The Royals and the Pirates

Much like our Pittsburgh Pirates, the Kansas City Royals have become pretty much of an irrelevant franchise on the MLB landscape.  Aside from one outlier season a few years back when Tony Pena skippered them to a plus .500 season, thay have been pretty much the Pirates of the American League, but they were in the news this week when they traded super prospect and Minor League Player of the Year Will Myers and three other prospects to Tampa Bay for pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis.

I will refer you to this very lengthy article from write Rany Jazayerli on Grantland.com:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8732913/assessing-myers-shields-trade-royals-side-aint-pretty

As I say it is a lengthy article, well written and researched, but if you read it you will find some interesting parallels to the Pirates.

1. The Royals have been long time losers, but in recent years they have drafted wisely, and, unlike the Pirates, a number of those highly touted draftees have reached the majors and are making contributions on the major league level.
2. The Royals GM Dayton Moore has long espoused the concept of building a strong minor league infrastructure that would continually stock the Royals with talented players and assure long term success.
3. The Royals are doing this because their owner, David Glass, is seen as, shall we say, thrifty, and doesn't believe in large payrolls.
4. Despite all that, the fan base is getting tired of the Royals being continual bottom feeders in the American League.
5. Dayton Moore might be feeling the pressure and realize he is in danger of losing his job. 

Now, here is where Moore and the Royals have departed paths with the Pirates.  Moore has said, in action if not words, to hell with the long term future, we need to win now, in 2013, and he has traded not only HIS top prospect, but one of the top prospects in all of baseball in Myers.  And in Shields and Davis, he has taken on an additional $20+ million in payroll over the next two seasons in Shields alone, While sacrificing Myers, in whom the Rays now have the "years of control" that Neal Huntington and the Pirates covet so dearly.

Jazayerli in his article rips the Royals for making pretty much one of the worst trades in recent baseball memory.

How does this relate to the Pirates?

Well, Moore has done something that Huntington has steadfastly refused to do: he has traded "the future" for something that will help the team NOW, today, in 2013.  But, if you read the article, you will see that Shields' potential contributions to the Royals (if you buy the SABRmetric stuff) may be marginal at best, and certainly not the equal of what Myers might have contributed in KC over the next six to eight years.  And even if this trade lifts the Royals to something like 85 wins in 2013, will it be worth it if they never rise above that level in the 6-8 years following?

Something to think about for those of us who might have wanted the Pirates to trade, say, Starling Marte for Shane Victorino last July 31.

The other point that is made in the article is that Moore, who has been the Royals GM for six years, may be feeling the heat and be in danger of losing his job, and with this trade he is going all in in a last ditch effort to save his job. (Think Dave Littlefield dealing for Matt Morris in 2007)  If so, maybe it will work for a year or two, but if it doesn't, he'll be gone anyway, and some other young gun GM  will be left to pick up the pieces in KC, much like Huntington was asked to do in Pittsburgh in '07.

None of this is meant to be a defense of Huntington's Grand Plan (and as far as I know, the Royals have not been engaging in any paramilitary drills in their developmental system), which we all know hasn't quite worked out just yet, but it does give you food for thought.  IF any of those much bragged about, over-slotted draftees are the real deal - and so far, only one of them, Pedro Alvarez, has proven to be such - then perhaps Neal's course is the correct one.  And IF it is correct, and the Pirates WILL see the benefits at PNC Park some day, some time, will Neal feel the heat NOW and make a similar effort to save his job by unloading someone like Gerritt Cole for another version of Matt Morris?

As I said, food for thought.