And like that, Super Joe is gone, traded to Houston for that PTBNL guy. Of course, Housron is exactly the kind of franchise sure to love McEwing's hustle, grit and superness. I wouldn't be surprised if he found his way into 300 ABs, especially since Adam Everett has shown an ability to get injured alot.
Here's what fellow the Houston SB Nation site had to say about the move:
Nice guy, and hard worker, but I only understand Houston's interest if we've suddenly become disenchanted with Chris Burke and Eric Bruntlett, methinks.
Although Bruntlett and especially Burke both have the capacity to improve from here, each in 2005 easily exceeded McEwing's high SLG and RC/27 from the last four years. Plus, Super Joe is now 34 years old. The guys we have are better, younger, and probably cheaper. This rumor can't be true and is most likely the twisted hallucination of a booze-addled hack, rather than anything we should be taking seriously.
McEwing's final line as a Royal: .239/.263/.294. Ouch. Honestly, thats just totally horrible. Whats cool about a guy that can play many positions when he's an out-machine no matter what? Thats not utility, thats an infection thats spread. This is a guy that the Royals played as a first baseman 20 times. Well, thats Baseball 101: you get a .500 OPS from First, and everything else falls into place.
Still, Joe's a multi-millionaire, and I'm not.
In other news, its now Showdown Weekend in the Jackson County Stadium Vote. Jeffrey Spivak at the Star writes today:
In advertisements and guest columns, stadium supporters have stated that the renovations will cost a typical Jackson County taxpayer about $1.50 a month, or the equivalent of a cup of coffee. That is, the 3/8 th-cent sales tax will cost about $18 a year based on a person's typical retail purchases.
Since then, the stadiums campaign and The Star have done more precise calculations and come up with slightly different per-person cost numbers. The campaign had reached its figure by taking Jackson County's median household income and applying several calculations to it. However, the campaign has since found a more recent estimate of household income, and that ends up changing the per-person cost to $20.50 a year, or $1.70 a month. In addition, The Star found a more precise way to do the calculation, based on U.S. government statistics. The per-person cost works out to $23.10 a year, or $1.93 a month. That's not a lot different in dollar terms.
So make of that what you will. Here's another fun fact: the Stadium Supporters are spending money like crazy, as Spivak (again) writes,
"By most accounts, the Jackson County stadium election may be close, except in one respect -- campaign spending.
Stadium backers have outspent their various opponents $1.3 million to $501, according to campaign financial reports filed Monday. This is a ratio of 2,613 to 1.
Spending money to get money. Nice. Too bad these guys are broke and can't compete. One million dollars, thats like a season of Doug Mientkiewicz...
For the other side, check out:
Great Stuff.
Still, its sad to see the Royals reduced to this: lying about their viability, begging for public money, wholly inept and borderline irrelevant. They used to own KC. The fact that they don't now is their own damn fault. Remember, this is the team that brought you Joe F---ing McEwing in heaping doses.