the kansas city royals, 2000 - 2009

[flosses like fossas]

Royals fan and sports journalist Joe Posnaski has revisited the Royals' past decade in painstaking (and, often, painful) detail in a recent blog post. If you didn't already, get ready to really feel for Royals fans. Without being wry or getting bitter, Posnaski leaves no stone unturned in mentioning both the fantastic and the folly that have plagued KC in the past 10 seasons. One thing that strikes me is how forgiving Posnaski is toward Dayton Moore, though it seems that might be chalked up to personal acquaintance.

 

Definitely worth a look, even the comments are a good read. Beware, what lies here may feel hauntingly reminiscent of some things that happened in Milwaukee in the mid- and late- 90s.

[yfinn6]

Thanks for posting that, it was an interesting read for sure. How painful it would be to be a Royals fan in the last decade, just as it was to be a Brewers fan in the 90s.

[Ennder]

Until they get a new GM that team isn't going to go anywhere. He doesn't have even a basic understanding of what makes a good baseball player. I saw somewhere where out of the 20 worst OBP players in baseball the Royals could have 8 of them starting at the same time next season.

[sgtcluels]

Kendall calls such a good game.. the Royals are for sure winning the World Series this year.

 

Work has a plant in SE Kansas, and no one really cares about the Royals at all. They are a joke to even the Kansas peeps, and people who are baseball fans gravitate to either the Cubs (Boo) or the Cards. I feel bad for Soria and Greinke, stuck on horrible teams.. but are awesome.

[Invader3K]

Greinke seems to like it there (or at least claims to). If they can keep their small nucleus of quality young talent, they could be competitive soon enough. Of course people have been saying that down there for the past ten years, as the article basically illustrates.

[EinhornIsFinkle]

Slightly off topic but I've been to 20 MLB stadiums and Kaufman is at or very near the top. I went back this last year and I really liked the refurbishment. The scoreboard is beyond stunning and the hall of fame is very very well done.

[joepepsi]

When Dayton Moore came on board Baseball Prospectus fell all over themselves praising his genius. As I recall they really like Baird at first too. Moore was a top assistant GM with the Braves. How could he be so lost in KC?

[brewers4eric]

Thanks for posting the blog link, it was a good read. I especially liked the references to the Earl Weaver quote and the lesson that can be taken from it. I was reminded, sadly, of the Brewer struggles that eventually hit rock bottom during the 2002 season.

[endaround]

I'm not sure how anyone can still be behind Moore after the Jacobs trade. Jacobs was about to be non-tendered and Moore gave up actual talent in order to have the right to pay Jacobs 7 figures.

[hawing]

I appreciate the share, even though this quote gave me the willies:

 

It was almost like they thought, "Well, our offense is terrific, all we need to do now is improve our comically bad pitching staff."

[owbc]

I actually found that piece to be rather optimistic, at least compared to some of his previous work. Posnanski's work is especially sad because he clearly will always love the Royals no matter what--and they likely have many years of losing ahead.