I still am glad Francouer was signed rather than traded for. As it is, his cost is minimal. Same with Cabrera.

People keep saying Moore is going to have to find some major league talent, like the Rays did with Pena. Well, Pena was a garbage pail signing when the Rays picked him up.

If either of these guys plays well and delivers on the potential he once had, you've got a potential piece to add and hang on to. If either sucks, well, it's a one-year deal.

It's not like KC is brimming with MLB-ready OF prospects.

The Cabrera signing is actually not bad. Cheap one year deal for a young OF with some upside left that can play all three OF positions.

He is coming off his worst year so he has some motivation to improve, so it is a decent buy low option.

I still don't see the point in the Francoeur signing though.

No, but they also already had two Melkys on the roster -- Blanco and Maier. They also have David Lough, who spent a full year at AAA putting up numbers that could make him a ML 4th OF or a platoon partner for Frenchy (except they apparently aren't going to platoon Frenchy).

A team going nowhere in 2011 also could've thrown Dyson out in CF to see what he might have. But I can at least understand giving him more AAA seasoning.

If I thought there was actual logic to the Melky move, I would think that Gordon was going be packaged in a Greinke deal, maybe as part of one of those three-way trades -- one team gets Greinke, the other gets Gordon.

Bottom line for me, though, is the same as the Frenchy signing: I don't think it hurts the team, I just don't think it helps.

Not necessarily directing this at you, but I'm amazed at the dedication of Royals fans to continually overrate Mitch Maier. Dude will be 29 years old next year and has never had a season with a WAR greater than 0.8. He's not good at anything and he has no upside remaining. If the Royals released him today his MLB career would be over.

Cabrera had a 2 WAR season in 2009 and will only be 26 next year. He's not Carl Crawford but he has a lot more upside left in the tank than Maier.

You might be correct that Cabrera could still become something, and I hope this is the case. Regarding Maier, the kid has never truly been given an opportunity. Even last year, in what everyone knew was going to be a pointless season, he didn't always get consistent ABs. He was a part-time player (300+ ABs and on the field about 50% of the time).

Most of the rule V draft is now complete.

In the MLB phase, the Royals took Nathan Adcock from the Pirates. Very young player, 22 years old, he finished last season in advanced single-A. He struggled as a starter his first 2 years, but had a breakout season last year with a 3.38 ERA, 113 K, 38 BB, ~3 K/BB, 0.5 HR/9, 1.196 WHIP.

There is no way in hell this kid is ready to start in the majors, but the Royals probably think they can hide him in the bullpen all year, then I assume send him back down to the high minors to see if his future is as a starter or relief.

The Royals lost no one in the MLB phase.

In the AAA phase, the Royals took Heath Rollins from Tampa Bay and lost Rowdy Hardy. Its not hard to keep a kid in AAA all year, so Hardy is basically gone, which is fine because he was a very marginal prospect.

Rollins is a AAA relief pitcher who has been throwing about a 4-5 ERA, and his K/BB ratio is not good. He has bounced around the minors for 5 years, and his stats have never been remotely good enough to break through to the majors. Not sure what the Royals see in him, but what the hell, its just a AAA spot.

He's mediocre and always has been. Do we really need to see a 600 AB season for him at 29 years old to conclude that he's not that good?

And don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting an All Star game appearance for Cabrera this season. But I think his upside and ability to play all three OF positions makes him demonstrably better than Maier.

I bet we'll try to work out a deal with Pittsburgh to keep him and send him to the minors for cash.

I'm not overrating Maier (that's DeezNutz's job :D ). In my mind he's a 4th or 5th OF.

As for WAR, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that affected by playing time? So you're comparing Melky's 500+ at bats a year to Maier's 400.

I look at the percentages and I see similar players -- nearly identical OBP, and Cabrera has a small edge in power. But that's very relative, considering that Melky doesn't really have much power. It's like saying Maier has more power than Blanco.

Furthermore, given the most at-bats he's had so far, Maier last year put up an OPS+ of 94, which is right in line with Melky's career bests of 93 and 95.

If you want to argue that Melky is better than Maier, fine. But my response is: Shrug. So what? It's marginal. I don't see much upside in a guy who's spent 5 full seasons in the bigs doing the same thing year after year. Sure, he COULD break out. If you throw enough shit against the wall, something is bound to stick at some point.

So in that sense, I'll fall back to my original position: I don't see this as a move that hurts the Royals, I just don't see it helping. I see it as redundant. And I'll reiterate, it's not because I value Maier, it's because I just don't see much in Melky.

Given his performance in CF, I think he would offer the club above-average defense in RF and adequate (though definitely well below expectations for a corner outfielder) production at the plate.

In short, I think he'd be better than Frenchy.

Edit: And I agree with siberian. DM seems to go out of his way to find players who replicate what we already have (or in some cases, Kendall, are worse).

From Royals Review:

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8417/daytmoorequis.png

Maier is pretty ****ing bad. I'd rather we had Emil back, than any of our current OF's.
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We'll give you Brendan Ryan for him....

I'm with sk on this one.

I don't have a major problem with either signing. I just don't get why we need either one of those two. We have plenty of crappy OF's in our system already. Why sign two more of the same shit? Seriously, Moore looks completely reeruned as it relates to FA acquisitions. For the most part, I have no issue with his drafting or development of prospects. However, he has been absolutely abysmal at Free Agency.

What has he done in his minor league career to warrant a full-time starting job?

You say he hasn't gotten a shot, but look at his track record. The guy has gotten far more ABs and a far stronger shot at a job than most anyone I can think of with as mediocre a minor league career as he's had.

And with that pedigree, he needed to go out there and sieze his opportunities. He hasn't done that. He's been the same middling player that he's always been. If the guy is playing to his projections in limited use, and those projections aren't very good, why does he deserve greater exposure?

Maier got a shot. He got a far better shot than most will ever get and he simply didn't do anything with it.

Melky's a more talented player. He's younger and he has a far better track record. Like it or not, your OF is much improved over where it was 36 hours ago. And even if both Frenchy and Melky suck, you're not out anything other than the chance to throw another 300 ABs at a guy that's both older and less accomplished than either of those players.

Eazyb is right - if Maier is released by the Royals, he'll never get another ML at bat.