Sam Mellinger looks at the state of the Royals and finds the job done by Dayton Moore good but not great.
It is — still — too early to make any big judgments about Moore and his work here, other than to say the Royals are in better big-picture shape than Moore found them, and that they are in far worse small-picture shape than most any of us expected.
What we’re seeing at the big league level is just the appetizer to a main course that deservedly needs more time.
But 2010 has long been targeted by club officials as the year to really get serious in the standings, and that’s rapidly approaching with a roster that won’t offer much payroll coming off the books this winter, and a minor league system that doesn’t offer many high-level prospects.
That’s a big problem, and one that will start to get more attention from fans.
Moore made too big mistakes that stand out; the trade for Kyle Davies and the signing of Jose Guillen. The jury is still out on the hiring of Trey Hillman, but at this point that’s probably a slight negative for Moore. The only real win to balance those off is the signing of Gil Meche, and maybe the patience he showed bringing along Zack Greinke from his mental problems. If the team doesn’t at least compete in 2010, Moore’s likely gone.
“Moore made too big mistakes that stand out; the trade for Kyle Davies and the signing of Jose Guillen.”
So, the Kyle Farnsworth signing wasn’t a big mistake?
I don’t think anyone thought that Farmsworth would be a team changer. 🙂
Why Kyle Davies? Didn’t he swapped him for Octavio Dotel?
I don’t understand the Davies diss. Dotel lasted maybe a week with the Braves, threw his arm out and became a free agent after the season. Davies isn’t great but has had some moments.
I got the impression at the time of the trade that Moore thought Davies would be at least a very good pitcher. Moore thought he was getting steal, when all he got was a bad pitcher for a bad pitcher that would break down. The idea is to trade for good players.
But then it wasn’t a big mistake. And certainly not in the Jose Guillen category.
Yeah, I don’t get the Davis thing. Unless the argument is that he should have gotten a better return, it seems like it was a no-risk trade.