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Royals Rumblings - News for August 1, 2014

Upgrades? Who needs upgrades? Not us when you got Eric Hosmer back. Oh wait....

By Max Rieper
Jamie Squire

Royals Rumblings - News for August 1, 2014

The trade deadline is always such a fun time to be a Royals fan. So many happy memories.

Dayton Moore tries to explain why the club stood pat at the deadline.

And we were prepared to make moves with prospects. There was nothing that was presented to us that made us, certainly uncomfortable, but didn’t take us out of the running. We were prepared to be as aggressive as we possibly could. "At the end of the day, there weren’t any players that we could get our hands on that would be upgrades of what we have."...

"As I’ve said before, it’s important that our current group of players produce. And we believe they will. They haven’t played their best baseball yet, collectively. That’s what we have to count on, at the end of the day. We believe it will happen."

Andy McCullough writes that the Royals backed away from at least one potential deal.

The Royals engaged with the Phillies about veteran starter A.J. Burnett, according to people familiar with the situation. Kansas City backed away due to concerns about Burnett’s contractual status for 2015. His deal possesses a player option worth a potential $12.75 million, even if the Royals decline their end of a $15 million mutual option.

Why was it so hard to get a deal done?

Too bad we have very few of those.

What Royals were teams interested in?

You're kidding me!

Alex Rios is still a thing that could happen.

Sam Mellinger writes the Royals are losers and points the finger squarely at the person in charge - Billy Butler. Wait, what?

The Royals need a big-time hitter in large part because Butler is not hitting — despite being the guy paid to hit. They lack lineup flexibility because the only position he can play is taken by a Gold Glover. And they can’t trade him to free up salary because nobody wants a full-time DH who can’t hit. In a way, Butler is keeping the Royals from being able to solve the problem he is creating.

What’s left is a desperate kind of hope, and hope is never a good plan.

Craig Brown picks apart the nonsense from Dayton Moore's press conference.

There’s a lot of teams that would love to have some of our pitching in the rotation. But at the end of the day, where are you going to get that pitching back?

Ah...To me this is the smoking gun. We are over eight years with Dayton Moore in charge and here he is telling us the minor league cupboard is bare. There is no pitching depth. There is no one in the minors ready to take a shot at the big leagues. The Omaha rotation has featured Aaron Brooks, Brett Tomko and Sugar Ray Marimon. John Lamb has had some good outings lately, but he’s not ready. Somehow, this part of The Process has gone completely off the rails. Pitching is the currency of baseball. How the hell did this happen?

David Hill at Kings of Kauffman also chides Dayton for his passivity.

Jeffrey Flanagan has more on the Royals lack of plate discipline

"We don't have deep at-bats," manager Ned Yost said bluntly. "We put the ball in play early. "No, it's not be design....We're last in the league in walks. We are at times getting ourselves out more than the pitcher is getting us out."

And, as has been the case in recent years, the lack of patience at the plate is a problem organization-wide.

-- Triple-A Omaha is second to last in drawing walks in the Pacific Coast League.

-- Double-A Northwest Arkansas, the Royals' affiliate showing the most plate discipline, is fourth in the Texas League.

-- Class A Wilmington is dead last in the Carolina League in drawing walks.

-- Class A Lexington also is dead last in drawing walks in the South Atlantic League.

But general manager Dayton Moore insists that it's not an organizational philosophy to teach Royals prospects to simply hack away. "Plate discipline has to be stressed," he said.

"Now, I don't know how much you can actually teach. It's more nature than nurture. "But yes, that is a part of our offense that has to get better. No question about it. You got to keep preaching it, and hopefully, eventually, the formula works.

Here's a handy trade-tracker for all that went down at the deadline. MLB Daily Dish has a team-by-team breakdown.

General Manager Dayton Moore acted like a man with nothing to win and nothing to lose. How could the Royals, after trading away prize prospect Wil Myers for two years of James Shields, do nothing at the deadline when they will lose Shields at the end of the season to free agency? In a city begging for wins but content with hope, GMDM chose option C: neither.

Dayton Moore had a bad trade deadline, but not as bad as ESPN, and certainly not as bad as Jim Bowden.

Racist? Parody? Proud tradition?

Uh, here's your Tom Glavine and John Smoltz erotic fiction (NSFW).

There is a giant hole in Siberia larger than the hole in the Royals lineup and it may finally have an explanation.

Today's song of the day is for Dayton and Ned. Its Aimee Mann's "That's Just What You Are."

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