What Could Have Been Royals

October 30, 2008

Spencer

What Could Have Been Royals

The Royals according to the Kansas City Star, are actively attempting to trade Mark Teahen to the Cleveland Indians for Franklin Gutierrez, Ben Francisco or minor-leaguer Trevor Crowe. Great! So essentially the Royals will get Ben Francisco for Carlos Beltran. The Royals traded Beltran in 2004 for three studs, Mark Teahen, John Buck, and Mike Wood. With Wood no longer in the Royals, Buck proving he is not a major league catcher, and Teahen potentially heading to Cleveland, the Royals and their fans got stuck with nothing for one of the best center fielders in baseball. If you recall, the KC was in negotation talks with other teams, including the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees for the Beltran sweepstakes. The talks with the Red Sox were for acquiring Kevin Youkilis (then a third baseman) and catcher Kelly Shoppach. The Yankees countered with Robinson Cano and Dioner Navarro. Instead of cornerstone players like Youkilis and Cano, the Royals get Franklin Gutierrez. Gutierrez hit .248 last year, an actual downgrade from Teahen (.255). Mark Teahen hit .285 in 2007 and .290 in 2006. Yes Dayton Moore, lets trade Teahen at his lowest trade value. If Mark Teahen has a bad first half in 2009 then trade him at the deadline. I think we atleast owe that to him, after all we did trade Carlos Beltran for the guy. Then we can put all our eggs in the Trevor Crow basket.

That was all Allard Baird, Dayton Moore is a far better General Manager than that. Not so fast, JP Howell was at one time a pitcher for the Royals (pitching in the World Series currently for the Tampa Bay Rays), we traded him for Joey Gathright. Gathright a career .263 hitter, might be better known for his youtube videos of him jumping over parked cars. Jeremy Affeldt was a contributing member of the Rockies bullpen this year, Moore traded him for the next Mark Mcgwire, Ryan Shealy. Billy Buckner was traded for Alberto Callapso from the Diamond Backs. Buckner pitched out of the bullpen for Arizona with a 3.21 ERA in ten games. Callapso was arrested for a DUI in 2008 with the Royals. Mike Dougal (a former all star with the Royals) had a 2.12 ERA with the White Sox this year. The Royals got pitching phenom Tyler Lumsden for him. Lumsden did go 3-13 with a 7.21 ERA in AAA Omaha in 2008.

The Royals have had some not so terrefic draft luck in recent years. The Royals in 2005 drafted Alex Gordon second over all. Some pretty big names were drafted after Alex; Ryan Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, Jay Bruce, and Jacoby Ellsbury. This draft could be viewed as a bad one, although I do hold out some hope for Gordon. In 2006, Kansas City had the first overall pick. Luke Hochevar was the selection. The Dodgers drafted him 40th overall in 2005, but Hochevar did not sign. I'm not sure how a guy goes from 40th to 1st in a year where he played in a non-major league affiliate league, but this draft allegedly Dayton Moore was not involved in with Royals despite being named Royals GM earlier in the season, we all believe that one. The Royals passed up on Tim Lincecum, Andrew Miller, and Ian Kennedy.

The final games of the 2006 season for the Royals, three games with the eventual American League champs, the Detroit Tigers. All the Royals had to do was lose baby. Instead, the Royals swept the Tigers and cost themselves the number one overall pick, which ended up going to Tampa Bay. In 2007, there was clear cut number one overall pick, a left handed pitcher from Vanderbilt named David Price (another guy pitching in the World Series for the Rays). Many baseball "experts" believe that Price is the best pitching prospect in many years. The Royals settled for the second pick and drafted short stop Mike Moustakas, who is now playing third base in the minors. I'm not going to rip on Moustakas (yet) because he does show potential, but come on lose one more game for a lefty phenom with a high 97 MPH fastball.

The Shoe

The 2009 Royals line up could be (not all that unrealistic)

1. CF David DeJesus

2. SS Mike Aviles

3. 3B Kevin Youkilis

4. LF Ryan Braun

5. RF Jose Guillen

6. DH Billy Butler

7. 1B Ross Gload

8. 2B Mark Grudzielanek

9. C Kelly Shoppach

Pitching Rotation