On this date (well, let's thrown in the 31st as well) in Royals history, in the Dayton Moore era:
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October 30, 2006: Signed Ed Yarnall as a free agent. A formerly well-regarded pitching prospect, Yarnall pitched randomly and briefly for the Yankees in 1999-00. He was out of baseball by the end 2007.
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October 31, 2006: Paul Bako, Runelyvs Hernandez, and Doug Mientkiewicz were granted free agency. A championship core. The sad fact that Paul Bako would leave the Royals for richer pastures and greener fields, was much lamented around here. Our heroes have no loyalty, and therefore are no longer our heroes. Our innocence has been trampled upon.
October 30, 2007: David Riske, Mike Sweeney, and John Thomson were granted free agency. Thomson (former Brave alert!) never appeared in the big leagues again. Riske managed three more seasons in Milwaukee. Sweeney, I'm sure, you know about. (Honoring Mike Sweeney)
October 31, 2007: Odalis Perez granted free agency. I love that this transaction took place a day later. Is this a paperwork issue? Look, I know we've still got Odalis to process, but it's already 4:40 and I don't want to spend the end of the day rushing this...
October 30, 2008: Mark Grudzielanek granted free agency. Wasn't signed to a Major League contract soon enough, denying the Royals a compensation pick. Mysteriously played 30 games with the 2010 Indians.
October 31, 2008: Traded Leo Nunez to the Marlins for Mike Jacobs. The post from that day is fun to look back on in retrospect. If you go from supposed lineup cornerstone to basically out of baseball in a year, you may have been a Dayton Moore acquisition. This was part of Moore's "going for it" in 2009. And of course... Nunez, well, he's had a weird post-trade life as well.
2009: Nothing around Halloween of 2009. On October 12 Tony Pena Jr. was granted free agency. On November 5, Jamey Wright would be set free.
November 1, 2010: Nothing on the 30th or 31st, but on Nov. 1 of 2010, Bruce Chen was granted free agency. He would return.
