Hillman's Firing Means Dayton Moore is Likely Next to Go

Today, the stunning but not-so-surprising news struck the Kansas City area today. Trey Hillman is out as manager of the Kansas City Royals and consultant Ned Yost is in.

The news here isn't the firing itself, but rather the undertones displayed during the press conference.

This wasn't Dayton Moore's decision- Showcased by his emotion, it's obvious that Dayton Moore didn't want this to happen. I feel for the guy, but it is unacceptable to cry in professional settings, especially when your professional setting is a major league baseball stadium. He broke rule numero uno of all business: never hire your friends, especially in a position that has an incredibly high failure rate. It was known from the start that Hillman and Moore were close. It raised a few eyebrows but many people around baseball (including Peter Gammons) thought that Trey was an outstanding hire. Eventually, Hillman didn't seem to be working out and many feared that Dayton Moore wouldn't be able to pull the trigger when it came to Hillman's job security. Some of those fears were realized after the disastrous 2009 campaign and Moore continued to back Hillman. Just a month and a half into the 2010 season and David Glass was rumored to be in town for the current homestand. I guess all it took was three games of this garbage for him to decide what needed to be done that Dayton Moore couldn't do himself.

Dayton Moore is the next to go- It's never a good thing when the owner steps in and fires the manager. Look, I'm not saying that this is the exact thing that happened, but there's a high probability that it did. Believe it or not, David Glass has been a good owner the last 4 years. He signed the biggest General Manager prospect at the time, signed a new lease with the city for 25 years, got renovations for a stadium that this city is absolutely in love with, stepped away from personnel decisions and has signed the checks. Now, he's holding people accountable. Something that this organization hasn't done in 20 years. Everyone should be looking over their shoulders now that David Glass has ensured that no one's job is safe.

Dave "The Windmill" Owen is gone- Trey's boy and third base coach will likely exit stage left with Trey after today. Obviously, he's not the biggest problem in the organization, but he was a problem and another sign of incompetence that the Royals blogosphere loved to scapegoat.

This starts the search for a new manager- Who will it be? Ned Yost is not a long term solution. It was blatant that he was brought in as a safety valve if this situation happened. Most Royals fans will be clamoring for Frank White and Hal McRae. Frank White has made it obvious that he doesn't want the position anymore and it would put the Royals in a very sticky situation if a situation arose where White would be under scrutiny. I doubt McRae would want to come back after the way he was ushered out by Herk Robinson in the 1990s. I see the Royals going outside of the organization and we may see names like Terry Pendleton, Bobby Valentine, Willie Randolph or as Greg Schaum suggests Torey Luvollo, current manager of the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox. My vote is for Freddie Gonzalez who has worked miracles for the Florida Marlins in South Florida. Gonzalez doesn't get along with Marlins' owner Jeffrey Loria and has experience with young ballplayers and is considered a big managing prospect. But this is a thought process for a later time.

So where does this leave the Royals? Well, Ned Yost's reputation isn't the greatest. Some are saying this is a lateral move. Obviously, the track record for replacing managers midseason isn't the best, but the Rockies circled the wagons and rattled off an incredible second half to qualify for the playoffs after firing Clint Hurdle and replacing him with Jim Tracy. That likely won't happen with the Royals, but maybe Yost has a plan for this team. Hopefully, Yost sees some potential with the pieces that this team has. Maybe we see more playing time for Kila Ka'aihue, Brayan Pena and Chris Getz. Maybe Yost has a plan for Alex Gordon. We may see a shakeup in the Royals lineup tomorrow, we may not. I hope that Yost plans to inject the lineup and roster with more youth and return to a true rebuilding process. Yost oversaw the Brewers' overhaul that included the insurgence of Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, J.J. Hardy and Rickie Weeks.

I'm not saying that the season is saved, but there is certainly some reason to hope that our owner has decided that enough is enough. Everyone is on watch now. From the players to the front office, it's good to see that the Glass family will not tolerate failure.

There isn't much reason to hope, but this is a good sign moving forward.

TreyBall: It All Happens Here

Well, I had the fortune of being away from the Royals this weekend after spending a lovely weekend in Chicago.

I opened my computer on Sunday evening to expect the usual snark and tongue-in-cheek humor from my fellow Royals bloggers on Twitter and was amazed at the monsoon of outrage over the Texas series. After a quick scan of several trusty Royals websites, there I sat, 500 miles away, my mouth gaping wide open at the absolute catastrophe that was Treyball in Arlington.

Luckily, I wasn't able to see or hear the Yuni pop-up, the Maier at 1B inning, the Kila batting cleanup or now infamous phantom "tag-up and advance" play. I can only imagine the thoughts that would have gone through my head if I were to have watched these games live. Of course, I would have thought "these are my Royals..." But I had the blessing of distance and perspective. My thoughts were "Did. That. Really. Happen."

Oh yes it did. It happened. It's not just losing with the Royals. It's finding new ways to make yourself lose. This isn't young rookies making silly plays. This isn't players trying to play injured. It's Treyball. It's like MartyBall, except you never win. Kila Ka'aihue is Rich Gannon and Jose Guillen is Steve Bono. The Royals offense is Lin Elliot. Hey, did you hear the one about the Royals offense? They tried to hang themselves, but when they tried to drive the runner in from third the chair, they missed.

It's comical. The Royals have gotten worse over the past three seasons. 58-104 in their last 162 games.

Now people are calling for David Glass to take action. I'll admit, I posted a pretty big knee-jerk post a week or so back. But after gaining perspective, I thought to myself: none of this is David Glass' fault.

He gave the reins to Dayton and Co. He's taken a step back and invested money back into the franchise. It's easy to point the finger at the guy with the fat wallet. He's doing his part. I would like to see him at more games and interact more with the local media, but that isn't who he is. If the team started winning, I'm sure he would be at most games.

Dayton has given Trey another vote of confidence, saying that Trey has done a "terrific job". I'm sorry. He hasn't.

He's done an awful job. If I were to rank the previous five Royals managers, Trey would come in last. No wait, if I were to rank ALL Royals managers, he would come in last. He has lost the team once again. It is obvious that he plays favorites. Jason Kendall is the new Ross Gload having played in 31 of the 32 games so far at the catcher position. A ridiculous notion for a 35 year old catcher who had had lower body injuries throughout his career.

The fans are grumbling and word has it that David Glass is none to happy about the current situation at One Royal Way.

The season is lost already, but some are still pumping sunshine. The Royals seem set on losing with overpriced veteran talent rather than losing the "right way" with our cheaper in-house talent.

The longer this continues, the longer we have to suffer.

Dayton Moore, You've Got a Big-Time Gimme Putt Here...

With Rick Ankiel going to the DL with a lower body injury, Dayton Moore has a big opportunity to gain favor with a fanbase that is about as happy as 18th century France. A roster spot has opened up and there is only one choice that the fans will be happy with: Kila Ka'aihue.

All he's done is be the most prolific OBP guy in AAA the last 3 seasons. The Royals tried him out as a September call-up in 2008 and he hit one of the most impressive home runs that I've ever seen. It looked like a high flyball off the bat that would drift foul, but the ball carried and carried and found its way into the right field bleachers. Hell, the guy even got a curtain call. That's what we thought of him in 2008. Our first baseman of the near-future. A guy with awesome power, great plate discipline, decent glovework at first base and a plethora of nickname opportunities (even though "The Flyin' Hawaiian" is taken).

So Dayton, you've got a serious gimme right here. The fans are REELING. Seriously reeling. Like we're-not-going-to-buy-tickets-anymore-this-year reeling. You've got Kila. He's your Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card. You can fix so many things about your reputation with this move. For one, you can somewhat stymie the belief that you only pay lipservice to OBP. You can "practice what you preach" and call up the best OBP prospect we've had in awhile.

And guess what? If Kila sucks, then the egg is on our face and you can laugh at us as we Huberize Kila on the message boards and blogs. If he's awesome, or hell if he's even ABOVE AVERAGE, you're viewed as a genius and KC fans have something to get excited about. Oh and he also fixes that little problem you have that I like to call Battingjasonkendallsixthitis.

DO IT.

Hope Is a Funny Thing

Remember when Dayton Moore was hired in 2006? People rejoiced. We were dancing in the streets. He promised parades on the Plaza and a contending team by 2010! He used words like "process", "grit", "responsibility" and "hope".

Hope. It's a funny word. We hope it won't rain today. We hope that our car starts. We hope that our fledgling-no-better-than-an-expansion-franchise of a team can be led by competent leadership. That's what we had. It is in short supply now in KC. The Chiefs 1990-2004 dynasty was over. Kansas City sports fans were reeling. Then came our white knight. Waving the Atlanta Braves flag and proclaiming that he would save us.

And here we are.

Nearly 5 seasons later and nothing. Dayton Moore made the promise. He promised to spend money wisely. Eliminate waste. Spend money in Latin America. Nothing. There is nothing to show for it except for an 8-14 team with a roster that has been filled rather than constructed. We had a lights out bullpen in 2008 that led the team to its highest win total since 2003 and an 18-8 September. Then it was demolished to make room for high risk, expensive veteran talent. A 97 loss season followed.

Now we're being told to be patient. Guess what? We've been patient. Most diehards are ready to jump ship. But we can't. We're tied down. Held at the mercy of incompetence and "processes". Our young fans are being told that carousels, dollar hot dogs and fireworks are reasons to go out to the ballpark. Our young fans are being told that 97 loss seasons are okay because we have a Cy Young winner. People are settling for less. That is the worst thing that can happen.

Settling for less means that the Glass family can get away with it. They can get away with signing Dayton Moore to a 5 year extension because the bottom line is growing. We just paid $250 million dollars out of pocket to renovate your stadium so you could generate more revenue. Now we're being told that we need 2 million fans to show up to watch this awful product before we can spend more money. Guess what? We can give you more money to spend. But throwing money at your problems doesn't solve your problems. Just look at Kansas City Public Schools. $2 billion dollars down the drain and we just closed half our schools and fired half of our teachers.

Money isn't the problem. Leadership is the problem. We want to go to the ballpark and cheer. We want our owner to be at most of the games. We want to know we will win everytime Zack Greinke toes the rubber. We want to high five strangers after that big late inning home run to win a big divisional game. We want our manager to storm out of the dugout after an umpire makes a brutal call that loses the game for us.We want to cry tears of joy when that final out is made in October.

We've done our part. We've done it for 25 years. You've been here for 10 years. They've been the worst 10 years in Royals history. It isn't a coincidence. The time for change is now.

M's DH/LF Woes Mean Big Series for JoGui, DDJ and Scotty Pods

So here's what I've gathered from the M's blogosphere: The offense is bad, Milton Bradley sucks and it may be time for Ken Griffey Jr. to hang 'em up. So this creates an interesting scenario. If Griffey Jr. was to retire or Milton Bradley was DFA'ed or booed out of Seattle, it would create holes at DH and Left Field for the Mariners. Thus leaving the M's with quite a conundrum. They are one of the AL's worst offenses, as stated in my previous post, ranking near the bottom of the league in every offensive category(dead-freaking-last in home runs, too).

And here I come, with my evil professor scenario. Are the Mariners desperate enough to trade for Jose Guillen? I mean, why not? The guy is loved in the Pacific Northwest. He posted a pretty good season in Seattle. Good enough for one unnamed GM to give him a $36 million dollar deal. So what if the Royals eat, oh say $7-8 million of what is left on the contract? I say do it. The return on Guillen is never going to be higher. The guy can't get out. Everything he hits finds its way into a gap or over the fence. It is a perfect time to show him off to the Mariners and say "hey, look at this guy we've got here. He sure beats the pants off of your aging/aged Hall of Famer".

So maybe Jack Zduriencik isn't interested Jose Guillen. VH1 would be all over the Mariners front office trying to get a reality show about their clubhouse with Milton Bradley and JoGui Wheelz in the mix together. Interesting thing about the continuous experiment that is Milton Bradley is that he sucks when he doesn't have 2008 Josh Hamilton protecting him in the order. He's hit 3 HR and driven in 10 runs while mashing for a .167 average. So Jack Z may be ready to cut bait with FrankenBradley.

Well, we've got a couple of pretty productive Left Fielder's in our outfield right now. In fact, our left fielders are so good that our Right Fielder is actually our best Left Fielder! I know, it's crazy! So here's my scandal. Shop DDJ and Scotty Pods to the M's, include Jose Guillen as a side dish and see what Jack Z has to say about it. He's been viewed as a traditional GM with a scouting background, but has become obsessed with defensive metrics, and I'm sure he would like DeJesus' 18.8 career UZR/150 patrolling left field at Safeco Field.

But this of course is all hinging on whether or not Dayton Moore can pull this off...

Could Mariners Series Be Just What the Royals Need?

The Royals need this. The first 6 series of the season were against top AL offenses in Detroit (twice), Boston, Toronto and Minnesota (twice). The Mariners are currently ranked 11th in the AL in batting average and RBIs, 10th in runs scored, On-Base-Percentage and doubles and dead last in homeruns with a staggering nine long balls.

A pleasant sight after facing the fearsome lineups of the class of the AL's batting orders.

Its a nice change of pace from Mauer-Morneau-Cuddyer to Guttierez-Lopez-Old Balls Griffey.

Scary Things

The Royals say that Kila Ka'aihue has a slider speed bat, yet Rick Ankiel can't catch up to a fastball.

The Royals say that Mike Aviles still can't make the throw to first, yet Yuniesky Betancourt throws the ball about 5 feet short of first base.

The Royals say Disco Hayes will never pitch in the major leagues, yet Luis Mendoza, John Parrish, Dusty Hughes and Kyle Farnsworth have pitched 22.2 innings this year.