I know what you're saying, since you've repeated this at least one million times now, but I really don't think Miguel Olivo is the biggest problem on this team. You do realize he is 4th in the AL in HRs for a catcher, don't you?

I mean, yeah, it would be great to have Joe Mauer or Victor Martinez, but there are about 30 other clubs that could say that.

The Royals suck, no question about that, but you on your crusade about catchers reminds me of the time you were on your soap box about every outfielder that plays for the Royals needs to bat .300 with at least 30 HRs. There were none of those players in the entire AL that year.

If they want to go with Olivo great, then John Buck shouldn't be here making 4 mill, it's a waste of money.

There are numerous places where they are just wasting money then Dayton turns around and talks about the budget.

Olivo is not the biggest problem, but he is a problem. The dude blows; who cares about the HRs?

His OBP is .271 and his OPS+ is 91.

And as I typed the above, he struck out and allowed a passed ball.

I agree that Olivo isn't the biggest problem, nor is John Buck. But the catching position is certainly a microcosm of how Moore has misallocated funds. This is emphasized even more because of the talk of Pena actually being the starting catcher.

How more people aren't calling for Moore's head is a mystery to me. And I don't want to hear about "giving his draft picks time." I'll give anyone three fireable offenses right now:

1. Guillen's contract.
2. Allowing or even advocating the abuse of Meche.
3. Trading for Berroacourt.

This.

The Honeymoon should be over. Hes obviously safe right now, but if the team isnt any better next year, its time for him to go.

DM made a lot of progress. It might not be visible at the major league level, but I still think it will be shown soon.

even if he screwed up this 1st round of attempting to build a contender, shouldn't he be given a 2nd round now that he has built the (lower) minor league system the way he has preached his entire time in KC?

I think the improvements that DM, specifically, has done for the minor league system are marginal at best.

The owner is spending legit. money in the draft and Latin America. I'd contend that any GM would look like he's doing a pretty decent job because of the money being contributed by Glass.

We know that Moore is a complete ****ing idiot when it comes to FA and trades. And now we're supposed to operate on blind faith about a bunch of unknown quantities, the players we've never heard of?

If he's a dumb **** in all other respects, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he's ****ing things up in all aspects. We know he's taking questionable guys, at best, with the first-round selections.

I will give the *organization* credit for Myers and Melville, however, as, again, this comes down to any GM being given sufficient resources.

I think DM has done an average job in terms of FA and such up until this year. This year was horrible. And we kinda knew that going in with Farnsworth. Cruz is probably another story, he's always at least been average, never quite this bad. Jacobs hasn't lived up to expectations. Crisp actually was a pleasant surprise but he got hurt. I think losing him probably hurt this team more than he'll be given credit for, he was actually behaving like a leadoff hitter.

I think another FA period like last year and there will be some serious heat on DM. But at the same time he did a great job with Meche, finding Soria, Bannister, and even Callaspo. He locked Greinke and Soria up to great contracts. It's not like he's gone three years without finding any talent. I'd probably give him a C up to this point. The Braves guys always rebuild the bullpen from year to year, and he did it twice, it bombed this year. He's gotta flip it over again next year. That alone will get this team back to 75ish wins, we have the chance to have a really good pitching staff.

Then again if we'd been able to lock up guys like Torii Hunter and Orlando Hudson we'd probably all be looking at this thing differently. But that's what happens when you're the Royals. Whether it's DM or somebody else at least it feels like we have some foundation to build on with guys like Greinke and Soria. As opposed to before when it was an injured DH and guys who we knew were going to be traded when their contract ends.

I find it ironic, however, that two of the key pieces we're looking to build upon are Baird guys, Greinke and Butler.

I'm filing the Greinke re-signing under the umbrella of common sense. The only GM who would let this kind of talent walk is the one who cannot afford him.

Soria and Bannister were indeed great deals. But I'm beginning to think that the Meche signing was the sun finding the dog's ass, since DM is the same guy who will break the bank on Jose ****ing Guillen.

And people will say, "What was he supposed to do? Guillen was the best we could get." Fine. And this might be true, and if it is, what Moore should have done was nothing. Don't spend to spend.

But it was always going to be that way. I said the same thing when Baird was fired. If this group succeeds it's going to be with help from guys like Butler and Gordon. I don't think it's that big of a deal. Otherwise it'd take DM 6-10 years to build a team from complete scratch.

I think Baird is a solid scout. He was with this organization for a long long time, going back to the 80's. And as for DM, it's not just him. We have a near all-star collection of front office people. Yeah it all falls at his feet, and it should. It might not work out but I think we have a lot of accomplished baseball people running things now. Probably better than any time since Mr. K passed away.

its so easy to be negative at the tail end of a season like this. but the DM lynch-mob might want to cool off a bit. it takes a while to turn around a franchise as fukt as this one was.

the people calling for DM's head now are the same ones who buy world series tickets when we sweep the season-opening series.

You're right about everything, but I must take umbrage with the first paragraph. DM's drafted pieces haven't made it to the bigs yet. Much of that is his apparent fixation with drafting high schoolers, which is probably not the best choice given the franchise's limited resources. But the point remains that those two pieces have been in the Royals system for a long time now, comparatively speaking. I thus find zero irony in Butler and Greinke being two of the team's three "cornerstone" guys (I'm counting Soria).

I agree, but this makes the moves for Betancourt, Jacobs, etc. all the more puzzling. DM talks a great game (OBP is key to success, HS high upside guys in the draft), and then his actions are often a direct contradiction.

And we haven't scratched the surface on his managerial hire, who has been nothing less than embarrassing in his short tenure with the team. I haven't mentioned him much in these exchanges b/c baseball managers are pretty irrelevant, but this is important b/c it points again to Moore's ability to evaluate talent, in this case the manager.

Irony b/c Baird is typically roasted in this town, while his players are leading the rebuilding effort. Are we even allowed to continue using the term "rebuilding"? Is is really applicable if it's been happening (allegedly) for 15 years?

Anyway, I'm also curious about Moore's draft philosophy, which was essentially flip-flopped this season when he drafted a large proportion of college arms. What happened to HS high upside?

Have a philosophy and stick with it. The wavering suggests that Moore is feeling the heat or losing a bit of confidence in what is really in the system.