****ers are getting too close

Welp...it's official. The Twins are now tied atop the standing with the Royals.

http://www.si.com/mlb/standings

If we can keep pace for the next month, we've got a shot.

Anyone watch Mission Accomplished on the MLBN?

Is that the official World Series film?

I don't know, our offense has been a zero over these past couple of months.

@ClintScoles: Nick @nickcafardo - "Gordon is still drawing a lot of interest and prefers to stay in Kansas City, though that dream may be fading."

If he really wants to stay, he can make it happen. 4 years, $60 million.

I'd go 5/75. $15,000,000 5 years from now will likely be below league average for a starting LF.

I understand that you don't want to pay a guy for what he did, but what he will do instead. But, I can't help but feel like our team will always be that super cheap team that never actually signs anybody to a contract.
If Alex Gordon isn't a guy who you will overpay for to keep in a KC uniform and solidify his future as one of the top 5 Royals of all-time, then who will we pay for?

I'm not buying that the team can't afford it. Again, this team made so much ****ing money this year with increased ticket sales, increased prices all around the stadium, and another playoff run. I'm not buying this "small market" bullshit anymore. This team has the money to easily maintain a $150mm payroll. And if we fail to sign Gordon to a reasonable (there may be a team who pays $20mm+) contract, it makes us look really ****ing cheap and I know it will damage our chances of signing any of our players to contract extensions in the future.

i believe it is. recorded it. will watch it after football.

You really don't understand the difference in local television contracts, do you?

They Royals local TV deal with Fox Sports pays them $20 million per year, and it's an ironclad contract that lasts through the 2019 season. The Los Angeles Dodgers get $250 million per year from their TV contract. That's why the Royals have to be very careful about how they spend their money. It's not a matter of being ****ing cheap. When one team has an extra $230 million every ****ing year, they are the ones who will sign the expensive free agents. Alex Gordon is an expensive free agent who is 32 years old.

After 2019 it will be a much more level playing field, because the Royals will get a better local TV deal. It won't come close to what the Dodgers get, but it will hopefully be close to the deal the Cardinals just signed: $1 Billion over 15 years, with $50 million the first year and escalations every year. But Moustakas, Hosmer, Cain, Escobar and Davis aren't going to wait until 2019 to get paid. They all become free agents after the 2017 season.

And even if the Royals get a sweetheart deal that exactly matches the Cardinals' deal, that's still $180 million LESS than what Dodgers get. Every year.

That's why it makes perfect sense for the Royals to refuse to break the bank for a 32 year old Alex Gordon. If they do, they have $100 million LESS to try to retain their younger free agents after 2017. They'll be competing with teams like the Dodgers to sign Hosmer and Moustakas. The Royals will never outbid the Dodgers, but I'd like to see them have enough free money to at least offer them enough money to make them consider staying at a hometown discount.

If Alex Gordon were to give the team a hometown discount and come back for 4 years at $60 million, and the Royals were to manage to make it to a 3rd World Series, THAT would set a helluva precedent.

Yup. I love Gordon but we have to be cheap bastards if we want to stay competitive. If we want to keep winning, it's going to be because Dayton finds some more diamonds in the scrap pile, not because of our ability to resign premium players.

^^^Gordon is 32, not 35.

Zobrist was the 35 year old.

Former Red Sox hero Dave Henderson died today. He hit one of the biggest playoff home runs in my lifetime, off the Angels Donnie Moore (who never recovered from that and ended up committing suicide later).

He also would have been the hero the Red Sox were waiting for in 1986 as he hit the 2 run HR in game 6 of the 1986 WS to put the Red Sox ahead and needing 3 puts to close. (But Buckner happened-and a few singles prior)

Of a heart attack. Damn. I'll never forget that game. Never.

Dave Henderson also finished his career in Kansas City. He was a backup OF on the 1994 team that was making a run for the playoffs when the strike happened.