peaked at a time when it seemed like the Royals could just generate hitters indefinitely (this was the Damon/Beltran/Sweeney Era), then completely fell apart.

Nevertheless, the show must go on, so without further ado, Royals Review is proud to announce the 2008 pre-season early-season nominees!

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Former Royal Hal Morris turns 43 today, evoking memories of the 1998 Royals, a scrappy outfit who went 72-89, but somehow finished third in the AL Central, thanks in part to Hal's veteran presence and leadership. Morris turned an ability to rope singles into a long career, despite being anchored to premium offensive positions. Ross Gload, we all hope you're taking notes.

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While the close of the Mike Sweeney Era has understandably received the most attention, the 2008 campaign will also be the first since 2005 which won't include the vaguely adequate production and braggadocio of Emil Brown. While the end of Emil's time in Kansas City has been long established, (and debated, thanks to a flurry of interest generated by Poz) there's something appropriate about returning to it now, during Spring Training, considering that Emil was that rarest of creatures: the man who makes the team in March.

A Chicago native, Emil was drafted in 1994 by Oakland, and ended up joining the Pirates as a Rule Five draftee in 1996. Brown broke camp with the Pirates in 1997, and while he never stuck as a regular, he spent the entire season getting a big league per diem. Brown hit only .179/.304/.284 in 66 games that year, and aside from a bizarre four day stretch in which he hit his first two big league homers of Terry Mulholland, then with the Cubs, little of note occurred. Although his season was lame and unremarkable, according to some insiders, his infectious attitude and brio helped inspire his teammates to a 79-83 record, the last time the Pirates were sorta OK.

Brown returned mostly to the minor leagues in 1998-9, appearing in only 19 games total as a Pirate. In 2000 however, Emil was called back up for short stints in May, June and July, before getting an extended look in August and September. Brown was 25 then, and this was his time to prove himself. Instead, he began his callup with an 0-8 in a doubleheader against the Dodgers, and ultimately hit .204/.288/.280 in 39 games and 101 PAs with the Pirates. Undeterred, the Pirates gave him one last start, as he again headed north with the Bucs in 2001, serving as the team's primary center fielder until July 1, when he was traded to the Padres. At the time of the trade, he was hitting just .203/.300/.325. Emil was consistent as a Pirate: he never hit. With the '01 Padres Brown didn't do much better, hitting .071/.133/.071, almost exclusively as a pinch hitter.

At the end of his age 26 season, Brown was the owner of a career .200/.289/.302 line in 457 scattered PAs. Essentially, he was fully blossoming into a tweener, only, tweeners are supposed to hit better than that. For the next three years, Brown bounced from the Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Houston organizations. While he hit decently in 2002-3, in early 2004 he was terrible, hitting .281/.339/.333 in Memphis and was released by the Cardinals. In August, he was signed by the Astros, and he responded with a .337/.365/.533 line in 26 games with New Orleans. That hot streak likely earned him another contract with the Royals, and was the beginning of his emergence, at age 30, as a Major leaguer.

Against very weak competition, Brown emerged during Spring Training 2005 as the strongest candidate for the right field job thanks to an inspired March. Brown, hit .389 in 26 games that spring, belting five homers for good measure. Brown was not the Opening Day starter, that ceremonial honor went to Matt Stairs, but he did start in game two, and essentially remained an everyday player for the next three seasons.

Interestingly, Brown's hot March - a stretch that likely saved his career and earned him millions of dollars - did not translate into a hot April and May. He hit .161/.254/.339 during his first eighteen games with the Royals, a level of performance which would have landed back on the journeyman AAA player fun bus had he done so the month before. Brown responded with a strong May however, settling in as a regular with a .313/.389/.506 line. In June, he got even hotter, hitting .366/.412/.527. On July 1, 2005, he was hitting .297/.365/.474 and had been the cleanup hitter for a big league team for two solid months. After his two month tear, Brown would never hit at such a high level, for so long, again as a Royal. He would have two similar months in 2006, but they were not consecutive. From July 1 until the end of the season, Brown hit .278/.336/.441, and finished the year with a .286/.349/.455 line in 144 starts and 150 games total. His 86 RsBI would lead the team, and he would finish second on the club with 17 home runs. This was all acceptable enough, one would suppose, but hardly something truly valuable. Brown had his merits. He was cheap, and for a mid-decade Royal, Brown was insanely patient, which along with a solid batting average made him productive. Despite being a large man however, Emil was never a true power hitter. In 2005, Mike Sweeney, despite playing in 28 fewer games, managed more homers (21 to 17) and more doubles (39 to 31) than Emil.

Either happy with Emil's generic production or dissatisfied with any better options, Allard firmly ensconced Emil as the regular left fielder in 2006, switching sides to accommodate Reggie Sanders. Ironically, Brown had a terrible Spring Training this time around, hitting .211. (If Brown was one of the game's designated bad men, this is where you'd insert something snarky about his sense of entitlement or laziness or whatever. But, he's not, for whatever reason, so no biggie.) As he had done in 2005, Brown crawled out of the gate, hitting .227/.315/.333 in April. By May, he was Emil Brown again, which is to say he was Ken Harvey was less doubles and a little bit more power. In June of 2006 he had one of his two remaining good months as a Royal, hitting .329/.385/.506. Specifically, from June 2-27, he hit .338/.391/.532, helping the Royals win nine of eleven games, mostly against the National League. Again, although I was never quite cognizant of it at the time, with Emil, it was really always about batting average. When he hit .360 on balls in play from time to time, he was a dangerous hitter. Throughout his Royal tenure, he never really had a power surge. He had singles surges. In 2006 he mixed in some doubles power, but that was it. Despite certain physical and career similarities to someone like Jack Cust, Emil really wasn't your typical AAAA journeyman with under-appreciated secondary skills. Not surprisingly, the singles and the RsBI kept Emil in the good graces of many.

Brown cooled off in July, as his monthly BA dropped to .270. In August, at the age of 31, Emil put together one final, sustained, hot streak as a Royal, hitting .327/.382/.571. His best slugging month ever, Emil hit five homers that August, and added nine doubles, also a large total for him. However, once again, he cooled off again in September, and finished the year with a .287/.358/.457 line. Cumulatively, his rate stats were just slightly better, but thanks to a few weeks missed due to small injuries, his season totals dropped a wee little smidgen. He ended up with 15 HRs and 81 RsBI. Only the power hitting alien that invaded Mark Teahen's body in 2006 prevent Emil from proudly leading the team in those two categories that year. Considering that Emil made $1.7 million in 2006 (thank you zombie service time from the late 1990s!) he was slowly sliding from cool story to just another unlovable player on a bad team.

Still, in 2006, perhaps inspired by Teahen, Emil managed 41 doubles, which was actually 9th best in the AL that season, a nice accomplishment, even given the inherent weirdness of the doubles leaderboard each year. (Fast guys, singles hitters, and dudes who play in Fenway a lot, rinse, repeat.) After another generic Spring Training in which he hit .267 (insert second snarky remark about Emil's lack of motivation and focus), Emil once again hit terribly in April, coughing up a .186/.237/.229 line. Unfortunately, after a third straight cold start, Emil didn't turn up the heat in May. Well, we'll all remember his one homer that month, a blast in game 43 at Coors Field (this was before God made the Rockies win), and more astute fans may even be able to recall his lone double that month as well. All told, he hit .218/.283/.327 in May. Through May 30th Emil was hitting .200/.257/.272, and competing with, sadly, a whole host of Royals for the title of Worst Hitter in the American League. He had one home run, one triple and four doubles.

With the change of the calendar, Emil celebrated June with a two-hit game, double-included game over those stingy Devil Rays hurlers. The rest of the way, that is to say, over the next 75 games and 261 PAs, Emil hit .286/.322/.386 and finished the year with a .257/.300/.347 line. Returning to the numbers behind his mini-resurgence over the final four months of the season, it's clear enough that something had changed. Even when he got his batting average back he'd lost nearly half his walks and almost all of his power. As part of the team's miracle run at a remarkably low HR total, Emil managed only six bombs, and just 13 doubles. After paying Brown over $3.3 million to be a slower Shane Costa, Dayton Moore elected not to bring him back for 2008, a decision he has been unable to reach with similarly uninspiring players such as Ross Gload and Mark Grudzielanek.

Of course, no mention of Emil's 2007 season would be complete without reference to the embarrassing and infantile pellet gun incident, which occurred on July 27th. While she was standing near Pena's locker, Karen Kornacki was hit "near the eye" with a pellet fired from a plastic gun by Emil. Amazingly, a man who was born in 1974 had a pellet gun on his person. A man born in 1974, who is a millionaire, no less. After being a curious news item for a few days, the story quickly faded away, apparently just a weird and funny accident.

Coupled with the loss of Sweeney, the 2008 season should be especially heart-wrenching for Royals fans given Brown's historical legacy with the team. Emil ranks 37th in team history in hits (401, two behind Ibanez), 29th in doubles (85) and 34th in home runs. In spite of being both a silly and overrated statistic, Emil was a prolific RBI man, by the horrible standards of his franchise, and leaves as the 29th highest RBIer in team history, sandwiched between Angel Berroa and U.L. Washington. When DeJesus drives in his 21st man in 2008, we can only hope that the team honors him with an in-game ceremony, for at that moment, he will have eclipsed Emil.

Looking back, what stands out is how very fortunate Emil has been to even scratch out the modest career he's had. In 2004, he hit rock bottom when he was released by the Cardinals. Then, after getting another chance with the Astros, he turned in his best minor league mini-season ever, which earned him a throwaway Spring Training invite with the Royals. Blessed by the Royals' inability to produce young talent, even at the simplest of positions to fill, Brown had a rare chance to make the team, and he responded, with a you-can't-ignore-this Spring Training. Then, again saved by the lack of options around him, the team stuck with him two more times, after a slow 2005 start, and an OK but not great overall 2005 season.  In January, the A's signed Brown to a $1.4 million dollar contract, which will be the third largest payday of his career. While he will never be fabulously wealthy, his good fortune/hot hitting against AAA pitchers in 2004 and Spring Training flotsam in 2005 has meant that he can retire from the game, whenever, in financial comfort. In line to earn over six million dollars between 2006-08, Emil has crossed the threshold between having to, proverbially, sell insurance, and being able to live in self-employed comfort. Just three years ago, that seemed very very unlikely. Barely more likely, in fact, than say, me being able to do so.

Congratulations Emil. I hope you appreciate your good fortune.    

Honoring Mike Sweeney With the news that Mike Sweeney has signed a minor league contract with the Oakland A's, we can finally come to terms with the fact that the first-baseman's time in Kansas City is, anti-climatically, over, considering Sweeney hasn't made more than 300 plate appearances in a season since 2005. Its hard to pinpoint just where things turned sour between Sweeney and the hearty band of lunatics known as Royals fans, but it's unmistakable that for many years the dynamic of the relationship has been askew. Importantly, this has been a one-sided phenomenon, as I can't recall any instance of Sweeney lashing out or whining or even acting defensive. As early as 2003 I can recall fans bitching about Sweeney's injuries, which is fairly remarkable given the fact that his string of problems really only began in earnest in 2002, when he missed 36 games. As the years rolled on and the games missed totals grew (54 in '03, 56 in '04, 40 in '05, 102 in '06, 88 in '07) the "Sweeney used steroids" cry grew louder and louder in the internet back-alley known as the Royals blogosphere, a suspicion that never seemed either interesting or likely to other fans. As we have seen, health and good performances can get you labeled as a user, but apparently, so can injuries and decline. Despite the fact that Sweeney's career was playing out just like those of the hundreds of slow, un-athletic, 1B/DH types that came before him, and before the so-called "Steroid Era" (who should we give the trademark rights to this gem? I'm gonna throw a dart at a printout of the ESPN staff, with Neyer's name crossed-off and see where it lands) there was a vocal segment of the population that was convinced Sweeney was our own local branch manager for BALCO.

Tellingly, this summer, when ESPN.com's SportsNation ran their Face of the Franchise feature this summer, Sweeney won the plurality of votes in all but two states: Nebraska and Kansas. Which is to say, everyone but people in the heart of Royals country - if only we could get a county by county breakdown of Missouri, yes Sweeney "won" the Show Me State, but with a much smaller percentage than in more distant states - that is to say, actual Royals fans, considered Sweeney the "Face of the Franchise"; nationwide, out of the 27,003 votes cast in the feature, Sweeney pulled in an astounding 58% percent of the votes in a four-man field. I'll hazard to guess that no other team had this strange dynamic at work.

Even odder, it is possible that if it hadn't been for yours truly, Sweeney wouldn't have even been an option. Numerous teams had multiple panelists nominate the same player, and to my knowledge there was no inside info given as to if a player had been "taken". (I certainly received no such information, in fact, I was told not to worry about it, should this be the case.) So, as it turned out, Neyer nominated (this is much too formal a word, but you get the idea) Dayton Moore, Posnanski went with Billy Butler, and, umm, Eric Young, went with Alex Gordon. Until the last minute, I was actually leaning towards pegging Angel Berroa as the "Face of the Franchise", but ultimately lost my nerve because the Royals had actually, finally, given up on him. Against my natural inclination towards being sarcastic and pessimistic, I decided to be sentimental, and sent in a little blurb about Sweeney. Here's the full version of what I sent the editor, in all its sticky-sweetness:

Well, basically, it didn't have a happy ending. Sweeney spent all of July and August (save a day) on the DL, and played his last game (likely) as a Royal in the season finale against the Tribe, going 0-3 and popping out to the catcher in his final at bat. In the bottom of the 7th, Bell gave him a nice ovation, pulling him from first base with one out in the inning. In his final post-DL stint with the Royals, Sweeney hit .311/.344/.393 and .260/.315/.404 on the season. Unfortunately, his low batting average dropped his career line below .300, to a torturous .299. We all know how limited batting average is as a stat, nevertheless, if I was in his shoes, I sure as hell wouldn't want to retire as a .29 hitter. Sweeney's final home run with the squad was a two-run shot off Freddy Garcia in a June 8th game at the K.

Now that we know he's gone, lets take a moment to remember the good times.

While Sweeney actually debuted with the Royals as a September call-up in 1995(!), he didn't truly become a regular player until 1999, playing in only a total of 226 games from '96-'98. These were the years when Sweeney was a catcher, and it's not commonly remarked how much backstop he actually played in the Major Leagues, as people tend to act as if he only caught in the low-minors, while actually he caught 201 games as a Royal. Then again, Sweeney's breakout came in 1999, when the Royals moved him to first base - although fantasy players will note that he still had a sweet "C" designation in most leagues that year, making him one of the more valuable roto players in the AL - when Mike hit .322/.387/.520. Sweeney was an absolute beast that season, posting monthly OPS splits of: .906, .920, .868, 1.116, .714 and .922. In '99 and '00 the Royals actually had very good lineups, scoring 921 and 930 runs respectively, totals which we can only dream of today, and Sweeney was a major part of that surge. Now an established Major League player - but unfortunately not a catcher in fantasy baseball anymore - in 2000 Sweeney continued his success, improving on his breakout season by .333 /.407/.523 while blasting a career-high 29 home runs. Sweeney was named to his first All-Star team that season, and finished 11th in the AL MVP voting, just behind the ever clutch Derek Jeter.

In 2001, Sweeney just continued mashing, hitting .304/.374/.542 and firmly cementing himself as one of the elite hitters in the game. For the second straight year he hit 29 homers, and, if you care about these things, he knocked in 144 RBIs, a single-season franchise record. Actually, it could have been an even better season had not Sweeney slumped over the second-half. Sweeney was again named to the All-Star team, and at the break he had already belted 21 homers and was hitting an insane .333/.391/1.011. He was even eight for nine in stolen base attempts! At the end of the season, Sweeney again garnered some down-ballot support in the MVP voting, finishing tied for 21st with Garrett Anderson and Toriiiiiii Hunter. Of course, Kaz Sasaki finished 19th and Dougie Mientkiewicz finished 14th, so... yea. Meanwhile, after peaking at 77 wins in 2000, the Royals were in a severe downturn, winning only 65 games in 2001.

Sweeney's 2002 season was the hinge moment in his career; he once again raked, but missed significant time due to injury for the first time in his career. Sweeney was an everyday player through July 3rd that season (game 81) but began missing games on that date, ultimately missing a full month from July 13th through August 13th. Sweeney's season line on July 3rd? Another Pujolsian line of .362/.435/.611. Sweeney was not quite 29 years old, and had been a dominant hitter for four years. From this point on, it was all downhill.

Sweeney's line over the rest of 2002 was solid, but not quite as otherwordly as it had been before he went down with injury, hitting .303/.386/.483 over his final 207 plate appearances. For the season, Sweeney ended up with a still absurd .340/.417/.563 line, finishing second in the AL in BA, fourth in OBP and fifth in OPS. For the third straight season Sweeney would claim MVP votes (he finished 20th in '02) while also watching a second-half decline keep Steve Balboni's franchise record for home runs safe. When the season ended Sweeney had played in 812 career games, had 899 career hits, 123 career HRs and was a lifetime .309/.382/.501 hitter in the big leagues.

And yet, 2003, began like the last four seasons, with Sweeney hitting .311/.431/.518 on June 1st, a line which actually represented something of a disappointment, considering most fans didn't notice the gaudy OBP Sweeney was racking up. Poignantly, in the last fully healthy stretch of his career, Sweeney went on one final tear, hitting .364/.470/.600 in June, driving in 20 runs in 15 games played that month. Why only 15 games in June? Because after a June 18th game against the Twins, Sweeney went back to the bench, not returning to the lineup until August 8th, a full 46 games later. When Sweeney left, the Royals were 36-32, standing in second place (they'd already blown their initial huge lead), when he returned they were 60-53, barely holding on to huge lead #2 by a half game. Surely Sweeney had returned just in time to revive the Royals' miraculous playoff hopes.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen on either count. The Royals went 23-26 the rest of the way, falling all the way to third place, seven games behind the Twins. Sweeney, didn't help matters, hitting .260/.325/.379 upon his return. This isn't to say he cost the Royals the pennant, only that his individual misfortune coincided with the team's. Remember, they'd already blown the infamous 7.5 game nest egg by the time he returned. Sweeney was named to the All-Star team again in 2003, but once the season ended, his composite line was noticeably down, falling to .293/.391/.467.

The next two seasons ('04 and '05) showed that Sweeney could still hit, but that he couldn't stay healthy. Sweeney would start hot in 2004 (.917 OPS in April) but struggled badly in May and June, before rebounding with a vintage Sweeney stretch, hitting .331/.389/.603 from July 1st on. Sadly, that only meant until August 21, as Sweeney only lasted until the team's 120th game. His season line was again solid, .287/.347/.504. In 2005, Sweeney would stay much the same, hitting .300/.347/.517, earning his fifth All-Star selection, while missing large chunks of playing time during the middle of the season. If 2003 was the hinge, 2005 was the end of the door. After 2005, that door effectively closed.

Sweeney barely played from August 2005 to August 2006, as he grabbed only 83 PAs in '06 before heading to the DL again on May 1st, the owner of a .176/.313/.309 line. Nobody really noticed, but when he came back on August 8th, he actually was a productive hitter, going .295/.367/.497 in his final 40 games that season. However, that last bit of bat speed seemed gone by 2007, as Sweeney had transformed into a completely different hitter. The man who had been seemingly the only patient Royal for a decade was now seeing as little pitches per PA as any hitter on the team, often trying to cheat on fastballs early in the count to be productive. Sweeney played in 57 of the team's first 70 games in '07, hitting a bleak .245/.307/.407 in the process, before succumbing to injury again. On June the 16th, Sweeney went 1-5 against the Marlins, and fell to .299 on his career for the first time since he'd initially topped .300, and two days later he'd be replaced in the lineup. He returned on August the 31st, and played regularly in September, providing veteran leadership on how to steal time from Justin Huber. With any hope, Ross Gload learned well. Sweeney hit a somewhat robust .311/.344/.393 in his final post-DL return to the lineup, but evidently it was not enough to impress Dayton Moore. Nor was it enough to get his batting average back to .300.

With all this said, now that we stand at the end of this journey, its important to step back from the year-to-year narrative which so clearly shows a slow but dramatic rise and fall. Simply put, Mike Sweeney is one of the best players in franchise history and a player who approached a Hall of Fame peak from 1999-2003. Even if we adjust for the offensive levels of the era, Sweeney's presence across the team leader-boards is noteworthy. His .340 batting average in 2002 is the second best in team history, topped only by Brett's .390 in 1980 (duh) and his .333 in 2000 is not far off the pace, coming in as the 4th best. Yes, the offensive numbers of the last two decades have been higher. Then again, the K, along with many other locales, has also gone to natural grass, a fact we should keep in mind when comparing pure batting average numbers. Hal McRae and Willie Wilson couldn't hit .330 without a concrete infield. Across the offensive spectrum, in everything except triples and steals, Sweeney recorded seasons in the franchise's top 10, in many cases, more than once.

Despite being a slow player, Sweeney was a doubles machine, hitting 46 in 2001 (2nd most in team history) and 44 in 1999 (7th) and ranks fifth overall in that category, just about where he ranks in every major category. While our collective memory, and indeed the general thrust of this post, suggests that Sweeney has been a shell of himself the last few seasons, we shouldn't go so far as to forget that, even in recent years, Sweeney has been a frequently productive hitter. No longer great, certainly not, but until 2007 he wasn't far removed from the now-beloved levels of Ross Gload.

Mike Sweeney's All-Time Royal Ranks

Games Played- 6th
Hits- 6th
Home Runs- 2nd
Runs- 6th
Doubles- 5th
Total Bases- 6th
Extra Base Hits- 5th
RsBI- 5th
Walks- 5th

Even with the slow start and the slow fade, Sweeney's lifetime OPS is .861, good for second-best in team history. His adjusted OPS is 7th, behind one legitimately superior hitter (Brett) and mostly guys that didn't play near as much with the Royals (Tartabull, Aikens, Porter).

As suggested above, its useful to break Sweeney's career into three sections.

The Three Ages of Mike Sweeney

1995-98: .258/.324/.392 (750 PAs)
1999-03: .324/.396/.535 (2473 PAs)
2004-07: .282/.341/.478 (1474 PAs)

Sweeney's 1999-2003 peak stands as one of the greatest runs in team history, and aside from the incomparable Brett, it is difficult to find a better stretch from a purely offensive standpoint. Over those five seasons, Sweeney hit .324/.396/.535, a full half-decade of significant production. Considering how much Royals fans have invested in either fleeting performances, like Bo Jackson, or one's that weren't actually that good, like Frank White, it would be a shame if Sweeney's decline dimmed our memories of how good he actually was. Even when we factor in his lack of defense and base-running, neither of which was always a total loss, Mike Sweeney is without question one of the top five position players in team history and the closest thing the Royals have had to Brett since 1993. For a player whose career spanned the darkest era in team history, Mike Sweeney is a player who should be remembered.

With the Santana drama finally behind us - it was somehow appropriate that JoePo's satirical blast came just before the trade was finalized - I'm sure more than one fan here in the Midwest was reminded of the Royals' predicament at the turn of the century, when the Royals traded Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye and Carlos Beltran largely because of budget concerns. Dipping into fansites and blogs over the last week would make one think it was 2000 again, instead of 2008, with real consternation about the fact that the Twins had to trade Santana. It's less of an issue now, but from the mid-90s on a pervading sense of loathing dominated our mindset as Royals fans, and indeed, the mindset of many fans across the country, with the cause being a profound sense of economic injustice. After some modest changes by MLB and the success of small-market teams in Oakland and Minnesota, that's less of a concern now, and certainly nothing like the issue it was then. Maybe the reason everyone missed or looked the other way on steroids was the fact that talk radio and column inches were dominated by endless recitations, often in the same purple prose we've come to expect from steroids sermonizing, of how unfair the game's salary structure was. Moreover, the ownership in many cities went out of its way to perpetuate this meme, to varying degrees of sincerity. As you may recall, numerous protests actually took place during Royals-Yankees games here in Kansas City, and a riot damn near broke out when Chuck Knoblauch (illustrious former Royal) returned to the Metrodome in 2001. I wasn't blogging then, but I was fairly active on a Royals yahoo-groups email list. After every losing streak, every trading deadline (whether the Royals were involved or not) and every major off-season signing, we'd flare up into a 15-email thread about how THE SYSTEM HAS GOT TO CHANGE!

By the time Carlos Beltran was traded in 2004, the anger of those times was fading. Moneyball had been out for a year, popularizing the legend of Billy Beane, and shifting the discussion from salaries to smarts. Of course, for the hyper-fandom that was already active online, everyone already knew about the A's. Better yet, the Yankees stopped winning every year, which seemed to help immensely. Yes, the Royals were in a tough spot, but if they were smart, if they drafted well, if they took the right chances, it wouldn't matter. At sites like Baseball Prospectus, people actually started to argue that having a small payroll was actually a blessing in disguise because you never killed yourself with a horrible Chan Ho Park type contract in the first place. So, for a variety of reasons - including the absolute insanity of the Red Sox-Yankees universe of hype that lasted from 03-05 - people started to focus on other things, including steroids.

Amazingly, first as a small-market apostate to the Yankees, then as an accused PEDs user, Chuck Knoblauch has actually destroyed our National Innocence twice.

 For that reason, the Beltran Trade was a hinge moment for Royals fans, connecting on one side to all the bad old days of the post-strike era and on the other side, reaching forward to happier times, including today. There'd been at least two solid years of whining and self-pitying regarding his inevitable trade or worse, empty free agent departure, a mood deeply tied to the team's previous experiences with Johnny Damon and Jermaine Dye. Damon was the first to go, traded in January of 2001 to Oakland, and Jermaine Dye was traded in-season later that year, to, uhh, Oakland again. Aside from about a year long period from May 2003 to May 2004, when we all still loved Berroa, the fanbase was not only angry to see those players go, but bitter at how Allard Baird had been fleeced by Billy Beane. As horrible as it was to be a Royals fan in, say, 2005, when we were setting new records for losing EVERY season, I still contend it was actually much worse in 2002: the Royals had no money to spend and were being run by fools.

Of course, the complete randomness of 2003 threw everything off in everyone's mind for at least another two years. Its hard to imagine now, but there was actually an eighteen month period (or so) when Allard Baird was being supported by not only casual fans, but the hardcores as well, including the national smart set. He'd always had good scouting bona fides and had had some success finding bit players in strange places. Now, he'd embraced OBP and a Beane-esque drafting strategy. He choose Calvin Pickering over Ken Harvey (for about five seconds) and on and on. The ironic thing is this: by the time he traded Beltran, just about everyone had given up on him again, even though in hindsight, its hard to imagine a better move he ever made. When the Royals collapsed again in 2004, we were back at square one: we can't keep our good players, and we trade them for pennies on the dollar. It didn't help either when it turned out that, again, Oakland was involved as one of the trading partners.

So, in honor of the Santana trade, in honor of all these bad memories, lets look back at the Beltran deal, when the Royals said goodbye to likely the best position player the team had had since George Brett. The way we were, 2004.

The package:

So the Astros got Beltran and the A's got Dotel.

The Royals got:

1. Mike Wood
   
2. Mark Teahen
   
3. John Buck
   
4. Cash

1. Mike Wood (stats). Wood gave the Royals 34 big league starts from 2004-6, as well as 53 additional appearances out of the bullpen. He was a bit below average in '04 and '06, but in '05 he posted an ERA+ of 99 across 115 innings, all while earning the league minimum. Nowadays, if a Dayton Moore pickup manages the same, we all take it as another data point in the merits of the Bravest Way to run a baseball team. (Just sayin'.) While Wood struggled with injuries - like 90% of young pitchers - there were scenarios in which he could have been a valuable swingman, especially if the team was developing a young rotation. The Royals were sorta trying to do this at the time, but nearly everyone turned out to be horrible. In 2006 Wood started strong but was inconsistent and sometimes terrible and his days in KC came to an end. Usually the throw-in guy in a trade is a C prospect who never does anything. In this case, Mike Wood was the throw-in, a low-ceiling type who nevertheless has shown enough that, barring major injury, he'll keep getting one-year deals and Spring Training invites until he's 35. If he strings together 30 good innings one year and lucks into a low-ERA, he'll retire with at least $10 million in his pocket. I must admit I was always irrationally partial to Wood, and am convinced the Royals misused him (see Affeldt, Jeremy) and only saw what he couldn't do, not what he could.
2. John Buck (stats) Buck was a well-known prospect when the Royals acquired him, although his stock was falling after a rough season at AAA in 2003. Thanks to the Beltran trade, the Royals got four years of John Buck for around $1.4 million, not bad when you consider, despite some flaws, he's still an adequate, if not above-average catcher. (Catching is at a weird place right now, it seems like there's no middle class, just a few truly great hitters, then a million Paul Bakos.) This is, as Royals Authority put it, The Funny Thing About John Buck. Like his fellow Beltran-bountymate Mark Teahen, Buck is something of an enigma, mixing long stretches where he looks awful and topped out, with intense, brightly lit periods of incredible brilliance, like fireworks against a black sky. In '04, '06 and '07, his monthly splits were all over the place. He's nearly a lock to give you one month when he posts a SLG over .500 and another around .150, year after year. In 2004, as a rookie playing for no real reason, for example, his monthly SLGs went like this: .154, .231, .513, .538. In 2006 his monthly OPS breakdown was: .598, .674, .953, .550, .646, .844. Of course, in many ways this is normal for many players, its only more exaggerated with low BA guys. Still, its all part of the John Buck experience. All of that being said, for where he is on the pay-scale, with a nearly impeccable record of health, John Buck is an asset. Not a huge one, but still certainly an effective use of his roster spot.
3. Mark Teahen (stats) Does anyone else have Teahen fatigue? In April of 2006 I wrote, in an interview with a Devil Rays blog, "it seems like I spend my whole life talking about Mark Teahen", which of course was BEFORE he became one of the most mysterious players in baseball. He's a fan favorite, seems to be a genuinely good dude, and has a well-rounded skill set and team-first personality that makes him someone you want to succeed. Yet, we still don't know what he's going to be, no matter how much we talk about it. Its ok Mark, he's only 25, and has been documented, men aren't exactly attacking their 20s with great brio anymore. I've got a few years on Mark myself, and my life is pretty pathetically nebulous. Basically, my fiancée sees potential and everyone else sees another random grad student. So I know how he must feel, minus the bank account and tribute videos on youtube. I get it. OK... lets run through this again: good OBP, solid BA, less than frightening power, especially for a corner outfielder. Power has made appearances before, it could come back, but, it might not. (Obligatory mention of the fact that he was an absolute man for the second-half of 2006.) Solid glove at multiple positions, reportedly one of the better baserunners in the American League. Was the team MVP in 2006. Injuries have played a role in uneven production. Has only cost the Royals close to the league minimum for three seasons.

At the very least, the Royals received, roughly, nine seasons of adequate performance, at the league-minimum salary from Wood, Teahen and Buck in exchange for half a season of Carlos Beltran. If either Buck or Teahen had truly flamed out, then I think we'd have to evaluate the trade differently, but of course that didn't happen. Getting low-upside guys is bland and not generally the way to go. But when you get THREE low-upside fellas who actually do alright, well, that's a different story. It's the low-upsiders who stall in AAA that kill you. Without Teahen and Buck, we'd have been cursed with even more low-level FA types that would have done nothing but waste the team's money and time. Considering what catcher has looked like, especially, this is something to be thankful for. In a pure baseball sense, Teahen's ridiculous two-month run in 2006 was about a good as Beltran ever was, so he replaced the elite production we'd lost to that trade right there. Of course, it doesn't work that way, but, there you go.

While you can't compare the environments for deals precisely, I think its safe to say Allard Baird got more for half a season of Carlos Beltran than the Twins got for a year of Johan Santana. More importantly, somewhat amazingly, the trade actually has become something of a cornerstone of the franchise. Buck and Teahen haven't become All-Stars, but they are foundational members of the roster, and have kept the Royals afloat simply by not being major disasters. There is a secret merit in simply not being terrible, in any field. Remember this my children.

The Beltran trade ended one era and began another. Unfortunately, Allard wasn't going to be part of that new age, but I think all parties are at peace with that now.  And so, Royals Review nods approvingly in the general direction of the memory of Allard Baird's time in KC. Towards Boston I guess, or wherever Allard is tonight. The Beltran trade was that rarest of creatures, a ménage a trois in which everyone, Houston, Oakland and Kansas City, left happy.

---------

Postscript

Finally, a personal note. Back in 2004, when the trade hit, I was pecking away on Blogger, long before anyone had dreamed up what would become Royals Review. The night the trade was made, I was staying at my grandparents' house. They actually had internet access, but it was a) dialup on a b) ancient computer with no memory. The kind of situation where you click the "text-only" option if you see it on a website. Sometime after dinner I saw the trade announcer on ESPN, and immediately retired to the den to post something on my blog. This was news! The world waited for me! I mean, I was gonna get like 50 hits tonight alone!

Despite also passing along Neyer's approval, I'm struck by how negative I was. But, returning to the beginning of this post, those were pretty dark times for us in Royals land. Incidentally, the trade came just as the always-frightening Cardinals series loomed, and they were, uhh, kinda awesome in 2004. Well, the Royals would be swept in that series, but that's neither here nor there. My first major post (I won't quote the whole thing) said this:

That's the kind of brilliant analysis you can only get from a blog, huh!

Here was what I said the next day, when I really bought into the Sheehan line.

I may have to bring back the sarcastic closing-line of BELIEVE in 2008. Unfortunately, I think the Royals won't lose enough to really make it pay off.

In this edition, we honor 1990s great Scott Pose, a University of Arkansas product who became a favorite of Tony Muser for a few months at the end of last century, and reaffirmed the power of the human spirit.

1. Pose was drafted by the Reds in 1989, fresh from  his studies at the University of Arkansas, a highly regarded bastion of intellectualism. Pose is one of 36 Razorbacks who have played in the big leagues. Other notables include former Royals Jeff King and Kevin McReynolds, as well as the classy gentleman, Cliff Lee. In 1992, the Marlins snagged Pose in the Rule 5/Rule V/Rule Five/Rule Cinco Draft.
2. The next season, at the age of 26, Pose made his Major League Debut on Opening Day with the Marlins. Guess who recorded the first at-bat in Marlins history? Thats right, Scott Pose, who reached on an error in the bottom of the first inning. Pose would go 1-5 with two RBI, plating Walt Weiss in the 2nd inning (single) and Jeff Conine in the 6th (groundout), pacing the Marlins to a 6-3 victory. Pose remained the starter in CF for the next nine games or so, hitting .222/.263/.278 over that span. From there, he moved into a reserve role, and was demoted on April 22nd, never appearing in a Marlins uniform again. A sad fate for an historical figure. As a Marlin, Pose hit .195/.233/.244 in 43 PAs.

   

   The first-ever Marlins game. Can you see Scott Pose in this picture?

3. The next four years saw Pose lead a vagabond's existence, as he bounced across America. Pose was dropped by the Marlins, then signed or acquired in turn by the Brewers, Dodgers (they remembered Opening Day 1993), Twins, Indians and Blue Jays, before Pose signed with the Yankees in 1996. The amazing thing about all this movement is that he seems to have never actually hit well in the minor leagues across this span. Perhaps his best season  came in 1995, when he hit .310/.397/.365 with the Salt Lake Buzz. An empty .310 at high altitude, at the age of 28. Yea!
4. In 1997 Pose found himself the recipient of some Joe Torre love, as he actually got a fair amont of run on a Yankees team that won 96 games and won the Wild Card. (Remember when the Orioles were good?) As an outfield reserve, Pose appeared in 54 games that season,  garnering 96 plate appearances. While he spent almost the entire season on the active roster, his main time to shine was in July, when he started in 10 games and appeared in another 3, hitting .250/.308/.278. Overall, he hit .218/.292/.264 with three steals.  Still, Pose made the post-season roster, and appeared in the concluding game of the epic Indians-Yankees series, serving as a pinch-runner for Paul O'Neil, who doubled with two outs in the top of the 9th. Unfortunately, Jose Mesa retired Bernie Williams to end the game, sending Pose and the Yankees home.
4. Pose would spend another season in the Yankees' farm system, before signing with the Royals in 1998. With the 1999 Royals Pose would set his career marks for playing time, hits, batting average, etc. 1999 was his shot, and he didn't do bad with the opportunity, hitting .285/.377/.307 (are you listening Joey Gathright?) in 158 PAs. Muser played Pose in all three outfield positions, mostly slotting him in at LF. Pose also appeared as a pinch-hitter 43 times that season (who was he PHing for? Me?) going .189/.302/.216 in that always tough role. Without a doubt, the strangest aspect of Pose's career was that he actually appeared quite a lot as a DH, for reasons I cannot currently divine using the internet. Pose earned 69 career PAs as a DH, more than he ever got as a CF or RF. In 1999 Muser really latched onto the idea of Pose as DH, slotting him there in 16 games. Pose responded by hitting .280/.383/.280 in that role. All this strangeness came to a head  at the end of the season, when Pose's last four appearances were all as the starting DH. Perhaps inspired by Pose's '99 season, Jeff Pearlman of SI profiled Pose that September.
5. Pose was on the Opening Day roster with the Royals in 2000, and appeared as a pinch-hitter on Opening Day. Still, despite almost always being around, Pose played sparingly in 2000, starting just three games, while appearing as a PH in 44 other games. Pose hit .188/.278/.188 in 56 PAs that year, becoming a different kind of Three True Outcomes player: he could single, walk or ground out. Nothing else. As a big league Pose's last extra-base hit came on May 29th of 1999, and he finished his career on a 154 straight PAs without-an-extra-base-hit streak. Pose's last Major League game was on September 29th, 2000, a 6-4 loss to the White Sox, in game 160 on the year. With the Royals trailing 6-4 with one out in the 9th and facing Keith Foulke, Pose pinch-hit for Rey Sanchez. He struck out swinging. Two minutes later, Mike Sweeney did the same, and the game was over.

Pose spent 2001-2 with various AAA affiliates, with the Rangers' team in Oklahoma City as his last rodeo. He hit .202/.287/.250 in limited action that season, and was not heard from again.  

Pose made over $700,000 dollars in baseball... He played Matt Crane in the Kevin Costner movie For the Love of the Game.

Last week the Joe Nelson Era in Kansas City abruptly and unceremoniously came to an end, with the Royals outrighting Nelson to AAA, followed by Nelson becoming a free agent. While it remains unlikely that Nelson will return to the Royals, we'll always have 2006, when Joe, a minor league lifer came out of nowhere to be a solid arm out of the bullpen. As any Royals fan can tell you, these are the kinds of things that always seem to happen to other teams. Then, in true Royals fashion, Nelson got injured, hit the DL, and suffered a lost season in 2007. While the emergence of Joakim Soria and the brief appearance of Octavio Dotel lessened the blow, the bully still suffered without him. Obviously, the timing of the injury was much worse for Joe, even tragically so, as he was just about to be in line for a big payday. The kind of payday that makes a difference between being comfortable and well-off, and being set for life.

Joe Nelson, everyman.

Lets take a look at Nelson's big league career to date:

• 2001 ATL: Two one-inning appearances with the Braves in June. Joe allows big innings each time, and is sent back to back to the minors with a 36.00 ERA.
• 2004 BOS: After being signed, then released, then re-signed by Boston, Joe eventually appears with the Red Sox for three July games. Joe works a scoreless 9th against Texas in a 14-6 blowout, but then allows big innings in his next two appearances against the Angels and Mariners. With a season ERA now at 16.88, Nelson is sent packing. On October 5th, 2004, Nelson is granted free agency. Still, Nelson, along with former Royal never-was Dave McCarty, recieved a World Series Ring.
• 2006 KC: In 2005, Nelson bounced from three organizations (NYM, TB, STL) before signing with the Royals in November, an event totally unremarked-upon on this site. Nelson made his Royal debut on April 17th, but didn't become a bullpen regular until late May, when Buddisimo began turning to him consistently. (Nelson's game log here.) After racking up five holds -- a stat now tarnished by Rafael Betancourt's sheer, radical evil and deception -- Nelson notched his first career save on August 15th against the White Sox. Reportedly, Buddy cited his 2004 mop-up appearance with the Red Sox as the evidence he knew Nelson had the proper moxie to finish a game. No, not really.

Its tough to read that now. Not because it was necessarily wrong, or even that harsh, but simply because now is the time to honor Joe Nelson, not to focus on his limitations. Had Nelson stayed healthy, he might have gone on to greatness in 2007, or he might have struggled and picked up the Sisco Award, we'll never know. While we do joke a lot about grittiness and guts and the mythos of veteran presence and all the rest on this site (and for good reason, too), you can't deny that Joe Nelson has shown a dogged determination to live his dream. And who, really, can honestly answer the same?

Since being drafted in 1996, Nelson has pitched, and in some sense, lived, in the following places: Eugene, Durham, Greenville, Richmond, Atlanta, Jamestown, Trenton, Portland, Boston, Pawtucket, Springfield (Tx), Omaha and Kansas City. Sure, being a minor league baseball player isn't the same as working at the Wal-Mart in Normal Illinois, and its certainly exciting and invigorating in a way to live a life on the road. Nevertheless, without stooping to stupidity or sentimentality, its clear that Joe Nelson has hung in, persisted and all the rest.

And in 2007 it should have paid off. He'd show the world that he could get American League hitters out with the Royals, and with another decent year under his belt, he could have cashed in on that success for another five or seven years. Instead, he hurt his shoulder, and went on the 60 day DL. Yes, he earned a healthy salary of almost $400,000 in 2007, but he also put in nearly a decade in the minors to get there. Honestly, his payout is probably smaller than if he'd just gone to law school, considering law school is only three years. Moreover, how much will he make in baseball going forward? How many more chances with a big league team will he get? Its very hard to say.

Nevertheless, Nelson, in the waning summer of a  mostly dismal 2006 season, carved out a place in team history, and now ranks 25th in Royals history in saves. At the same time, Nelson proved once again that so much supposedly hallowed and mythical in baseball, especially with regard to the silly saves statistic and its sister RBI, is really a matter of opportunity. If you give the Joe Nelsons of the world a chance, they'll probably perform just as well as any other short-usage reliever not named Papelbon or Rivera. There aren't many instances where a sabermetric truth also carries a satisfying human-interest story, but Joe Nelson's 2006 was that exception.

So let us take this moment to honor Joe Nelson and mark his accomplishments with the Royals. Before those memories fade into oblivion, let us erect this monument here to solidify them! Hopefully, Joe will stay healthy in 2008, and with a little bit more good luck finding his way.

Another blast from the past... this post originally ran in January of 2006.-RR

On Friday the Royals announced that Mark Gubicza had entered/been elected/selected to the Royals' Hall of Fame. Gubes is the 8th pitcher in, joining Steve Busby, Paul Splittorff, Dennis Leonard, Larry Gura, Dan Quisenberry, Jeff Montgomery and Bret Saberhagen. As the Royals' presser pointed out, Gubicza is 3rd all-time in team wins, with 132, behind only Splittorff (166) and Leonard (144).

As the Royals/Alan Eskew point out, Gubicza's all over the team leaderboards:

Gubicza, who won 20 games in 1988 and was an All-Star selection in 1988-89, pitched from 1984-96 with the Royals. His Royals career rankings include, 327 starts (second), 1,366 strikeouts (second), 42 complete games (seventh), 16 shutouts (third), 2,218 2/3 innings (second), 382 appearances (fourth) and 783 walks (first).

Its interesting to note that Sabes was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame before Gubicza, given that Gubes played for the Royals a little longer; starting 101 more games. Of course, Sabes won 110 games with the Royals - only 22 behind Gubes - with a lower ERA (3.21 to 3.91) and only two fewer shutouts (16 to 14).

Given that both guys came up in 1984 and famously led the Royals to a World Championship in 1985, it follows that the two often enter into discussions of the other, much like Gooden and Strawberry, for example. While Gubes played with the Royals through 1996, Saberhagen left a bit earlier in 1992. Moreover, Gubicza only played one non-Royal season, making two starts with the 1997 Angels; where he had been traded with Mike Bovee for Chili Davis. In Los Angeles (nee Anaheim, nee California) Gubes struggled, posting a forgettable 25.07 ERA en route to retirement. However, he did earn $1.6 million from the Angels in the process.

Sabes on the other hand, bounced around for nearly a decade, famously alternating good and bad years (supposedly) and battling injuries. Saberhagen spent 1992-4 in New York, and was traded in-season from New York to Colorado. With the Rockies, Sabes posted an ERA of 6.28 and looked to be headed out of baseball. Instead, he remerged with the 1997 Red Sox, after no appearances in 1996. In '98 and '99 with the Red Sox Saberhagen made 53 starts with ERAs of 3.96 and 2.95. Although he was in somewhat limited duty, 1999 was in fact one of Saberhagen's better seasons, featuring a ERA+ of 172 (that's what 2.95 in late 90s AL baseball will get you). After another year away due to injury, Saberhagen made one last comeback, starting 3 games with the '01 Sawks. Thanks largely to the generosity of the Mets and Red Sox, Saberhagen made over $47 million in baseball, with only about $9 million coming from your KC Royals.

Hurt by injury-plagued campaigns in 1990, '91 and '92, Gubes never quite cashed in like that, earning roughly $16 million, which perhaps explains why he's currently coaching high school baseball in Chatsworth. (Which is, coincidentally, the porn capital of America.)

Mark was an AL All-Star in 1988 & '89, finishing 3rd in the '88 Cy Young Voting to Frank Viola. That '88 season saw Gubes go 20-8 with a 2.70 ERA for a 84-77 Royals team that finished 19.5 games behind the Bash Brothers. Through 1989 Gubes was an innings machine, leading the American League in starts in '89, while finishing 3rd in '88 and '87.

After wandering in the wilderness of injury and ineffectiveness for a few seasons, Gubicza put together one last great season in 1995. That season Gubes started 33 games in a post-strike short season, for a Royals team that went 70-74, thanks to one of the worst offenses in baseball. Gubes threw 3 complete games that year, with 2 shutouts and an 3.75 ERA. Don't let the 12-14 record fool you, Gubes was one of the best hurlers in the American League, and helped make the Royals watchable as Cleveland rampaged through the League. Never a huge strikeout guy, Gubizca simply didn't walk people when he was on, and even as late as 1995, he finished 5th in the AL in BB/9, allowing only 2.62.

In short, he was often the pitcher that we hope young Greinke can become some day.

Mark Gubicza never batted in 14 major league seasons.