Ankiel Signs With Royals
Ankiel will try to rebuild value in Kansas City after slipping to a .231/.285/.387 line for the Cardinals in 2009. The 30-year-old’s maladies included a sore Achilles tendon, a deep shoulder bruise, and a groin strain. The shoulder injury, suffered in May, came from a headfirst collision with a wall and lingered most of the season.
Apologies to my non-sports-reading readers, but I just spotted this — what the hell is going on in Kansas City? Is Dayton Moore trying to collect every sub-.300 OBP player in baseball?
Last year the Royals drew 457 walks. There are currently about 450 Siberian tigers left in the wild. Anyone want to bet which ends up being more rare in 2010? This isn’t just wishful thinking, but I really think the Tiger is going to bounce back. Yuniesky Betancourt’s batting eye, not so much. Again, apologize for the non-political aside, but this stuff just makes me scratch my head.
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He’ll put up an OPS+ around 120 when healthy and provide good defense. You could sign Pujols and this team wouldn’t even be .500.
Shop Greinke and Soria would be my advice. And stop signing failed Braves pitchers.
I’m just saying, does Moore have a fetish or what? Just look at the guys he puts out on the field. Mike Jacobs. Betancourt. Coco Crisp. Miguel Olivo. Scott Podsednik, Ross Gload, Willie Bloomquist… I mean he actually paid real money for Willie Bloomquist! He’s grabbed every walk-averse free agent on the block, and the only reason he didn’t grab Adrian Beltre this year was because he couldn’t afford him.
In response to another comment. See in context »I hear the Royals sign Bombin’ Ben and Timmy the Tiger for front office help.
You got some set of balls to bag on the Royals, Taibbi – real brave. But you’re way off base.
Anybody with shit for brains should realize that Dayton Moore is doing the only thing he can with his resources – building the best defensive team possible, a team built around pitching.
Hang your big market hat on the stat de jour, OBP, if you must, but a top-notch rotation backed up by the best fielders possible (read: affordable in this midget market) could win the AL Central – the weakest division in the bigs.
When healthy, Ankiel covers more ground than Mies van der Rohe, and he’s got a fucking Howitzer. If he can hit even a little better, it’ll be huge for KC. KC can’t buy offense. So putting speed on the bases to pressure opponents is one of the few tools they have – even if it means employing old humps like Kendall and Ankiel.
I’d suggest you come to the K and watch Greinke before you write about Moore and KC again. You’ll punch your own balls for being such a dumb dick.
But why spend money on bad free agents at all if you’re the Royals? Most especially, why trade away good young arms like Leo Nunez and Ramon Ramirez to get middling subpar offensive players like Jacobs and Coco Crisp? More to the point, what’s the rationale for trading Nunez for Jacobs and then signing the corpse of Kyle Farnsworth to real money to replace Nunez?
I’m not anti-Royals, and Greinke is awesome (although “top notch rotation” might be stretching it when you have another team in the division with Buehrle, Peavy, Danks and Floyd) but Moore makes Omar Minaya look like Otto Bismarck.
In response to another comment. See in context »Ok, you’ve redeemed yourself somewhat. The Farnsworth fiasco was terrible. And yes, trading away promising arms for hacks like Jacobs is not smart. Last season, the bullpen cost the team far more games than their K/BB ratio.
You’ve got to give Moore some credit. Every day he has to put nine/ten humps on the field to try and maybe, hopefully, score three to four runs per night. If he gets that and shores up the bullpen, OBP won’t mean dick.
Now Fuckin Farnsworth (a pronoun) and Juan Cocksucking Cruz are the real problem. Moore should be castrated for signing those zombies.
In response to another comment. See in context »Omar Minaya just traded away a relatively decent middle reliever for Gary Matthews, so Dayton Moore’s incompetence isn’t much greater than Omar’s.
Unless the Mets are going to start playing their home games in Arlington, Texas, this move is on par with the Royals’ signing of Kyle Farnsworth.
In response to another comment. See in context »“Dayton Moore is doing the only thing he can with his resources – building the best defensive team possible, a team built around pitching.”
Umm… I think you mean Jack Zduriencik and the Seattle Mariners.
In response to another comment. See in context »This post is even dumber than Dayton Moore’s approach, and that’s saying something. (Wait — do you think “dogballs” IS Dayton Moore?)
Let us review the claims:
“Anybody with shit for brains should realize that Dayton Moore is doing the only thing he can with his resources – building the best defensive team possible, a team built around pitching.”
Apparently dogballs lacks even excrement between the ears, because Dayton is pretty clearly NOT building “the best defensive team possible.” Yuniesky Betancourt is the WORST defensive player in the AL. Alberto Callaspo is so bad with the glove that Chris Getz looks like an upgrade. Billy Butler improved a lot last year, and good for him, but he’s still a net negative with the leather. And what limited value Jason Kendall provides behind the dish, and it ain’t much, will be more than offset by a bat that has more holes in it than … well, dogball’s argument.
In the OF, the Royals have one guy who can run slightly above-average (DeJesus) and one guy with a great arm (Ankiel, when he’s not on the DL). Now, we all know that you put the fast guy in center and the arm in right, so naturally the Royals have done EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE, putting the slow-footed Ankiel in center and the weak-armed DeJesus in right. Lots of XBH for that Royals’ staff this year!
Yes, that staff. Also fairly far from “the best possible,” unless your opposition is the Bad News Bears or, worse still, the Pittsburgh Pirates.
After Greinke, you have:
Meche, who was so abused by the MLB-worst managing of Trey Hillman that he missed the latter part of the year while they stapled his arm back on;
Kyle Davies, about whom the less said the better;
Brian Bannister, a soft-tosser; and
Luke Hochevar, who had a 6.55 ERA last year and a 7.25 in the second half.
In all, a rortation that isn’t going to remind anyone of Palmer, McNally, Dobson and Cuellar.
“A top-notch rotation backed up by the best fielders possible (read: affordable in this midget market) could win the AL Central – the weakest division in the bigs.”
Indeed it could, but the Royals don’t have either a top rotation OR the best fielders possible. They have one ace, a decent #2, and bums, backed by one of the worst fielding teams in recent history.
And THEY AREN’T GOING TO SCORE ANY RUNS. You can scoff at Matt’s use of OBP, but it’s a proven fact that low-OBP teams (and few come lower than this mess of sad hackers) score far fewer runs than high-OBP teams. Last year, the Mariners had the lowest team OBP, and the fewest runs scored. The Royals had the second-lowest OBP, and the second-lowest runs scored. The Yankees, Boston and Angels were top three in OBP and runs scored.
In 2008, the bottom three OBP teams (Oakland, Seattle, and KC) were the bottom three in Runs. And the top three OBP were top three in Runs. It happens like that every year, and there’s a reason: You can’t score Runs if you don’t have guys on the bases. That’s why the statement that “So putting speed on the bases to pressure opponents is one of the few tools they have – even if it means employing old humps like Kendall and Ankiel” is so ludicrous: they DON’T GET ON BASE (and they have no speed, either, incidentally).
“When healthy, Ankiel covers more ground than Mies van der Rohe…” is about right, as Van Der Rohe died 40 years ago.
“I’d suggest you come to the K and watch Greinke before you write about Moore and KC again” is just stupid. Nobody said anything about Greinke. But sitting at Kaufman watching balls sail past Yuni, Callaspo and Ankiel — easily the weakest up-the-middle defensive lineup since the Maginot Line — will have dopes like you “punching your own balls for being such a dumb dick” and “trusting the process” when it is clear to anyone with grey matter instead of brown that Moore has no process.
In response to another comment. See in context »It’s hard for me to fault small market gm’s anymore. I mean baseball’s economic situation is just depressing and makes me not want to be a fan of the current game. I mean big markets can afford a few fuckups every year or so, but a small market team has such a small window of arbitration. Until we get a salary cap in the MLB it’s just hard to reasonably call small markets fuckups….
dude the supreme court just destroyed what was left of our democracy, and you’re talking basebll
Jesus, what’s wrong with the Royals? Instead of going after guys who get on base less often than an AL pitcher, why not try to find a GM who has had success in a small market. Dan O’Dowd immediately comes to mind, but if they could steal Bill Smith from the Twins it would be an improvement. I’m a Yankees fan myself, but I’d at least like to see the Royals make the playoffs once a decade.
I’ll go ahead and speak for all Royal fans and suggest you, and the rest of the fucker Yankee nation, please go fuck yourself.
In response to another comment. See in context »AS a displaced Cardinal fan that’s watched Ankiel since the beginning, the Royals will be very disappointed. RA’s success was due largely to protection in the lineup and LaRussa’s platoons. He’s a great story, but he strikes out way too much and is just too inexperienced as an offensive player. I’d love to see the Royals back.
I feel nothing but pity for the Royals and all the miniscule market teams like them. They’re trying to field a competitive team each year for less than Afraud makes in 6 months.
It’s nearly impossible to be competitive with that kind of payroll. No matter how much of a genius your GM, his staff and scouts are. Old scrubs and young kids don’t consistently win in baseball.
Holy Shit did I read a post from a Yankees fan criticizing the Royals? WTF, the disgraceful Spankees could nearly field two Royals’ squads for what they pay in Luxury Tax alone.
WOW, just when you think you’ve seen it all a fan of the team that has single handedly distorted all logic regarding payroll in baseball makes a critical comment about the Royals.
Cardinals are making room for the Jim Edmonds comeback, just like Willie McGee, it will put fans in the stands and Edmonds will play for the league minimum. Ankiel has a rocket arm and a good story, except for the HGH, but maybe Tony is trying to loosen ties with his beefed up players.
Jesus, I thought you KC fans would agree with me. Take what I said about being a fan of New York out of it. What else did I say is wrong? Minnesota made the playoffs this past year with a low payroll, and looking back over the past decade or so I’ve seen success with teams like Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Colorado, and the Marlins. It’s not the responsibility of the Yankees to make sure the Royals do well. It looks like Dayton Moore isn’t either.
as a cincinnati reds fan, i hope the royals consider a trade for willy tavaras.
Hey Matt, since we’re talking about baseball (I suppose to shed the depression of the Supreme Court ruling that the US government belongs to the highest bidder, Christ on a crouton…), check this out:
Oakland A’s Prospect Retires at 23 to Join Priesthood
http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=307237
“OAKLAND, Calif. — Oakland Athletics prospect Grant Desme is retiring from baseball to enter the priesthood.
Desme was recently selected the 2009 Arizona Fall League MVP and was considered one of the top prospects in Oakland’s system.”…
With all dick punching aside…In MLB, there are the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’, and the Royals are definitely in the latter camp. History has shown that for the poor teams to succeed, they need to follow the Money Ball approach. For some reason, the Royals seem to be doing the opposite (investing in starting pitching, wasting money on over-priced mediocre OF’s, etc). Next they’ll sign Milton Bradley…
But..that is just one girl’s thought.
Are you a closet Royals fan Taibbi??
All of this small market crap is just a stupid excuse that owners use to justify not giving a damn about anything but making more money. They want the revenue without putting forth a quality effort. The A’s had a helluva few years. So did the twins. The Rays did pretty good once they parted ways with the devil.
The key to being a small market team is to invest in young talent. This was less true for a few years there when steroids went way out of control, and signing 35 year olds for huge money was good because they could still produce. But for the most part, and almost always without steroids, a great 25 year old will beat a great 35 year old on a consistent basis.
Teams like the A’s always seem to have good, young talent comming up. Why dont the Royals develop talent? Because it is easier to sit on your ass and then bitch about the fact that you couldnt ever hope to have the money to sign an Arod or a Sabathia. But fans buy the bullshit, so the owners of teams in smaller cities latch onto the opportunity to not do shit and then cash the checks.
Moore just read “Moneyball” and figured terrible players were being undervalued by the market.
I’m not sure “low OBPs” is the common denominator here–although that’s certainly a part of what’s happening–so much as it’s Moore’s love of veterans. Jason Kendall and Scott Podsednik don’t really fit the “low OBPs” paradigm, but they’re still pretty horrible as offseason additions go.
Moore has taken some interesting risks in the draft, and that’s probably what’s ultimately most important, but the Betancourt / Jacobs / Guillen-type acquisitions–and there have been a ton of them–are probably going to get him canned before his drafts start to bear fruit.
Matt, are the Royals off-season moves more head scratching than those of the SF Giants? Trading your second best pitching prospect for an injury-prone hack named Freddy Sanchez then resigning him to a 2-year deal only to have him undergo a second surgery may very well mean the Giants have the worst GM/medical staff in baseball. Throw resigning Bengie Molina (2nd worst OBP in the NL last year) on top of that and you’ve got a true winner – and by that I mean loser! Fuck, I hate it!
Sympathize with Giants fans too. I hate the Freddy Sanchez deal a little less than you (he was the NL batting champ at one point, and he’s still young-ish — my Red Sox gave him up for two months of Jeff Suppan, so…) but the rest of their deals have been crazy. Aubrey Huff? Molina? Aaron Rowand, he of the one K per hit makeup, batting leadoff (especially after they gave away Rajai Davis)?
It’s hard to screw up a team with that much starting pitching, but SF is going to manage it. Who’s the guy who does that list of “future SF free agent mistakes”? Funny stuff.
In response to another comment. See in context »It seems like a lot of GM’s fail to realize that making no moves can ultimately be more beneficial than making ones they feel they “need” to make. Giants brass has failed time after time at exploring in-house options before making the wrong move on the FA market. *sigh*
The man you are looking for is the legendary Giants blogger Grant of McCovey Chronicles (part of the SB Nation network). Thank you for all the great writing, it’s always a pleasure to read.
In response to another comment. See in context »Thank you! I set up a damn true/slant account just to remind you of my hack-happy Giants but you beat me to it!
In response to another comment. See in context »Too relevant not to share: Giants and Royals fans experiencing the same stages of grief
http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2010/1/23/1266501/joe-posnanski-royals-can-of-corn
In response to another comment. See in context »agree that rebuilding must be done through the draft. it’s long and painful, but the royals haven’t any choice. corporate revenue will main much the same — either declining with the us economy or steady cause that’s corporate america. the royals might even, seeing up close what no other team could, forsake the occasional potential stud for more draft picks down the road.
according to moneyball, defense does not win championships in baseball.
If only the Royals had picked up Adrian Beltre before the Sox could, I wouldn’t be scratching my head wondering why Epstein just signed a guy with a .304 OBP in 2009.
I have several die-hard Royals fans among my friends, and they share your disbelief with Dayton Moore’s signing strategies – you forgot to mention a signing of Kyle Farnsworth last year (he’s equally inadequate at signing pitchng). they al despise him. Went to the renovted stadium last season for a Royals-Tigers game. Robinson Tejeda actually outpitched Verlander in that game. They need more dangerous bats, and they just don’t have them.
“lookin like a fool with your pants on the ground”.
The Royals are a terrible organization and Rick is only interesting because he is a former pitcher who can hit home runs and is athletic.
I’m glad Rick found a job….most Americans have it worse than the him.
For some reason, I feel like watching “East Bound and Down”
err….”him”…not “the him”
In response to another comment. See in context »Ankiel’s plate performance and overall physical condition are so suspect that I was sure the Cubs would try to sign him to a multi-year deal at $3 million per. I guess Xavier Nady is still available, though.
Ankiel was a great story and I’m happy for him to still be in the league–however his only chance for any career longevity is to be picked up by the Pirates. Guaranteed he is an All-Star by April and out of the city by November.