What KC needs to do.

Baseball fans in KC want a winner. It’s impossible to get tickets to opening day. They come out, they cheer for a team that hasn’t done anything close to a playoff run in year. Yet you still see fans coming out to the games.
Fans look at the past and what was. They want that again very badly. When Dayton Moore took over the GM job fans rejoiced. Moore was one of the young, up and coming GM’s in baseball. He came from one of the model franchises in baseball.

With a scouting background fans thought that Moore would be able to draft well and get good players in. Before Moore came the Royals farm system was ranked 19th in 04, 28th in 05 and 23rd in 06. Those are poor farm systems and for a mid market team like KC you need to draft and develop your own players because you’re not going to outbid the big spending teams like the Yankees, Sox, Mets and LA’s teams.

While the farm system has improved to the point that going into this year they were ranked 11th Moore hasn’t been able to improve the team. This year they were a sexy pick to make a run in the central that some people thought was weak. It was. Yet the Royals who had a great April 12-10 record they fell off then. Most of Moore’s moves in the offseason backfired on himself. So Dayton, here’s some “suggestions” I would make to you.

1. Hire Leo Mazzone as your roaming pitching instructor. Why this guy doesn’t have a job in MLB is crazy. He is the reason that the braves dominated the 90’s. He is probably the greatest pitching coach ever(Dave Duncan is a very close 2nd). Have Mazzone work with the pitchers in the minors to develop into big league pitchers.

2. Hire Kevin Towers and Paul DePodesta. Both were GM’s at one point but Moore needs guys he can respect and bounce idea’s off. While this might be hiring his replacement if the Royals don’t improve sometimes you have to take big gambles to succeed. Each of these guys bring different aspects to the Royals if hired. Towers is a more old school GM. His specialty is finding gems and turning those gems into great bullpen pitchers. Something that the Royals don’t have. He also has done everything that Moore is trying to do. He has taken a smaller market team to a WS. DePodesta is more of the new wave GM type. Looking at advance metrics and stats.

3. Don’t make stupid trades. Trading for Mike Jacobs not a good move. You traded for a guy who had OPS + of 106,100 and 108 in the last 3 years. (100 OPS + is considered average player). Nunez who you traded Jacobs had an ERA+ of 146! (100 ERA+ is considered an average player). I know that Danny Gutierrez had some brushes with the law but your managers and personal has to get a handle on the kid. You traded him(#7 on BA’s top 30 Royals prospects) for two players who weren’t anything in Texas’ system. In Arizona this fall I saw Danny G flash a plus plus fast ball and a plus curveball.

4. Don’t sign bullpen guys. I have 2 words for you, Kyle Farnsworth. Enough said.

5. Insert Kila Ka’Aihue as your first baseman. He gets on base and deserves a shot. Also you will save money playing him there and can give the DH position
to Butler.

6. When your evaluating free agents please do Royals fans everywhere a favor. Get guys who don’t make outs. Look for on base % guys. If at the plate guys don’t make outs usually they score runs. A 23 year old kid lead your team in OBP. Not good. Get players who will have an OBP of at least .350 or higher.

7. Send the MLB hitting instructor home with Alex Gordon for the offseason. He needs to work things out with his swing. The guy has a ton of talent and while Royal fans are down on him he will be turning 26 before of the start of next year. Most players hit their prime at age 26 and that usually goes til 31 so the best is years appear to be coming for Alex. Tell fans that he isn’t going to be the savior. That is a burden the kid doesn’t need. Also don’t move him around the infield. Put him at 3rd base and let him play. Remind the kid that it’s a simple game, see the ball hit the ball. Also if Gordon says he’s too big for this remind him that the hitting coach for the Yankees went home 3 years ago with A-Rod and completely redid his swing. He went on to have one of his greatest years ever. If the guy who is making the most in baseball can then you probably can too.

8. Finally, Dayton you and Trey need to apologize to the fans. Telling them that they don’t know what the “plan” is and pretty much implying that you’re smarter than them isn’t going to win you anything. Apologize, tell them you’re sorry and you will be more forthcoming in the future with requests by the media on interviews to talk about the team. I know you think your smarter than most fans and I’m sure you actually are but it doesn’t play well. When boy genius Theo Epstein did this to the Boston fans he got killed. He has 2 rings! He put the team together that killed the curse, he has a lot more good will built up with the Red Sox fans then you guys have. Yet he still got killed by the fans. If he can’t do it then no one can.

These are just some suggestions and I’m sure you’re thinking what free agents we should go after. I need a fans perspective! Just wait till my next blog post.