Here ya go boss

Best article Sam has ever scribed.

If we hadn't of had that 9-17 stretch, our record would've been good enough for a wildcard spot. /March 2015

They lose this series with the Pale Hose and we are done. I don't give a **** how many games back we are of the last WC spot, this Team will fold and go away until they are 8-10 back of the WC SPOT. Then, they will make a mad dash in the last 30 days of the season just to finish slightly above .500

Rinse, repeat, stuck in neutral, slit your wrist, full of hope in the Spring of '15. FML

"For these Royals, the brighter the lights shine, the more their flaws are exposed." canon scripture

"The 2014 Royals are now seven games behind the Tigers, 3 1/2 behind the Mariners for the second wild card, and, barring a break from character, 65 games from becoming the first franchise in more than 20 years to not make the playoffs within four seasons of being chosen baseball’s best farm system by Baseball America." :deevee:

I'm a few pages late, but I just wanted to say that this is a great gif.

If an entire team is made up of home-grown players, with most of them being high school draftees or international signings, and they can't handle pressure, that isn't just about the players.

That's another strike against the development process that's in place.

There's an air of satisfaction with mediocrity, a participation medal feel, around this front office (that's what happens when you're two games under .500, wildly inconsistent and up-and-down, atrocious in one of the big areas of the game, and let it leak that you don't understand why you're not selling out every night).

That filters down to everybody. You just don't get a feel that there's a demand for excellence.

The stuff about BA and best farm system is just terribly damning. That goes to player development in the minors and at the major league level, too.

I hear what you are saying, but there is NO EVIDENCE to support that he is capable of getting this done. NONE!

You can't be this wildly inconsistent as a team, and expect that the other Teams around you are going to continue to keep you in the game. Those other franchises have actually won something in the last couple of decades, and know how to make deals to get better in the 2nd half of the season. The "Be Royals" and Dayton Moore..................yeah. Not so much.

http://www.pinetarpress.com/royals-s...probably-wont/
Royals Should Sell, But History Means They Probably Won't
DB Lesky

After the fears of many have been realized, the Kansas City Royals are now in the home stretch of July and under the .500 mark. This may seem familiar. Just last year the Royals didn’t reach the .500 mark to stay until they beat the White Sox to win their sixth straight and got to 51-51. They’d fall back to exactly .500 once more before finishing the season on a strong note and getting to 86-76. At that time, the season was trumpeted by the organization as a success. You may recall Dayton Moore’s probably regrettable quote about the World Series. So that brings us to today, in the midst of the most anticipated Royals season since 2004, and the team is floundering. It seems like so long ago that the Royals were 39-32 and in charge of the AL Central with a 1.5 game lead. That’s vanished. They’ve even lost their hold on second place in the division.

So now, they should sell.

I’m a firm believer that if a team doesn’t have a real shot at the playoffs that they should always be trading parts that can allow them to receive help for future seasons. How many players I’d trade really depends on the team and the season. The Rangers, for example, are pretty clearly losing because I’m pretty sure their entire roster has spent time on the disabled list. With better health hoped for and assumed in 2015, the Rangers should probably hang on to some of their key guys. Maybe Elvis Andrus could fetch something on the open market, but he can be a key contributor to a good Rangers team next year, so why trade him just to trade him? At the same time, Adrian Beltre might be a good fit to be traded because the Rangers have Joey Gallo on the way, so they could boost their 2015 team with the return for Beltre and hopefully not lose anything at third base next year with the young guy coming up.

With a team like the Cubs, trading Jeff Samardzija was probably the right move. They’re on the cusp of being good, but not right there, so trading a guy who would probably be gone after next season anyway is smart. If the Cubs felt they could win next year, then I think it would be harder to trade Samardzija. The Rays might believe they can contend next year. If that’s the case, they’re not likely to receive anyone in return for David Price who can better help them to that goal, so maybe they hold on to him.

You can see that it’s not so easy to make these decisions. The Royals are kind of no-man’s land right now because they are sort of in striking distance of the second wild card with a fair amount of time left to go this season. This is where the history of the franchise gets in the way of the future of the franchise. If the Royals were an organization that had a couple playoff runs here and there and weren’t gunning for their third .500+ season since the strike, things would be very different. The Royals would look at their current roster and see a lot of potential for this team next season with the right moves being made. The front office wouldn’t feel the weight of their first eight years in control along with the weight of the 21 years prior to that. If we’re being honest, anything that happened before 2014 from a franchise perspective should be irrelevant. If we’re being logical, though, we know that’s not the way things work.

Now the Royals are in a situation that they don’t really know what they should do. If you watch this team, it’s pretty apparent that they’re mediocre. No, they aren’t as bad as they’ve shown at times, and they’re not nearly as good as they showed during their winning streak that vaulted them into first place. They’re probably a team destined to win somewhere between 78 and 86 games. A team without the last quarter century plus of losing might look at that record and see that it’s not good enough to really get anywhere and realize that the difference between 72 wins and 86 wins is nothing if it means no playoffs. A team like the Royals, though, sees value in 86 wins over 72 wins because even a .500 record is so hard to come by. That’s a big reason why you’re not going to see a Royals team near .500 and relatively close to a potential playoff spot in July selling off pieces. If it gets really bad, then maybe the conversation changes.

A related reason is the failure of this regime to get to the playoffs in nearly a decade on the job. When the Royals traded for James Shields and Wade Davis, a pretty clear message was sent that the Royals were expecting to make the playoffs in 2013 and/or 2014. I think there are ancillary benefits of respectability that a lot of people just don’t want to hear, but you don’t trade one of the best offensive prospects your system has seen for two years of a legitimately good starting pitcher unless you expect to make the playoffs with that guy. You don’t trade a potential stalwart in the outfield to have two .500+ seasons. Some can argue that, but they’d be wrong. So yeah, this season means a lot to this front office.

And that’s why they’re probably not going to do what they probably should do and trade James Shields to a team desperate for starting pitchers. That’s why they’re probably not going to pick one of Davis or Holland and trade them now. That’s why they’re probably not going to even seriously consider trading a guy like Eric Hosmer or Lorenzo Cain or, gasp, Alex Gordon. Instead, they’re likely going to stand pat or maybe even add some pieces to make a run as the 2014 season begins to wind down. This team could potentially even make a run if they add the right pieces. A right-handed bat who can hit some homers would be huge in this lineup. Bolstering the bullpen would be really helpful to aid a very good starting rotation. And this team could make a bit of a run and they could get to that 86 or 87 win mark. The problem is that I don’t think that’s even going to be enough to make the playoffs. Why sell the farm to miss the playoffs by three games?

I’ve been an advocate of buying for the Royals, but my advocacy stems from the fact that I just don’t see the Royals doing the opposite. Realistically, they should probably sell and try to re-tool for next season. They have two guys in their rotation in Yordano Ventura and Danny Duffy who have shown that they may be able to headline a rotation. There’s potential for 2015. If the last 29 years of Royals hadn’t been such an abject failure, the organization might be able to look to that year and tell the fans that they’ll try again next year with a stronger team, with holes from this year’s team fixed and strengths made stronger.

With all the flack we deservedly give this organization, it’s easy to forget that they know exactly what’s going on with team. They know the problems. Still, they see a team with a lot of potential and often focus on what they can do rather than what they have done. When you look at the entirety of what this team has done, it’s just hard to see a way this team makes the playoffs. Becuase of that simple point, I would sell. Unfortunately, Dayton Moore and company know the history of both this organization and their regime and feel they just can’t do that. And unfortunately, that has a chance to lead to the organization missing an opportunity to strengthen the next few years for the glory of not being mathematically eliminated until late in September again.

I've been saying these guys are pants wetters forever. Any time we draw a big crowd at home, they play like shit. But if it's Tuesday night in September and 10,000 (barely) people show up, they play like world beaters.

Glass won't do anything to change anything. This team was "better" this year, which means they waited until July to implode instead of May. Next year will be 30 years even of futility. They should put a shoulder patch on the uniform to commemorate the achievement.

Even if Glass did whack GMDM, the next contestant would stand up at the press conference and announce "I have a plan, but the fans need to be patient. Give me five years...."

Uuuuuugh.....

We are the American League Version of the Chicago Cubs.

WRONG!

The Cubbies have actually been to the Playoffs 5 times since we last went. We are in a league of our own.

We're better at being the Cubs than the Cubs!

Once again I'll bring the argument that a good manager can make a big difference.

Hate to say this, because it sounds very Royal-ish...

but the Cubs and the Astros are the two teams who are set up to be damn good in 2017.

I know we all thought that about the Royals 3 years ago so...yeah. Anything can happen I suppose.

Dayton should sell. He should sell Shields and Holland for sure. And then he should get the boot and we, once a-freaking-gain, should start over.

Hire some stats geek from the A's or the 'Stros and go from there.

Please Glass sell the team to the cerner group. I'm tired of this no accountability. From the owner to guys like Moore and yost.

Glass has zero reasons to sell the team.

I'm not seeing why, currently, David Glass is an issue. We spent plenty of money this year. We've spent more money than the Pirates and the A's to name a few...a lot more money than those two teams actually.

So yeah. He's clearly not a great or attentive owner...but the failure has to be on Dayton at this point. If we want to blame Glass for Dayton's failure I suppose that's acceptable.

Save Our KC Royals fixin to start flying banners according to their FB...

I wonder how much time Dayton has left?

dingleberry asking isn't enough?

He'd have to put them on Rollback first

About 2.5 months...........

Yeah he does. Rich people understand that $600 million, cash, now is better than making, say, $30-50 million a year. Because of what you can do with that huge amount of cash and how much money you can use it to create.

I don't know that Glass is the real problem (he's given Dayton Moore more resources than a LOT of teams that have been more successful), but having a group of owners with hugely deep pockets (probably 3-4x Glass's personal fortune) who have extremely high expectations and know how to run a first-rate, model organization would be an upgrade.

B-I-N-G-O!

No doubt that the Cerner guys have more money and they have kicked ass with Sporting, just remember that Sporting's salary for the entire team is similar to what the Royals pay Hosmer.

Marty McDonald is trying to raise money to fly banners over Kauffman. If you want to help, you can donate here:

http://www.gofundme.com/bvwqfc

Relevance?

I think this effort is jumping the shark.

It was brilliant with the Chiefs because Pioli was a one who sucks the penis, in addition to being a terrible GM. Dayton Moore, by all accounts, is actually a decent dude; he's just ****ing bad at his job.

Big difference.

4 million to a billionaire is easier to piss away than 100 million plus on a payroll is my point.

Yep. I don't like this one.

Fly banners over Kaufmann? Really? Sounds like a dumb idea. It's not like they Pioli'd the place and didn't try...Moore just happened to be inept when it came to developing players.

If I had MILLIONS of expendable income...I would not donate a dime to that abysmal idea of flying banners over The K. IMO, dumb and tacky.

It totally made sense to black out Arrowhead and get the scumbag dickhole of a person Pioli out of town. Moore? Let him get fired and move on with it. It's not like he Pioli'd us and told us all to go **** ourselves.

Marty is a super good dude...but this just seems like an attention whore kind of thing. Trust me, I know attention whoring when I see it.

Count me in not a fan with banners for the Royals.

Unless it's an effort to get a recording of David Glass saying something racist, I wouldn't fund that shit.

Pony up.
Demand better.

exactly

Trying to get you guys to stand up for something around here is like debating with the Judean Peoples Front.

https://www.facebook.com/JudeanPeoplesFront

I'll gladly fly a banner if it reads, "**** you Moose and Butler. And you better have a 1.000 OPS this month Hosmer or **** you, too. Hi Alex!!!"

Really hope he rethinks this thing because I think it would allow for revisionist history to cheapen the brilliant public castrating of Pioli's worthless ass.

Pioli deserved to be publicly humiliated. Moore does not; he simply needs to be fired.

agreed

I donated to the Chiefs banner but won't donate to this. Not the same situation, and I don't want us fans to overplay our hand. The save our chiefs model should be used judiciously.
Posted via Mobile Device

Biggest problem is that we're going to waste an opportunity to improve in the next 10 days.

We should be trading Shields and Holland, but Moore won't do this because it would be an admission that he's failed on a number of different levels, thus cementing his firing.

100% right. Shields and Holland should be packaged together forrrrrr!!!!

OSCAR TAVERAS.

DO IT.

DO IT NOW.

(although I'm not sure the Cardinals would do this...even though I think it's totally fair for both teams.)

Ownership is the largest problem with the Royals.

:rolleyes:
Cardinals fans have sucked his cock way too much.

Over-playing the hand depends on the nature of the message.

I think 29 years of futility deserves some kind of fan response, and a .500 baseball team is NOT progress based on eight or nine years of management.

If you're happy with the way things are now, and what you have as a team, then you have no idea what winning baseball is all about or what it's like to be in a real dogfight for a division.

Mediocrity shouldn't be rewarded, but that's the new reality in this participation-ribbon filled world. Give everybody a trophy, and for God's Sake, don't hurt anybody's self esteem.

We tried the Save Our KC Royals last year... and the day that we went live, they hired George Brett. Heh.

Or package in a prospect with those two for Stanton? :hmmm:

If Marty can raise enough money to fly the banner, the Royals will raise ticket prices the night of the first fly over, because it's an "event" and tickets are subject to dynamic variable pricing. I hope they do it on "Salute the A's" night.

I hate that promotion with the intensity of a thousand burning suns.

Wednesday, August 13th is "A's Poster Night." Get a poster of the team that abandoned Kansas City to go to Oakland, California, then win six AL Pennants and Four World Series.

We salute them because they know how to win, and we don't.

Ya-hoo.

DM wouldn't even finish his sentence before the Marlins' FO would hang up the phone.

Sure would like to know what, arguably, the best reliever in baseball + a legit #3 starter would bring from a contender, though...

Their combined net worth is something like $6-7 billion dollars, minimum (Illig and Patterson are $6 billion combined, and the other guys have to be bringing SOMETHING to the table). Most of Glass's net worth is tied up in the Royals franchise (I think he's about $700 million, with $500 million of that being the Royals).

The salary is restricted by the league, but those guys have spent considerably more than their peers on everything around the team (and really understand how to create fan experience - SEC football teams are consulting with them to pick up pointers on that).

They also made big personal investments in a soccer-only stadium and complex because they understand you have to spend it to make it.

Can't get behind flying the banners. Paying someone to divert the team plane over Ukraine though...

Well unfortunately Miami doesn't work because they aren't buyers...so they have absolutely no use for Shields and Holland is going to start getting really expensive.

The reason the Cards work because they are legitimately WS contenders and need a starter and MOST DEFINITELY need Greg Holland.

Hootie, not seeking any limelight...and I certainly don't have the time to do this or give this like SOC.

However, the amount of requests I get to start this movement, re-start it, etc... I've long ignored for a year. This weekend's series? I figured the best thing do is to create the portal for people to donate to. If the fans don't donate enough, guess what? No banners.

Reality is the Royals haven't been to the post-season since 1985. This year's squad is just too talented to play with the volume of ups-and-downs they have. If the fans truly want a SOR movement, they'll contribute. Otherwise, this thing goes away.

Let this be a wake up call to the club.

Thank you for that response. Perfect

I have no problem with the Cerner Group buying the Royals at all, they would be the best for it. MLB is just a whole different beast than MLS is.

The point is that they are more than financially capable of stepping up, and they have shown that they are a VERY progressive ownership group.

Do it!

Davis is owed $7M next year, which is an asinine amount for a set-up guy. Perfectly reasonable for a good closer, though.

Ironically, moving Davis to the closer role and potentially getting an elite prospect for Shields and Holland would offer a way for the Royals to still win "The Trade" in a way that I don't think anyone envisioned.

I love you Marty, but this is a bad proposition. The Chiefs play once a week to large viewing audiences. The Royals play 5-6 times per week in front of a small viewership. Apples and Buick's. The effect will hit ESPN and local channels as a small also ran blurb and have no effect. And, to repeat what Deez stated, Pioli deserved every shot he got from the fans and more. Dayton isn't a bad guy, he just sucks as a GM.

I certainly think the Royals should be at least keeping the option open. Trading Shields/Holland now could benefit the team and make this do or die season less die next season.

That's why I'm all for trading Holland. And honestly, Wade Davis' reliever stuff is even filthier than Holland's and I didn't even think that was possible (Sans Kimbrel).

Davis is a steal in the closer's role for his two team option years...Holland will be more expensive.

Some contender would overpay for a Shields/Holland combo...and honestly speaking...if our bats get hot it still wouldn't necessarily cripple our run for that last wild card spot.

I'll be thrilled when gmdm I'd fired. Problem is glass doesn't seem to be in a rush

If he is fired it won't be until after the season. While GMDM has made some bade decisions, he has also made some good ones. This team is perfectly capable of performing at a higher level than they are. I think most of the problem is the way they are allowed to be managed or not managed, if you will.

I can't disagree to a point, but it might be the only way, and it's not like we would ever use the tactic on, let's say, Sporting KC.

But your point is not lost, I just think we're at the point were perhaps in September that this nuclear option needs to be performed.

This....

we could hire Sparky Anderson or Tommy LaSorda and Pete would blame management...

of course, Cardinals fans do the same ****ing thing. They go to the NLCS or WS every year and they want to fire their manager every season

I'd ask Wilt Chamberlain for advice about that, Hootster....

Yep. Completely convinced that moving Shields/Holland/+ prospects (because it will take a prospect or two to complete the deal) for a Taveras is definitively the right thing to do, not only for the future but for this year, too.

Must get a legit bat.

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports that the Royals are considering a trade for outfielder Alex Rios.
Kansas City's offense ranks second-to-last in the American League in OPS and Rios could provide a boost. The 33-year-old is hitting .302/.330/.435 with four home runs and 16 stolen bases in 96 games this season for the Rangers, who are paying him $12.5 million in 2014 and hold a $13.5 million club option on him for 2015.

See, DM is going to do something ****ing stupid like this and then I'm going to be back here advocating for the plane to get in the air immediately.

Alex Rios' numbers are basically identical to Lorenzo Cain. The differences are Cain actually plays defense, and doesn't come with a 12+ mil pricetag.

Sounds like a Royals thing to do, expect it to happen.

I wouldn't trade a bag of dicks for any name the Royals are rumored to be considering based on the information in that link.

**** it. Fly the ****ing plane.

DM, why do you force me to ****ing hate you so much?

did I say the plane was a silly idea?

maybe I should rethink my position...

Yep. He's going to pull the Yuni equivalent of an outfield acquisition, and I'm going to lose my ****ing mind.

Royals are looking for a bat which they need yet fans are bitching about that.

If they get this guy they either have to bench Aoki or Butler. Wasn't Rios with the White Sox before Texas?

Yes he was with the Sox. Royals looked at him before the Sox traded him to Texas. Aoki would probably be DFA then.

Rios would help.

Rios would have helped a lot more if they had made the move for him a month ago.

Not sure there's enough time left to make up for how effing awful the offense has been outside of the 3 week spurt directly after Grifol's canning.