Royals - 2003

[KCBOOMER]

Any ideas on what my Royals should do for next year (other than return George's money to him)? They are in complete disarray.

We have to unload Hernandez ($6M), Perez ($4M), Suppan ($4M), Knoblauch ($2M), Randa ($2M), and Stein ($2M). If we can figure a way to unload Tucker ($2M) and Mayne ($2M) we ought to do that.

We have to decide on what to spend on Bird, Ibanez, and Beltran to keep them. Beltran is arbitration eligible again this year and might command a $8M price tag up from $4M. Bird is going to make $1M to $2M this year and has indicated he would stay for $4M. IBanez makes $1M and is either arbitration eligible or a free agent.

Any thoughts? BTW, the farm systems sucks and there isn't a sign of a real prospect at catcher, 2B, or 3B. In the last several years we have drafted pitchers out the butt and none of them have developed into quality major league pitchers.

[Max Power]

Clone Billy Beane.

[poorme]

boom. that team of yours is in real bad shape. I mean real bad. if byrd isn't a free agent, i'd trade him for some prospects. maybe you can get a prospect for suppan. there's a guy harvey in the minors, i'd put him at dh.

c,2b,ss,3b,rf are problems along with the entire pitching staff. you might want to deal sweeney. i don't know. this kind of thing takes a good 5 years to get out of.

[spitball]

Is Bill Bavasi available?
I've asked this before in another thread and I'm serious. Bavasi got the Angels going with his drafts and trades. Stoneman has basically honed the Angels machine.
If Bavasi's not working , that's a shame.
Anyway, Byrd, Beltran , and Sweeney must be kept so the team has something to build around.
Bottom line is ...a new GM .

[RichG]

I'd try to get whatever I could for Byrd, thinking he won't be around by the time the Royals are good.

If you think Beltran is going to get $8 million through arbitration then it's time for him to go, too. If Ibanez is going to get too much in arbitration non-tender him. Are you allowed to trade a player after arbitration? He might get more money than he's worth to the Royals but still cheap enough to trade him to another team.

Suppan's still young (seems like he's been around since the seventies) so you might as well keep him.

When does Sweeney's walk clause kick in? I'd keep him as long as I can.

Other than that, just blow 'em up real good.

[sweaver]

First job: identify your good players. On the Royals, that's Sweeney and Beltran. Get them signed to contracts. Good on Sweeney, they should have signed Beltran last year because now he'll just be more expensive. Sign him anyway.

The #3 guy is probably Ibanez, but given his age they should trade him if they can get a good young player. If not, he can be a LF/DH.

Next, identify the young players who might help out. For KC these are guys like Dee Brown, Brandon Berger, OFs mostly.

At C, A.J. Hinch can do the job, and Mayne can provide (too expensive) support. So, where the Royals need to come up with some guys is in the infield. Randa is OK, but again he is aging, and if young players can come in return, he makes trade bait. The middle infield needs lots of help.

The pitching is the other problem area. The best starter is Byrd, but his free agent price tag might be too high. Offer 3 years/10 million, and be prepared to wave good-bye.

To do this cheaply, it will be necessary to scour the six-year minor league free agent market, for the guys like Mark Bellhorn who are always lying around.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Another guy who's toast is Carlos Febles.
He's been hurt, and he's never panned out. I'd get rid of him while I could.

I'd put Knoblauch at 2B if I couldn't get rid of him and his contract (is this his last year) and play him there and hope he hit, until I could find a semi-contender who needed him. I'd live with his defense, and never complain, it would drive down his trade value.

I can't believe that between the Mexican League and Japan the Royals couldn't find 1-2 guys that are ready for the major leagues.

One possibility may also be to trade Byrd to the Braves for several of their infielders. The Braves have Wilson Betemit, Rafael Furcal, Mark DeRosa, Marcus Giles, and Kelly Johnson all battling for SS/2B (although Johnson is only in A ball and appeared to have a bad year this year). The Braves reportedly will not sign both Maddux and Glavine. A pitcher of Byrd's quality may allow for the kind of talent infusion a team with a diminished talent base needs, and Byrd may be able to bring in Betemit, plus a guy to play 2B.

I also can't believe that the Royals couldn't form a platoon combinations at 3B and LF. This could bolster their defense at 3B and their offense in LF.

The Royals were once the most imaginative team in baseball. The Royals Academy was one of the biggest innovations in MLB history. Linking spring training to Baseball City as part of Boardwalk and Baseball was creative. When they were imaginative and creative, they turned out young stars regularly. I suspect one reason for that is it takes some imagination to see a young 19 year old in your lineup as a regular someday, and not merely as trade bait of a player of "proven value" (i. e.: a player who's PROVEN he's mediocre). Until their ownership recaptures the imagination the organization had in the 1970s, they will be stuck where they are, even if they had the revenue streams of the New York Yankees.

[tortured angel]

Since he always seems to come out on the short end, maybe Baird needs a no-trade clause in his contract.

[TreAnt985]

Since Knoblauch's no good, I think they should sign Rickey for a year.
Not just because he's my fav. player, but because if he had enough PAs, his OBP would be 29th in the AL. That isn't that good, but of the players ahead of him, only 3 are leadoff men: Suzuki, Eckstein, Durham.
The Red Sox sure don't play him--Damon's contract's worth too much to sit him down too often. Plus, Rickey's said he wants to play another year and since Knoblauch plays LF, Rickey could just take his place in the lineup and on the field (or at DH occassionally).
Rickey's OBP (which IS what everyone says a leadoff guy should have) is higher than Damon's and Rickey can still steal bases, if he gets enough PT to do so.
Any thoughts? I'm pretty biased since I like to see Rickey play (he changes the entire game)...Or do y'all think the Royals should just fill in the position with some of the guys you have already mentioned?

[Ytown Tribe fan]

1. Sell the team to Lamar Hunt.

2. Beg John Shuerholz to come back.

3. Figure out exactly how much revenue will be there from all sources.

4. Spend every dime on the best players available.

5. Surprise the weakest division in baseball.

[RichG]

Suggesting Rickey Henderson was a good idea. I don't think he gets paid too much and from what I've read, he's a good teammate and teacher.

He doesn't play enough to stifle someone else's progress and would still leave room for the corner OF/DH combo with Rickey, Ibanez, Berger, Dee Brown, & Quinn (he really must've clobbered his ribs to not be called up). I don't know about any other KC prospects.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Originally posted by RichG
Suggesting Rickey Henderson was a good idea. I don't think he gets paid too much and from what I've read, he's a good teammate and teacher.

This is a good idea. Perhaps the Royals should sign (cheaply) a number of guys to 1 year contracts that are familiar names and about to reach career milestones.

The "Wheeze Kid" strategy is a good temporary strategy while attempting to build a talent base. So long as they don't think it's
a permanent thing, it may be the best way to keep fan interest while losing and rebuilding their minor league system.

[spitball]

Originally posted by Fuzzy Bear
This is a good idea. Perhaps the Royals should sign (cheaply) a number of guys to 1 year contracts that are familiar names and about to reach career milestones.

The "Wheeze Kid" strategy is a good temporary strategy while attempting to build a talent base. So long as they don't think it's
a permanent thing, it may be the best way to keep fan interest while losing and rebuilding their minor league system.

If I were a Royals fan I'd be apalled by this idea.
Start playing the kids and get on with it. Let Rickey be Rickey somewhere else.
I mean, why not just bring back Canseco so that he can get no. 500?

[Allard]

Lamar Hunt is as cheap as David Glass, and is running the Chiefs into the same sort of oblivion that the Royals are in. Schuerholtz left the farm system in tatters when he left (isn't he the guy who traded David Cone for Ed Hearn?).

This team needs to be scrapped from the top down. Glass needs to act like he is still the CEO of the biggest company in the world and hold his people accountable.

I would clean out the entire front office, the coaches, and the scouts. No team has done less with more physical talent than KC. A handful of busted prospects is bad luck. A decade of them is bad scouting and coaching. Three full seasons of failure is enough time to prove that Allard's goose is cooked. It doesn't take a decade to show if you're good or not, just ask Detroit about Randy Smith. Baird inherited a team that grossly overachieved in 2000, and it took two more years for him to figure out that he was just lucky that year.

Enough with drafting tools players or pitchers out of high school. Not one has lived up to potential. It is no coincidence that every draft pick ends up a bust. That blame goes on the scouts and the GM who does the drafting. Also, Tony Pena is making some dumb moves that make me suspect he is in over his head. He was badly outmanaged last week against Oakland. Neifi Perez and Brent Mayne should never be hitting with the game on the line and runners in scoring position in late innings, but Pena did it every time, and was burned every time.

KCBoomer, there is no fix for 2003. If the team started over from the ground up this winter, it will still be 3 or 4 years before there is any chance of a good team. Sweeney and Beltran need to stay, because alienating the fans that are left would be hard to recover from. I like Byrd, but he has value now, probably won't have much a year from now, and we need real prospects. If Ibanez can be kept for 1 or 2 million, I would do it. Because most teams are able to find a player like him in the scrap heap every year, he doesn't have a huge trade value. I don't see big market teams offering him 5 or 6 million dollar deals.

Cut all of the bait, fill the team with young guys from Omaha, and you can expect nothing worse that what we saw this year.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Originally posted by spitball
Start playing the kids and get on with it. Let Rickey be Rickey somewhere else.

That would be a good strategy if the "kids" were remotely ready for the bigs.

Are Kit Pellow, Ken Harvey, and Dee Brown major league material?
Brown was mediocre in 2001. I don't know much about Pellow, although he had the best numbers at Omaha this season. Ken Harvey is a 1B/DH type, and the Royals' best player is Mike Sweeney. Pellow is the only one who excites me at all.

The purpose of my idea is to keep major league names in the Royals lineup for one more year until the REAL prospects are ready to move up. One of the premises of this thread is that the Royals farm system is thin. If the Royals play the "kids" they will be playing non-prospects, and be putting out a minor league product to major league fans with major league expectations.

It would be devastating for the Royals franchise, IMO, to lose 100 games or more next year while fielding a team of players, most of whom are "kids", but not real prospects, or who are just not ready, pure and simple. Rickey (and Canseco, for that matter) are recognizable major league names; to play them for a year while the Double A guys of this year move up to Omaha will keep fan interest from falling through the floor. It's not "rebuilding" when your minor leaguers that you promote have limited ability and are unlikely to succeed in the majors.

An added benefit to this strategy would be that the oldsters could be sold for consideration during the pennant race for, perhaps, a young minor leaguer. The Royals need to rebuild their long-term talent base. This is a possible way of increasing it.