'It's time to let them go.'

[siberian khatru]

http://www.robneyer.com/robrany.html

Rob & Rany on the Royals



tuesday, august the ninth

Rob: It's Tuesday morning and, believe it or not, I haven’t seen even one inning of the ten straight losses (mostly because I’ve been away from my DirecTV for the last nine days). So maybe I’m not taking this current situation quite as seriously as I should.

I’ve decided, though, that Allard Baird is either a genius or a half-wit. Among the recent moves, my favorite has to be sending Ruben Gotay, not to Omaha – the level at which he’s never proved himself, at all – but rather back to Wichita, where he .289 with power a year ago. Buddy Bell (another genius or half-wit) did say that Gotay, who’s currently batting .227, has to “get better defensively,” which leads one to wonder if maybe it’s too easy to play defense in Nebraska.

But again, maybe there’s something about Class AAA that I just don’t know. Just like I don’t know why Baird didn’t swing a trade including Matt Stairs; a reliable source tells me the Dodgers wanted him, but the Royals were asking for (not one, but) two of the Dodgers’ better prospects. Which strikes me as strange if not criminal.

I’m trying to avoid descending into utter hopelessness. I really have. But I’m afraid I’ve been getting a fair number of messages like this one lately…

I recently moved to Boston. I went down to some sports bars by Fenway to watch the Thursday afternoon Royals/Red Sox game. We had a five run lead. Carrasco walks 7 batters in like four innings. The Red Sox score 9 runs in the fourth and fifth innings. They had 9 runs on three hits. Oh, and Berroa had three errors in one game the night before. The Royals ****ing suck. I'm done with them. I walk around Fenway in a Royals hat, which doesn't come out very often, and I'm like the foreign exchange student in high school. Everyone wants to be my friend, and laugh about how bad my team is, and give me support about rooting for my team even though they're an effing joke. It's pathetic to be a Royals fan. And to think...a few years ago I was at a game and saw Sweeney, Dye, Damon, and Beltran pound the day lights out of the ball. Awful.
Ryan Dolan
Boston

I suppose it could be worse, right? Tony Muser could still be in the dugout, running Chad Durbin out there for 132 pitches.

Rany: Sure, it could be worse. It could be much, much worse. For instance, the Royals could be three outs away from ending one of the longest losing streaks in franchise history, entering the ninth inning with a five-run lead, then endure this:

M MacDougal relieved A Burgos.
C Blake doubled to left.
G Sizemore doubled to deep left, C Blake scored.
C Crisp singled to center, G Sizemore scored.
J Peralta struck out looking.
T Hafner doubled to deep right, C Crisp to third.
V Martinez singled to left, C Crisp scored, T Hafner to third.
R Vazquez ran for V Martinez.
R Belliard safe at first on error by shortstop A Berroa, T Hafner scored, R Vazquez advanced to second on play, R Vazquez tagged out at second attempting to advance on play.
J Liefer hit for B Broussard.
J Liefer safe at second on error by left fielder C Ambres, R Belliard scored.
A Boone doubled to deep left, J Liefer scored.
J Gobble relieved M MacDougal.
C Blake intentionally walked.
G Sizemore singled to right, A Boone scored, C Blake to second, C Blake scored, G Sizemore to second on error by right fielder E Brown.
C Crisp walked.
J Peralta homered to left, G Sizemore and C Crisp scored.
T Hafner struck out swinging.

Ten years of utter incompetence, ten years of crushing futility, reached its absolute nadir this evening. In the course of a single inning, one that featured eight hits and three errors – including one on a routine flyball which would have ended the game if Chip Ambres had caught it – a franchise that I thought could sink no lower did just that.

And I am finally out of words.

Like you, I’ve endured this most recent losing streak with precious little to say, mostly because I can’t think of anything to say that I haven’t already said before. So I’ll try to phrase it differently. In May, J.P. Howell was an exciting young pitching prospect, hurtling his way to the high minors less than a year after he was drafted. By July, he was a disappointment and his future was in question. This isn’t new. Ruben Gotay showed he could handle Double-A last year. He didn’t dominate, mind you, but he was a quality second baseman in the Texas League. This year, he was a disappointment in Kansas City, so now he has to prove, once again, that he can handle Double-A. If only there was a league that was of higher quality than Double-A but not quite the caliber of the major leagues. Hmmm…

Leo Nunez never mastered Double-A – he never mastered Single-A, actually – but the Royals let him get his brains beat in for three months before they figured out that hey, he never mastered Double-A. The Royals have eight pitchers on their active roster who are 27 or younger. Six of them – Affeldt, Bayliss, Burgos, Gobble, Hernandez, and Sisco – reached the major leagues before ever throwing a pitch in Triple-A. (And this doesn’t include Nunez, or Howell, who made a single Triple-A start before starting for the Royals.)

The two who had a Triple-A apprenticeship were Greinke, who made half-a-dozen starts for Omaha last year, and Mike Wood. Wood, incidentally, has outpitched almost all these guys this year despite having arguably the worst stuff out of all of them.

We’ve heard complaints about how players are being rushed to the majors before they’re ready since the very dawn of the major leagues, and for the most part it’s bunk – players spend as much time in the minors today as they did a generation or three ago, and anyway the ones who spend the least time in the minors are the ones who are the most talented. But in the Royals’ case, it’s true: they’ve rushed players to the major leagues, and it’s ruined most of them. There are only two players in the entire system who appear talented enough that they could be excused a brief minor-league apprenticeship: Greinke, and Billy Butler, who might be in the lineup next Opening Day if the Royals have their way.

And while 21-year-olds with two good weeks in Double-A are getting indoctrinated in the majors, Matt Diaz, who’s hitting .408 (.408!) with a .736 slugging average in Omaha, can’t get a promotion.

I’ve run out of words, because I’ve run out of excuses. The Royals are a pathetic excuse for a major league franchise in every conceivable way. The Royals lack talent, yes, but they also go out of their way to underperform with the talent they have. They do a piss-poor job of developing young talent. They don’t have the money or the wherewithal to keep the talents that they do develop. They compound the difficulty inherent in developing young talent by rushing their players to the major leagues before they are ready. They let experienced minor leaguers with major-league ability languish in the minors. They do a poor job of keeping their players healthy.

And, oh yes, they are the worst one-run team in the history of baseball.

At some point in the last two weeks, it hit me: all this time I’ve been saying, hey, at least I’m not a Pirates fan or a Devil Rays fan or a Rockies fan, but you know what? The Devil Rays have young talent coming out of their ears. The Pirates have some interesting players to watch and a gorgeous new ballpark. The Rockies have the financial resources to turn things around once they’ve unloaded the last of their albatross contracts.

Fans of those teams can at least dream of better days. I can’t. Not anymore. Not when, after being told for years to be patient because hey, we’re running a youth movement here and these guys are going to develop and make you proud one day, they prove in one glorious, disastrous inning that they’re still at square one. They were so bad tonight that Joe Sheehan, who’s on vacation in Hawaii at the moment, was moved to write to us, “Anytime you guys want to push to fold that franchise. Really. Any time now...”

I know you reached that point years ago, Rob. It took me a while, but I’m there with you. I’ll find a new team to love, a team that isn’t an embarrassment from every angle. Someone give me a button to push.

Rob: What you said. Sort of.

I've never actually argued that the franchise should be folded. Rather, it should move. Set up shop in a new town, under new management. Because unless an open-minded, far-sighted owner takes the reigns, and soon, there won't be any rehabilitating this franchise in Kansas City. The fans, having endured another few hundred-loss seasons, will be gone and won't come back.

Let's assume, for a moment, that Allard Baird is the problem. Based on what we know about David Glass and his son, is there even the remotest reason to think that Baird's replacement would be capable of turning things around?

I don't think I can find another team to love, though. If that were going to happen, it would have happened years ago, when I was living in Chicago, or Boston, or Seattle. That's okay, though. I've been an obsessive fan of one team for almost thirty years, and maybe that's long enough. After all, there are twenty-nine other teams out there, and nearly all of them are more interesting than my team; all of them do have a better chance of making something of themselves. I do feel sorry for the (few remaining) Royals fans who weren't around in the late '70s, who missed the amazing run in 1985. But even if there is something beneficial about spending hundreds of hours ever summer following the worst franchise in the game, I doubt if the benefits are still justifiable.

The Royals were good to us for a long time, and we were pretty good to them. But now it's time to let them go.

[Deberg_1990]

Nicely said Rob.....Everything he said, I and others on here have said many times before. I stopped watching or put much of an effort into caring a few years ago. Until they show me they care about winning more, im not going to devote any of my free time to something so hopeless and pathetic.

[bkkcoh]

Yeap, it is really sad to agree with 'em, but I do. So much so called promise, but it is going unfufilled.

[Chiefs Pantalones]

What happened to the "Buddy Bell is king, he will lead the Royals to many victories the second half of the season!!!" posts?

[Uatu]

Yeah, they're not trying. Glass clearly wants to lose his ass on this team every year.

[go bo]

Originally Posted by Uatu

Yeah, they're not trying. Glass clearly wants to lose his ass on this team every year.

wow, if i buy the royals, i could loose (cp) my ass?

great, does it do bellies too?

[siberian khatru]

Originally Posted by go bo

wow, if i buy the royals, i could loose (cp) my ass?

great, does it do bellies too?

If you buy the Royals, you definitely will have lost your mind.

[Uatu]

By the way, I'm sure glad baseball kicked Miles Prentice in the nuts (sarcasm)

[Sure-Oz]

I say send all of them to triple A dont skip, sign crappy vets till their ready, we have ruined some good players it seems. im still a fan but this article is so true, too bad i was too young to realize whatroyals baseball was in 85!

[Demonpenz]

I knew the royals were going to be shitty and this year was going to be a learning process. Yes it bugs me that they haven't shown more progress, but i am a royals fan. I still believe we can teach berrora to take some pitches. I still believe teahan will be worth the trade of beltran. After 120 losses i will still be waiting in line for tickets exciting saying " this is our year" when the royals get moved i will be trying to steal a seat from the K. I grew up playing baseball morning noon and night. Watching royals games on TV using a right handed george brett stance during little league. In 3rd grade i wrote an essay how willie wilsons speed changed entire baseball games. I won't give up this team now or never until they move them. God bless the royals

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

My biggest question is how ****ing bad can our entire coaching staff be? Most of our players never get better. Never. Does Allard just have a knack for finding used tire salesman who know something about baseball to hire as coaches, or are we just cursed?

And WTF is the thing with going right from AA to the "major league" team all the time with so many guys? Why do we have a AAA team? No one evers go there or leaves there it seems.

[beavis]

Rob & Rany write the same thing every August.

It's kinda pathetic really, that you're such a die hard fan as to want your franchise to fold or move.

[vckcchiefs04]

All of you bitter a$$ bandwagon fans please just go away. If you don't like what the Royals are doing then they don't need you..... for a town that like others say "don't support their team" they still at over 15,000 people out on a Tuesday night during a 12 games losing streak..... considering the size of our city that a good turn out for a bad team. They Royals are going to draw over 1.5 Million people again.... not bad for a city of around 2 million. Real simple.... the Royals are bad, but they are not going to set any "worst records on baseball history" and they have a bunch of kids who are learning on the fly up in the nig leagues. Keep in mind, we did not have a set ownership until a few years ago, that makes it hard to build anything. Every franchise goes through down times...... ourse stands out more because we have not made the playoffs on 20 years..... as far as I'm concerned though nothing matters except for world championships..... so you can get to the playoffs all you want, but if you don't win it all then you have done nothing, so in that case the Royals are in the same boat as a whole bunch of MLB teams!

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

Originally Posted by vckcchiefs04

They Royals are going to draw over 1.5 Million people again.... not bad for a city of around 2 million.

KC doesn't even have one million people.

Originally Posted by vckcchiefs04

Real simple.... the Royals are bad, but they are not going to set any "worst records on baseball history"

You sure about that?

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

Originally Posted by beavis

Rob & Rany write the same thing every August.

It's kinda pathetic really, that you're such a die hard fan as to want your franchise to fold or move.

I agree. I don't want them to leave. I just want them to stop embarrassing me. It's all about me.