Thank God that’s over. The Royals mercifully ended the misery of the remaining 12 of us that actually followed them after June 1st by playing #162 last Sunday. So where do we go from here?? We have little to no talent in the minors, we are on the hook for $51 million in salary, and that’s before you talk about the 12 players that are eligible for arbitration, and there will be no significant increase in the $70 million payroll.
The honus for the shit storm that was the 2009 Kansas City Royals falls directly on the shoulders of one Dayton Moore. It is clear that something needs to change. But Moore has handcuffed the organization with swing first ask questions later type players with no chance of getting out from under their dead weight for at least another year. So, where do we look to shake things up to avoid a repeat of the most disappointing baseball season in recent memory??
Not at the coaching staff!!
Nope. They, apparently did a fine, upstanding job, and will all be retained!! Well, except for this year’s organizational scapegoat: bullpen coach John Mizerock. I find this incredibly surprising for a couple of reasons. 1.) Why not just blow the whole damn thing up and start over?? 2.) Given this organization’s aversion to getting rid of organizationally tenured gentlemen, why fire Rock after 18 years of servitude??
Well, he didn’t do his job. However, that job is a little hard to do when you’re given the shit-sandwich that was the Royals bullpen this year. Fair enough. Position coaches are usually easily expendable, and the turnover for most of them is high. But the question I have is why, if we are looking at coaches to blame, are we not all pointing fingers at third base coach Dave Owen??
It’s hard to be objective about base coaches. They mostly stand there, scratch themselves, and try not to get beat up by meth-heads. But, generally speaking, it has always been the third base coach’s job to run the baserunning operation for the ball club. Looking at every available metric – basestealing, going 1st to 3rd on a single, making it home from first on a double – proves the Royals weren’t just a group of putrid baserunners, but they were by far the most putrid group of baserunners in baseball.
But it hasn’t always been that way. Mark Teahan was always considered one of the smartest baserunners in the game. David DeJesus was always a double-digit positive in Bill James’ baserunning plus/minus until 2008. Both of them have regressed to being well below average baserunners.
It’s one thing to fire a bullpen coach for not being able to make bad players better, but to hold onto a coach that has proven to make good players worse?? That’s just criminal.
Lastly, A Quick World Series Prediction:
Pickin’ all of these NFL games week in and week out has gotten me in the predictionarial mood, so I’ve decided to give my two cents on the baseball playoffs. Always a futile effort, MLB playoff predictions are about as reliable as Kyle Farnsworth pitching the eighth. Still, as baseball is the sport about which I have the most knowledge, I’ll do my best to embarrass the crap out of myself for the next few paragraphs:
1.) The Yanks seem like the odds-on favorite to win this year, but, despite all of the hoopla about the Twins having to come back after an emotional win, and the firepower they posess, I smell trouble. I don’t like the fact that the Bombers are going up against crafty left-handers (the type of pitchers they never do well against) in game one, then have to go to baggie-land for at least one game this series. Still, though, it’s tough to see the Yankees F’n this one up…though I wouldn’t put it past them.
2.) Ever since the advent of the Wild Card, the recipe for postseason success has always been two strong front-line pitchers, a large middle-of-the-lineup presence, and a bunch of white, no-name players that will scrap the shit outta you, and come out of nowhere with timely hits out the wazzo. Well, there’s one team that has those components in spades, and that team is the St. Louis Cardinals. That’s right, I said it.
So, what…Yanks, Twinkies and Cards…that’s it, isn’t it??
World Series: Cardinals over Yankees in Six. That’s right, I said it.