Of the Royals acquiring pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis from Tampa Bay for the rather steep price of OF prospect Will Myers (above) and 3 other hopefuls, rehabbing KC pitcher Danny Duffy tweeted, ““IM DOIN ONE ARMED CARTWHEELS THRU THE PLAZA,” a reaction shared by few fans or analysts over the past 18 hours. The Kansas City Star’s Sam Mellinger, while stressing, “this trade is not the unmitigated disaster some are calling it,” succinctly points out that Royals GM Dayton Moore, “is giving away six years of baseball’s best hitting prospect (Myers), six years of his best pitching prospect (Jake Odorizzi) and six years of a high-risk pitching prospect (Mike Montgomery) for two years of a solid starter (Shields) and as many as five years of another starting pitcher (Davis).” Rayn On The Royals’ Rany Jazayerli offers an even shorter summation (“this sucks”), while SI.com’s Jay Jaffe is more than happy to elaborate, calling the transaction, “a fundamental misreading of the Royals’ current station”.
Coming off a 72-90 campaign, their 17th losing season in the past 18 years, they simply weren’t a front-of-the-rotation starter away from contention even when one factors in the other improvements they’ve made this winter, or the ones they can expect from a nucleus of young talent that itself serves as a reminder that success isn’t 100 percent guaranteed for Myers. Instead, the move expresses Moore’s desperation for positive results at the major league level. While he has shown a knack for drafting and developing talent that can light up prospect lists, his inability to build a competent and competitive team — which hasn’t been helped by tight-fisted owner David Glass — has resulted in a .431 winning percentage during his six full seasons on the job, the majors’ second-worst record.
Arguing the Royals’ likely 2012 starting 5 of Shields, Ervin Santana, Jeremy Guthrie, Davis and Bruce Chen, “is not a rotation that can win a weak division”, Jaffe delivers the most crushing news of all ; “Barring another move, K.C. must now also contend with Jeff Francouer as its starting rightfielder, coming off a .235/.287/.378 season, instead of Myers.”
What do you expect from an owner who used to run Wall-Mart?
From the Encyclopedia Britannica:
“During his tenure as owner, (David) Glass has been criticized for using the same cost-cutting management style of the Wal-Mart company with the Royals baseball team, resulting in large personal profits for himself but a poorly-performing team.[4] Glass’ management is cited for transforming the Royals from a winning team in the 1980s to one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball during the 1990s and 2000s.[4][7] Under Glass’ leadership, the board cut the (1993) payroll budget from $41 million to $19 million. During the Major League Baseball strike of 1994-1995, Glass opposed any settlement with the players’ union without a salary cap, and supported the use of strike breaking “replacement” players, despite a court ruling that Major League owners were in violation of Federal labor laws.[4]
Glass created a controversy on 9 June 2006 by revoking the press credentials of two reporters who had earlier asked pointed questions to Royals management.[8] The harsh move to avoid criticism infuriated many within the press and led to a backlash of articles that extended far beyond the Kansas City sports community.[9]”
And they said my hemorrhoids were a pain in the ass.