Here's something to chew on as we approach the Trading Deadline.
2007 Numbers:
Jeremy Affeldt- 40.7 IP, 2.88 ERA, 1.254 WHIP
Ryan Shealy- .221/.286/.308 in 185 PAs
Apparently, even a man who looked for all the world like a poor man's Travis Hafner isn't a sure thing, this while one of the most maddening pitchers of the decade strings together his best 40 innings since 2003. Was the Shealy trade a mistake? Was it a good move that then randomly/bad-luckily turned out bad? Was it a worthwhile gamble? I'm not sure what the answer is. The odd thing is that everyone seemed certain that Shealy was what he was, a slightly above average sub-All-Star level 1B/DH type who needed a chance to play. Longtime readers will know I've been a mostly lukewarm subscriber to the Moore Doctrine, yet, to my everlasting shame, I told USA Today Sports Weekly that Shealy was a "guaranteed 25 homer guy" and was Moore's best move. Turns out, he hasn't been remotely close to that. At the moment all he's good for is a nice sparing partner for Mike Sweeney in training for the World's Slowest Man competition.
All we know really is that we don't know much at all.
Just something to keep in mind as the trades start flying this weekend.
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Tonight the Royals continue a currently disappointing homestand against the Texas Rangers, a team mired in their own version of a Royals season. The Rangers send 32 year old journeyman Jamey Wright (3-2, 4.15 ERA) to the mound. Shockingly, a man I've never heard of -- although the name sounded vaguely familiar -- has made 267 career big league starts, including, get this, four starts with the Royals in 2003.
Sadly, those games did not leave a last imprint on my soul. If some preview stories mentioned this, I didn't see them, I just learned this by pulling up dude's stats.
The Way We Were, Jamey Wright's Magical Ride with the '03 Royals:
-9/6/03: 8 IP, 3 ER, 5 Ks, 1 BB, Royals lose to Angels 3-1
-9/13/03: 9 IP, 0 ER, 7 Ks, 4 BBs, Royals win 7-0 over Tigers
-9/19/03: 6 IP, 1 ER, 3 Runs A, 5 Ks, 2 BBs, Royals lose 8-5 to Chi
-9/27/03: 2.1 IP, 8 ER, 2 Ks, 4 BBs, Royals lose to Chi 19-3
When Jamey joined the Royals the team was 72-68 and in third place, three games back and they never got closer. Its pretty interesting how quickly he went from being totally awesome to totally horrible. Basically, he could have earned the Andy Sisco Award (given annually to the Royal who most horribly regresses after a good season) with just those four starts.