Royals Review, a Kansas City Royals community

Top 5 Best and Top 5 Worst Owners in MLB (and other sports). Aaaaaand...discuss.

Overall: C- The Royals are a clear step ahead of the previous three teams, but still have an awful lot of work to do before they could ever be considered a legitimate World Series contender. Unfortunately, the moves the team has been making over the last year don’t inspire an awful lot of confidence that the team is going to make the necessary transition in philosophy, and filling out the roster with replacement level veterans is simply never going to work. With a smaller paryoll, they have to emulate the Cleveland/Oakland/Minnesota/Atlanta philosophies of getting big returns on small invetments, and right now, that’s just not happening in Kansas City. Suffice to say: Ouch.

More great work from Sky Kalkman at Beyond the Box Score. On his accounting the Royals had the fifth most efficient payroll in baseball this past season. Now would be a good time to remember not only the Meche and Soria deals, but also who signed DDJ's club-friendly contract, Grudz, and drafted Alex Gordon and Mike Aviles...

Furcal has turned down the A's 4/36 offer. Now apparently the Indians are interested. "Heyman notes that there are also two mystery teams still interested in Furcal. The Cubs are focused on a left-handed hitting outfielder, the Dodgers don't want to go more than two years, and the Braves still haven't traded Yunel Escobar, so those three don't currently make too much sense. Any guesses as to who the other two teams are?" The Royals could be one, but probably not. The only way it is possible is if Glass is even more spending flexible than we've been led to believe. Right now the projected 2009 payroll is about $71M. If the Royals were to trade away Teahen and Buck for league minimum players, that would free up $5.5M. If the Royals were to get Furcal for a 3/33 contract (which is as low as could possibly be realistic...and probably too low at that), that would then make the payroll $76.5M. Would Glass do that? Maybe. I think the combination of increased payroll and guys the Royals would have to get rid of to make this happen makes it unlikely. The fact that Furcal probably doesn't want to come play for the Royals unless they blow him away with a big offer probably makes it nearly impossible.