Royals Rantings

And here's Ron's assessment of the Royals situation. Very insightful.

I would think that a team that was spouting the "small market mantra" as Ron says would develop some strategies that are successful for small market teams. Many have criticized Moneyball as simply a small market approach as in the book Scout's Honor but if it's successful then why wouldn't the Royals or other small market teams proactively try and emulate the A's?

I think Baird has done a good job of getting free or nearly free talent in the last couple years (Sisco, Huber, Bautista etc.) after screwing up big time his first couple years (Neifi, Tucker, Crosby, Griffin). That said, certainly one small market strategy is to try and develop a core of young players that mature at the same time so that you get a maximum window established before losing them to arbitration or free agency. Instead, what the Royals seem to be doing is rushing players that are too young, start their service clocks running, and then screw up their development (Costa, Bautista, Howell, Nunez, Gotay).

While I didn't really think that applied to Zack Greinke, now it would appear that he perhaps could also have used another year of seasoning. They also treat AAA as a wasteland where they send guys they don't think are prospects. I'm confused by what they're doing as well.

Their free agent signings haven't been anything to write home about either. And why are they spending another $1.35 million on soon to be 38 year-old Matt Stairs? They would be better off making sure they get Alex Gordon signed with that money (although it appears he'll sign anyway).