What a brave decision by the Royals to trust in Kyle Davies. With so many wonderful pitchers to choose from, why limit yourself to a 5-man rotation? Go with 6 guys. I have seen the future of the rotation and the future looks wonderful.
Heading into this season, Kyle Davies had made 131 career starts, and had a lifetime 5.49 ERA. In 706 innings, Davies's ERA was 30% above league averages. He was giving up over 10 hits per game, walking over 4 and striking out just 6.
The Royals said, "yea, come on back."
As Keith Law said earlier this week, with a performance record in which most guys would have been non-tendered, the Royals handed Davies a $3.2 million dollar contract. He had earned it.
The crazy thing is, Kyle Davies has been around for so damn long, that he's actually going to be a free agent after this season. So in bringing him back for 2011, the Royals weren't really gaining any long term access to Davies wonderful upside. if he was going to have a good season in 2011, his value to the future of the Royals would have been as a) trade bait or b) a comp pick. You can figure out for yourself how likely this scenario and how valuable those trade chits would have been.
Sticking with Kyle Davies for year after year after year... it has pretty clearly been a mistake. Time to move on.