God I hate it when posts disapear. Not as much as I hate not knowing how to spell disapear with any certainty, or struggling to say something about this team, but its close. And its all bad.
So whats done is done. Camp closed, as a Spring Training by turns dull and depressing finally, mercifully comes to an end, and everyone headed North. Or East, as it were, for a pointless two-game exhibition series against the Astros in Corp-Name field.
What we see is what we get: an old, not good lineup, that also convienently represents the team's twice-decade half-attempt at effort, so it only gets to be a stand-in next season so Glass can say, "we tried, we can't compete". The upside is clearly the sometimes tantalazing pitching staff, but in less than a month we've seen Greinke run away, Red' break down and Run' sent to AAA because he's fat.
What saddens me is the sense that Baird's lost his verve, lost his willingness to be creative. He started out bad, he then matured into a crafty waiver-diver who tried interesting things. But I think 2004-5 broke him. I don't think the people that matter in KC trust him, and he likely doesn't trust himself. The result is what we have now: a cliche spouting Buddy Bell inflected brain trust that is sometimes puzzling (Ambres?) but never clever and never creative. Think about the pitching staff: we seem to have a stock of basically similar, good (at best) spare parts. With The Top Three guys and MacDougal now out to start the season, why not try something different or non-textbook, like tandem starting Gooble and Wood for three innings each or something like that? Nea. Starters are starters (and Elarton is #1!!) and relivers are relivers.
Of course, what do I know? Nothing. Thats the point. The approach is so cliche, so lock-step, that they might as well not exist. You could literally anticipate just about everything Bell says or does at this point, the same can be said for Allard, ever since he gave up on Pickering for extra at-bats for Joe McEwing. It was then that Allard Baird, the good GM, the guy who got a decent amount of swag for Beltran, died.