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Dayton Moore "not going to give up", not likely to be seller at trade deadline

Don't look for Big Game James to be dealt.

By Max Rieper
Ed Zurga

After a disastrous series in Boston, the Royals find themselves under .500 and are 3.5 games behind for the last Wild Card spot, chasing four teams. The Royals previously said they would wait until mid-July to assess whether they will be buyers at the July trade deadline. But it doesn't look like they will be sellers.

Andy McCullough echoed that sentiment in his chat session today:

Comment From Ryan Is there a credible scenario wherein the Royals trade Shields in the next 2 weeks? Thanks!

Andy McCullough: Yes, but it would involve a lot of losing in a very short period of time. The Royals do not want to rebuild. They want to win now. It's why they traded for Shields in the first place.

Dayton probably doesn't want to "give up" on this team in part because they are still ahead of the pace of last year's club, which was 46-51 after 97 games of the season and were just starting a streak of winning fifteen of eighteen ballgames. But you just don't see teams at .500 this late in the year end up becoming serious contenders, or even sneak into the playoffs that often. Sure, it happens. The 2007 Rockies were at 49-48 at this point in the season, and ended up winning the pennant. Heck, the 1985 Royals were 46-44 on July 21, and we know how that story ended.

But should we pin the future of the franchise on those kind of hopes? This club has James Shields, Greg Holland, Wade Davis, all of whom are useful assets other teams are willing to pay a price for, and even Billy Butler has seemed to attract some interest.There is perseverance and then there is blind stubbornness, and the line between the two kind is quite thin.

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