With the Royals playing in the postseason for the first time in nearly three decades, general manager Dayton Moore has been validated, at least in part, writes ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick. The small-market club has stayed with the principles he carried into the job. As Moore explains it: “We’ve got to play defense. Power is expensive and power comes later, and our ballpark just isn’t conducive to home runs, anyway. So we asked ourselves, ‘What can we control?’ We said, ‘Let’s get pitchers who can command the fastball, try to have power in the bullpen and play great defense.’ Of course, we’re trying to develop good hitters, but hitting is tough.” Needless to say, that quote is an apt description of the Royals roster that is on the field tonight.
Here’s more from the AL Central:
- The Twins have yet to finalize a payroll but expect it to remain steady with this year’s books, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on Twitter. According to club president Dave St. Peter, he does not “see [payroll] going down significantly” and expects it will be “comparable to 2014.” The club opened this year with about $85MM in guarantees, and already owes nearly $60MM for 2015 before accounting for arb raises to several players, including Trevor Plouffe.
- As the Twins fire up their effort to find a new manager, one possible name to watch is John Russell, tweets Peter Gammons of GammonsDaily.com. Russell managed the Pirates at an inopportune time (2008-10) and has coached with the Orioles since that time.
- Meanwhile, GM Rick Hahn of the White Sox faces an offseason of many possibilities, but has yet to learn exactly how much cash he’ll have to work with, MLB.com’s Scott Merkin reports. Saying he intends to move toward contention as quickly as possible, Hahn emphasized that it is his “goal to address ideally all of what we feel are our needs, before they shift, as quickly as possible.” Though last winter was quite productive for Chicago, Hahn says he is excited to act aggressively again this year. As Merkin notes, Hahn should have some room to maneuver, as Chicago has only about $46MM in 2015 obligations on the books at present.
John Russell? Pass.
To be fair, he wasn’t exactly given a team when he was with the Pirates…
To be fair, he exibited no managerial or leadership skills when he was with the Pirates. Worst manager ever. Seriously, he would not even go out and argue calls to back up his players. Maybe he was the perfect manager for the perfect time (bad manager for a bad team). But he does not deserve another shot.
Yeah, getting more and more nervous every time I see a name of a retread mentioned in connection with the Twins job.
To be fair, Joe Torre was a major retread when he took over in New York, and the list of successes is long. Managers get too much credit for on field performance and successful ones are undervalued at their people management skills.
The Twins need to spend money/ trade for an ace starting pitcher if they want to have success in the future and put fans back in the seats.
What ace are they going to get?
I guess he’s not an ace, but someone along the lines of Mat Latos via trade. The Twins have the prospects to make it happen.
I don’t think they are in the position to trade for players on 1 year deals.
If you follow the twins you would know that they don’t like to trade prospects – they like to trade FOR prospects.
I do follow the Twins. I’m not saying they will do it. It was a suggestion. They do have depth at postions like 2B. They could definitly trade Eddie Rosario and maybe a low level prospect for a #2 starter. The Twins need rotation help now, and they won’t outbid other teams for Scherzer, Lester, Sheilds’ services anyway.
Do you truly think they could get a #2 starter for Rosario and a low-level prospect? I just can’t see that happening.
Didn’t Latos also have some elbow issues this season? Do you really want to give up the prospects it will take to get somebody like that?
Dayton Moore, what you CAN control us bullpen usage. You made a major trade for James Shields and pulled him for a wild rookie starter. Not that it should have gotten to a wild card game. Ned Yost single handedly cost the AL Central.
Yeah that was a pretty brutal decision…
Not the first time Yost has done it this season and it cost. Central was decided by 1 game, and he legit cost them that simply by a similar misjudgement in Boston. One of the best pens in baseball… goes with Ventura on two days rest. Unfathomable… especially given the almost 30 year wait of the fan base.
I would rarely say that a manager should be fired immediately, but Ned Yost should not leave the stadium employed this evening. Not with a Gardenhire or even the ghost of Earl Weaver managing by Ouija board.. lol
I’m not even a Royals fan, but I would personally drive Sal Fasano to Kansas City to manage the ALDS if they were to get there.
Sal Fasano not like airplanes, or do you just need a road trip?
That’s funny.
But he won!
More accurately…his team won in spite of his management. Asking them to do that will not always get a winning result……same as pinch hitting for Aoki. He did this in season and factually cost them a pennant
I agree. In my opinion after you pull shields they should have gone Holland, and then Davis, for as long as they are good. It’s a one game playoff, don’t worry about saving your closer for if it’s a save chance or not. He only let’s Davis pitch 7 pitches, well because he is the 8th man guy. Start with those 2 after Shields and then maybe you can get 2 from each, and then you only need find one more inning. That could easily have been the game won right there.
Royals bullpen is so solid they could have ridden it out with any mix and match of three pitchers…made zero sense having anyone else in there..period. This whole…”wow, one more out and we could have gotten to Herrera” stuff is garbage
Those 3 guys aren’t just solid, they are absolutely phenomenal. Isn’t the regular season, you don’t save your relievers for tomorrow.
Really?
We are going to validate Moore for this?
He got his team to one wildcard record, and his ace is leaving this winter. I don’t want to be bitter, but that is a pretty bad record, regardless of payroll. Rays were able to come on strong for several years before their window started closing. I really don’t think Moore is good at all, Vargas, Infante, Guthrie are all poor contracts. Once in 10 years may be better than what they had prior, but this doesn’t make him a good GM in any imaginable way.
The idea of a one game playoff is ridiculous to the nature of baseball anyway. It proves nothing. I realize that the 85 Royals only had 91 wins….but I’ll never believe an 89 win team in a six division format is worthy of the playoffs
I despise the new wc system, but that is another story. The WC was about getting that division with 2 really good teams to the playoffs. This new system is an absolute joke, absolutely anything can happen in one game. The Astros could probably bean the Angels 35% of the time if you only go 1 game. The offense as a whole across the league is getting pretty boring, needs fixing.
I realize its not “business attractive” but I’m good with a two team per league playoff like the old days. Make October baseball matter again. I’m even more fine with a balanced schedule and 4 regional leagues
I was even happy with what they had. I thought it worked good. And it’s a bit boring, you play 162 games, and then you send the season down to 1 game?
Moore not only built a solid team, he also built a solid farm system that has a number of good young potential impact players on eh verge of the majors.
As an MLB.com subscriber, I can assure you that the Royals were easily the most athletic, smart and exciting team to watch in MLB this year.
All of which makes it sad to seen them mismanaged in the dugout. I have to think the Royals move on from Yost regardless of outcome.
He has been in charge 8 years. This is an 89 win team, and they aren’t really one of the top 5 farms. And isn’t this their peak? Can they actually win more games next year with Shields leaving, so is their hope to win more than 82 games?
they may be “exciting”, but they are still only an 89 win team, and how long is this window actually open? Butler/Gordon/Shields could all be gone this/next year. So that was the culmination of 8 years of building is an 89 win team?
I really give the GM no credit for that, that is a pretty poor record.
I’ll be very fair and say that 89 wins for anyone who has lived around KC over the past 20 odd years seems amazing given the ownership. If Glass would open the wallet just a bit more this might be a 95 win team for several seasons
It’s way better than what they had, but isn’t that more due to the ineptitude of the previous GMs?
The article tries to paint him in this great light. I don’t like the way he has devoted his $92MM anyways. 8 1/2 years, this team is his. 25 of the other teams have made it to the playoffs in that time. Maybe the article could be written if they won the WS, but after one wildcard? Compared to most of the other GM’s in the league this doesn’t validate his plan, his “plan” is worse than the other teams in the league, so thus doesn’t it not work?
The Royals had a great benefactor when Ewing Kaufman owned the team. The team spent a large part of the 90s in an ownership trust funk, and a seaming unwillingness of the current ownership to form any plan and let the front office work. As far other GMs… that’d be Allard Baird… and now he’s a hot commodity out of Boston. Besides… ask Selig… teams aren’t measured in on field success but revenue
I think we’re in the day and age where KC/MN/Clev/Tampa/ Oak cycle play in games. That’s what small market fans.can hope for….one lousy coin flip game.
They should be aiming for the cycle, It just seems like 8 years is a really long time to get to get to the playoffs, and now the Ace is a free agent, so can they really go up. Just seems pretty low to have the apex as an 89 win team that has a short window. A’s and Tampa had several really good teams in a row.
My theory is that some teams have to flame out for others to succeed. I see it with the mlb draft. Every fan wants their team to draft well…but that’s theoretically impossible because not every player taken is great. Just as not all teams can be TB or Oakland…. they’d be poaching out of the same player pool.
Most people will see this Oak-KC game as the pinnacle of post season excitement. All I see is a manager ridiculously botching a bullpen move and stressing and pressuring his team.
Basically the same team and same record as last season…just the league came back to them a little. AL Central might be a bit tougher next season. White Sox might be a legit .500 or better
I agree with you that one post season appearance shouldn’t validate Moore as a quality gm but also think the Royals window could extend beyond this year. They have some good young pitchers and have the benefit of playing in the AL Central which could be wide open the next couple years. I’d also argue that it is premature to call the Vargas contact poor. He outproduced his salary in the first year with a 2.6 WAR.
If anything they might have gotten to their window early. They won without Hosmer and Butler producing in the order consistently. You give this team some career years soon, and things look solid…. even though they’ll have to replace Shield’s innings and likely Butler
Maybe, but I don’t like so many of their core pieces becoming free agents right as their window is opening. Can Vargas sustain it? The biggest problem though is that $/WAR isn’t a perfect argument. Players at the low end tend to be easier to get. But what you have to really consider is that with a low end payroll you can’t settle for paying free agent prices. You need bargains. Not giving out $32MM for someone who is probably better suited as a #4.
The White Sox will have about $50 million to spend this off season (currently their payroll for 2015 stands at $46 million). They need to address the following areas: LF, DH, SP (right hander) and at least 2 bullpen arms. I propose this (all can be had for the $50 million or so Rick Hahn will have to spend)…
LF – Melky Cabrera, DH Pablo Sandoval (can play 1B/3B and give Abreu/Gillaspie a day off), SP James Shields (they can afford him if they can unload John Danks prior to his signing, if not a guy like Edinson Volquez will do), Andrew Miller (left handed setup guy) and Sergio Romo for closer.
Sox lineup: CF – Eaton, LF – Cabrera, 1B – Abreu, DH – Sandoval, RF – Garcia, 3B – Gillaspie, SS – Ramirez, C – Flowers, 2B – Semien/Johnson
Sox rotation: Sale, Shields (Volquez), Quintana, Rodon, Noesi
Guys like John Danks and Viciedo will be moved for minor league help and payroll flexibility.
Plus they need to fire Robin Ventura and go after Ron Gardenhire. They way Ventura has managed since he’s been here and now the story about him and Chris Sale having a heated argument, it’s time for a change.
I’m not a.Melky Cabrera fan, but its nice having that money to spend. The market for Shields will be sizable. Pretty sure the bullpen is addressed. Lefty bat…its a good time to watch the Sox move on and build. I always saw Ventura as a place holder.
Maybe Ventura didn’t want Sale antagonizing a brawl from the dugout for fear that he’d get out on the field and Nolan Ryan would appear to give him another noogie
Robin will not be fired anytime soon. I don’t know if I like Melky Cabrera. I believe Viciedo gets moved. Im hoping they stay young but do need a right handed starter. I could see a return of Jake Peavy to buy another year for righties Erik Johnson, Chris Bassitt, Frankie Montas and Tyler Danish. A veteran closer I think they could pursue is either Joakim Soria or Rafael Soriano. Victor Martinez and/or Nick Markakis are high on my list. These veterans mixed in with the young stars Sox have be a nice blend. Matt Davidson, Marcus Semien and Conor Gillespie will duke it out at third until Trey Michaelszewski is ready. Micah Johnson and Carlos Sanchez at second will be tough. Markakis could fill in until Courtney Hawkins is ready, Alexei Ramirez until Tim Anderson comes up. With Sale, Quintana and Rodon added, by 2016 this team can battle for another championship.
My lineup would be Eaton-cf, Johnson-2b, Abreu-1b, Martinez-dh, Garcia-lf, Markakis-rf, Gillaspie/Davidson-3b, Ramirez-ss, Flowers-c. Sale, Quintana, Peavy, Danks and Rodon in my rotation.
Well whoever the Twins decide on, DOUG MIENTKIEWICZ, will have a tall task of improving on a team with 3 straight 90+ loss seasons! I mean seriously the new manager could do just about everything wrong and still be able to improve on that!
The Royals are kind of the anti-Moneyball team. They do everything that the Moneyball crowd hates. But if you’re THAT good on defense and THAT good at stealing bases, then you can win doing it.
I know if I was a pitcher, I’d love pitching with that defense behind me in that ballpark. Just get everyone to hit the ball in the air and let Gordon, Cain and Aoki (or Dyson, if he’s in there) run them down and catch them.