[KC_Connection]

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today...2/2614446.html

Another AL Front-Office Executive: "I like it a lot for Kansas City. Here's the premise for why I think it was important for them. Wil Myers is not a major league ready impact bat, and might take a couple years of struggles burning into his major league service time, while Kansas City continues to toil around .500 and maybe Hosmer and Moose come into their own. Then they play in that mid-rotation market for guys like (Jeremy) Guthrie, (Ervin) Santana and even Odorizzi and then (Bruce) Chen/ (Jonathan) Sanchez types on the back-end with little or no chance of taking them to the next level.

For the people saying this is a desperate move on their part, what do they think Kansas City's window is? I think it's now, with a legit front-line horse like Shields and an absolutely stacked pen. I think they maximized Myers' value.

We've seen what the market is for frontline starting pitchers (Zack Greinke, Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee) and they can't play in that market. They trade a top prospect who isn't a sure thing even if you love him, and some replaceable pieces beyond that for no doubt above-average major league pieces in Shields and Davis.

The next two years are important, but my point is if they didn't make this trade they aren't winning with Guthrie and Santana leading the rotation, and they probably aren't winning next year either. Are they just supposed to sit around and wait a couple more years of losing and mediocrity?"

I fall a bit closer to this guy's opinion, though:

An AL Front-Office Executive: "I don't like the trade for KC, but I think the general reaction that this is the 'worst trade ever' is hyperbolic nonsense. The Royals are going to be better in 2013 with this trade, no doubt. But to judge the deal right now is silly. If the Royals make the playoffs and end nearly three decades of misery, it's worth it. If the prospects don't work out, then it's a good trade for KC. If the Royals win 81 games each of the next two years and Myers turns into an All-Star then it's a bad trade. All of those are within a realistic realm of possibility. To judge the deal right now with some sort of absolutism to an extreme is to simply exert a lot of energy to be part of the maddening crowd."