I'll admit it. Once Texas took that 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning I gave up all hope. So I did the unthinkable: for the first time this year I turned the TV off early in a Royals game. (As a result I enjoyed a remarkably frustration-free afternoon.)
As I mentioned before, I really wish they would decide to stop giving me reasons to do that. Baseball is my favorite sport and they're doing everything they can to ruin it for me.
They are committing the cardinal sin in my eyes. It’s one thing to be bad, but they’re absolutely boring. That clicking sound is the tens of people with access to the broadcasts turning them off.
Good analysis to confirm my suspicions. Time to blow it up? The Dodgers, for example, desperately need a shortstop and always have a loaded farm system. Witt for three of their top 10 prospects?
Thanks, Jim. I think Witt is a guy you build around. And with four years of club control left after this year, there’s still time to make that happen. The key with Witt will be a contract extension. If he won’t negotiate a long-term deal then trades are on the table. It’s up to the front office to get the timing right for maximum value.
Yes, yes, yes! Baseball is a game of skill, not a game of chance. Luck has very little to do with this poor showing. Can you address the constantly changing lineup? Does any other team change their lineup daily? It seems so unsettling for the players to never know where they are going to play. Great column! I enjoy your analysis so much! Thank you
Thanks, Anne! The changing lineups is something the Royals knew they would be getting with Quatraro. Q, his staff, the analytics group and even the front office will all sort through the matchups and provide input. Too many voices? Maybe. But the ultimate decision lies with Q. Besides, at this point the only guys in the lineup worth writing in every day are Witt and Vinnie and Salvy. He’s pretty much keeping them in the same spots.
Thanks, Steve! I appreciate that. Although I haven’t clicked the switch to actually accept the $$$s. People reading and sharing the newsletter with their fellow frustrated fan friends works for me. I’ll let everyone know when (or if) I ever decide to accept the cash.
The analytical breakdown you've presented is both accurate and obvious. The question might be--what do you propose Royals management do in order to improve? For my own part, it's shocking to see them field a team this year with retread veterans (Reyes, Bradley) plus two new starting pitchers with the words "second division" stamped on their arms. What did management expect would happen? Also, is actual management happy with just turning a profit while not particularly caring about how the team performs? Since the departure of Ewing Kaufmann, I've always suspected this was the case.
This year has always been marked as one of transition. It takes time to change course, especially after a change in leadership that was entrenched for over 15 years. JJ and Q get-and deserve-time. Reyes was supposed to provide depth to the lineup. Bradley…yeah, the defense plays but not enough to counterbalance the bat. But this is not the GMDM Royals where he would be digging in his heels and telling us we really need 40 games before we can evaluate. And Kauffman was a truly unique owner. We were lucky to have him.
Ohtani v. Clarke as an opener on Friday... I'm willing to say things will get worse, at least in the very short-term. I'll be tuned in, probably more due to morbid fascination than anything else.
I'm an optimistic fan (or a delusional one) but I just can't believe they're really this bad. I think they'll get it together at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, but I'm not sure what that looks like. With the hole they've dug themselves, they're never going to be in contention or even anywhere near. 500. Maybe they can avoid 100 losses. And I don't know what the personnel looks like when they start to look at least respectable.
But while I expect improvement, the problem is I'm not sure I see enough for it to matter. I'm impatient for success and I don't want to wait another 30 years to go back to the playoffs, but this whole thing has been so bungled and mismanaged since 15 (thank you for the pennants, DM, but wth were you doing the last 5-6 years?) that I'm not sure a complete restart isn't the right way to go. Definitely don't want to go down that road, but it might be the only realistic path to eventual success. Hopefully they prove otherwise with what remains of this season. Still a lot of baseball to be played.
Apr 20, 2023·edited Apr 20, 2023Liked by Craig Brown
That "complete restart" is the main reason I advocated strongly for trading Salvy immediately after his mega-HR season. (It's important to remember that all those HR's didn't get them within a million miles of the playoffs.)
By the time this team has a chance to truly be competitive again, Salvy will be a shell of his former self if he hasn't retired already. But the young players that could have gotten in return for him might well have been able to contribute to future success.
Of course it's far too late to trade him now but I remain confident that they missed a golden opportunity there. They only needed one overexcited GM to convince himself that "we're only a catcher away from the promised land."
I think it's easy to criticize DM for not dealing the core of the 14-15 team after they won it, but no way you're breaking up the best team in 3 decades the year after they won it all, and they were competitive for most of 2017. Maybe a better GM would have recognized the inevitable and made the tough choice of having a fire sale at the 17 deadline, but even though I knew it would make the rebuild take longer, I was all for them going for it in 17, so I can't criticize DM for that. If you want to talk about the deal he actually made, acquiring Cahill, Buchter, and Brandon Maurer (possibly my least favorite Royal ever), that 's a different story.
But to your point, all the moves made since then have been horrendous. I would love Salvy to retire a Royal, but I also realize that hardly ever happens anymore, and hanging onto him, as much as I love him, has not done this team any favors. It looks like they missed their window on Scott Barlow as well, and if he does rally enough for them to find a taker, I'm assuming the return will be pretty underwhelming, just like for Merrifield, who they also waited too long to trade. Throw in the nonsensical approach to roster building and the complete ineptitude in developing talent, especially on the pitching side, where it looks like they were actively damaging their prospects, and it's just a giant mess. Like Craig said, probably not as bad as when DM took over, but bad enough.
I'm willing to give the new guys in charge a chance and time to turn it around, but each day I'm more convinced that it's going to take a whole lot more time than any of us want to admit. And it's not their fault, it's just the situation they inherited.
Those are all irrefutable comments and I have no disagreement with any of them. But I wasn't really talking about DM's failure to capitalize on the value of the best players on the world series teams. I was talking about a completely separate failure: his failure to trade Salvy after his monstrous 2021 season, which did nothing to get the Royals to the playoffs.
I know. I was just trying to frame my agreement with your point. I hear a lot of fans gripe now about how DM let Cain and Hoz walk for basically nothing. And they're not necessarily wrong, but unless they were one of the few pushing for it at the time (and there were definitely some people out there who did), most of us were more than willing to keep the band together as long as possible back then. I don't want to sound like a hypocrite complaining about it now, when I didn't say much back then.
But your point about Salvy perfectly illustrates how poorly they've handled everything since then, which is especially bad after how they handled the post WS period. Whether it was right or wrong, if you're going to try and make one more run in 17, that puts even more pressure on you to get things right and make tough calls in the years that follow, and it just feels like it's been a disaster ever since.
Patrick, this is a great point. And it brings up a question I’ve heard asked a couple of times lately…Are the Royals in a better spot in 2023 than then were the last time things were overhauled in 2006? I think the answer is undeniably yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. The rot doesn’t run as deep as 2006, but it’s most definitely there. It’s going to take a little more time than we may have thought.
I'll admit it. Once Texas took that 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning I gave up all hope. So I did the unthinkable: for the first time this year I turned the TV off early in a Royals game. (As a result I enjoyed a remarkably frustration-free afternoon.)
As I mentioned before, I really wish they would decide to stop giving me reasons to do that. Baseball is my favorite sport and they're doing everything they can to ruin it for me.
They are committing the cardinal sin in my eyes. It’s one thing to be bad, but they’re absolutely boring. That clicking sound is the tens of people with access to the broadcasts turning them off.
I'm definitely seeing them as a threat to the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who went 20-134.
See? THAT would be interesting. Yet extremely unlikely.
Good analysis to confirm my suspicions. Time to blow it up? The Dodgers, for example, desperately need a shortstop and always have a loaded farm system. Witt for three of their top 10 prospects?
Thanks, Jim. I think Witt is a guy you build around. And with four years of club control left after this year, there’s still time to make that happen. The key with Witt will be a contract extension. If he won’t negotiate a long-term deal then trades are on the table. It’s up to the front office to get the timing right for maximum value.
Yes, yes, yes! Baseball is a game of skill, not a game of chance. Luck has very little to do with this poor showing. Can you address the constantly changing lineup? Does any other team change their lineup daily? It seems so unsettling for the players to never know where they are going to play. Great column! I enjoy your analysis so much! Thank you
Thanks, Anne! The changing lineups is something the Royals knew they would be getting with Quatraro. Q, his staff, the analytics group and even the front office will all sort through the matchups and provide input. Too many voices? Maybe. But the ultimate decision lies with Q. Besides, at this point the only guys in the lineup worth writing in every day are Witt and Vinnie and Salvy. He’s pretty much keeping them in the same spots.
Excellent analysis!!! Thanks.. Will seriously consider $$ support...
Thanks, Steve! I appreciate that. Although I haven’t clicked the switch to actually accept the $$$s. People reading and sharing the newsletter with their fellow frustrated fan friends works for me. I’ll let everyone know when (or if) I ever decide to accept the cash.
The analytical breakdown you've presented is both accurate and obvious. The question might be--what do you propose Royals management do in order to improve? For my own part, it's shocking to see them field a team this year with retread veterans (Reyes, Bradley) plus two new starting pitchers with the words "second division" stamped on their arms. What did management expect would happen? Also, is actual management happy with just turning a profit while not particularly caring about how the team performs? Since the departure of Ewing Kaufmann, I've always suspected this was the case.
Comment
This year has always been marked as one of transition. It takes time to change course, especially after a change in leadership that was entrenched for over 15 years. JJ and Q get-and deserve-time. Reyes was supposed to provide depth to the lineup. Bradley…yeah, the defense plays but not enough to counterbalance the bat. But this is not the GMDM Royals where he would be digging in his heels and telling us we really need 40 games before we can evaluate. And Kauffman was a truly unique owner. We were lucky to have him.
Let’s get transactional!
Ohtani v. Clarke as an opener on Friday... I'm willing to say things will get worse, at least in the very short-term. I'll be tuned in, probably more due to morbid fascination than anything else.
Ohtani is always must-see. Against the Royals…yes, “morbid fascination” is the way to describe it.
I'm an optimistic fan (or a delusional one) but I just can't believe they're really this bad. I think they'll get it together at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, but I'm not sure what that looks like. With the hole they've dug themselves, they're never going to be in contention or even anywhere near. 500. Maybe they can avoid 100 losses. And I don't know what the personnel looks like when they start to look at least respectable.
But while I expect improvement, the problem is I'm not sure I see enough for it to matter. I'm impatient for success and I don't want to wait another 30 years to go back to the playoffs, but this whole thing has been so bungled and mismanaged since 15 (thank you for the pennants, DM, but wth were you doing the last 5-6 years?) that I'm not sure a complete restart isn't the right way to go. Definitely don't want to go down that road, but it might be the only realistic path to eventual success. Hopefully they prove otherwise with what remains of this season. Still a lot of baseball to be played.
That "complete restart" is the main reason I advocated strongly for trading Salvy immediately after his mega-HR season. (It's important to remember that all those HR's didn't get them within a million miles of the playoffs.)
By the time this team has a chance to truly be competitive again, Salvy will be a shell of his former self if he hasn't retired already. But the young players that could have gotten in return for him might well have been able to contribute to future success.
Of course it's far too late to trade him now but I remain confident that they missed a golden opportunity there. They only needed one overexcited GM to convince himself that "we're only a catcher away from the promised land."
I think it's easy to criticize DM for not dealing the core of the 14-15 team after they won it, but no way you're breaking up the best team in 3 decades the year after they won it all, and they were competitive for most of 2017. Maybe a better GM would have recognized the inevitable and made the tough choice of having a fire sale at the 17 deadline, but even though I knew it would make the rebuild take longer, I was all for them going for it in 17, so I can't criticize DM for that. If you want to talk about the deal he actually made, acquiring Cahill, Buchter, and Brandon Maurer (possibly my least favorite Royal ever), that 's a different story.
But to your point, all the moves made since then have been horrendous. I would love Salvy to retire a Royal, but I also realize that hardly ever happens anymore, and hanging onto him, as much as I love him, has not done this team any favors. It looks like they missed their window on Scott Barlow as well, and if he does rally enough for them to find a taker, I'm assuming the return will be pretty underwhelming, just like for Merrifield, who they also waited too long to trade. Throw in the nonsensical approach to roster building and the complete ineptitude in developing talent, especially on the pitching side, where it looks like they were actively damaging their prospects, and it's just a giant mess. Like Craig said, probably not as bad as when DM took over, but bad enough.
I'm willing to give the new guys in charge a chance and time to turn it around, but each day I'm more convinced that it's going to take a whole lot more time than any of us want to admit. And it's not their fault, it's just the situation they inherited.
Those are all irrefutable comments and I have no disagreement with any of them. But I wasn't really talking about DM's failure to capitalize on the value of the best players on the world series teams. I was talking about a completely separate failure: his failure to trade Salvy after his monstrous 2021 season, which did nothing to get the Royals to the playoffs.
I know. I was just trying to frame my agreement with your point. I hear a lot of fans gripe now about how DM let Cain and Hoz walk for basically nothing. And they're not necessarily wrong, but unless they were one of the few pushing for it at the time (and there were definitely some people out there who did), most of us were more than willing to keep the band together as long as possible back then. I don't want to sound like a hypocrite complaining about it now, when I didn't say much back then.
But your point about Salvy perfectly illustrates how poorly they've handled everything since then, which is especially bad after how they handled the post WS period. Whether it was right or wrong, if you're going to try and make one more run in 17, that puts even more pressure on you to get things right and make tough calls in the years that follow, and it just feels like it's been a disaster ever since.
Patrick, this is a great point. And it brings up a question I’ve heard asked a couple of times lately…Are the Royals in a better spot in 2023 than then were the last time things were overhauled in 2006? I think the answer is undeniably yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. The rot doesn’t run as deep as 2006, but it’s most definitely there. It’s going to take a little more time than we may have thought.