Another “OFF” Season????

Dayton Moore entered this off-season coming off a disappointing year in which his team, thought by many to compete in the weakened central, lost 97 games and finished dead last. A lot of that had to do with the off-season leading up to the 2009 season.

A period in which the Royals sent two of their most effective relievers, to bring in a DH-only, who can’t get on base and an oft injured center fielder. Shockingly the DH-only never got on base and the center fielder played in only 49 games.

Those trades were:

Ramon Ramirez to Boston for Coco Crisp

Leo Nunez to Florida for Mike Jacobs

Both acquisitions are not on the team as it stands going forward for the 2010 season. Both players used in the trade were replaced with 15.25 million of ineffectiveness. The 2 players brought in cost the team a combined 9.775 million dollars. In all, those 2 trades cost the team 25 million dollars. Mistakes that simply CAN NOT HAPPEN to a small market team.

Clearly Dayton would enter this off-season with a renewed sense of value. Valuing production (and maybe stats) more than name value (although most people were disgusted with the Farnsworth signing when it happened).

Then the news came down on Friday that the Royals had signed Jason Kendall. First reaction: not bad, a replacement level catcher to come in and improve the defense over Olivo.

Then the news came down that it was a 2-year deal. Second reaction: How could Dayton give a multi year deal to an already 35 year old who has caught over 130 games a season since he was 25. That’s ludicrous!

Then the news came down that it was a 2-year deal for 6 MILLION DOLLARS. Third reaction: How hard would it be to convince my friends that I’ve been a Red Sox fan my entire life and quit this Royals team!

Unfortunately I can’t do that. My heart won’t let me. Nor will the framed game 6 ticket stub I have in my house.

But the news about Kendall's 2-year deal continues my doubts about Dayton building the major league roster.

The news about Kendall led everybody to believe it would mark the end of the John Buck era in Kansas City. It did. But I would like to know why. By not offering Buck arbitration he would likely sign somewhere for 1-year 2 million. Oddly enough exactly what he signed with Toronto for. So Dayton Moore had a choice; non-tender Buck and re-sign him for around 2 million and offer him the everyday catching job with Pena backing him up,(if he would accept that) or sign Kendall to a 2-year deal worth 6 million. Dayton chose the latter and worse of the two deals.

The team has clearly made an emphasis on defense. So Olivo wasn’t an option with the team leading the league in passed balls mainly because of the receiving ability, or lack there of, by Olivo.

But offensively this team gets worse with the addition of Jason Kendall over John Buck

Kendall's line the last 3 years reads like this .243/.320/.313 .632 OPS

Buck's line the last 3 years reads like this .228/.305/.414 .719 OPS

John Buck has an OPS almost 100 points higher than Kendall's. And he's 29.

In case you were wondering, and I know you were, Joey Gathright slugged .311 in his 3 years with the Royals. .002 points lower than Kendall over the last 3 years...just food for thought...

I've long felt the Royals have gone out of their way to bring in guys who have no clue how to get on base. OBP is the most important offensive stat. But, it's not the only important stat. Walks are great, but power is the most important SKILL to an offense.

The 15 points Buck gives up in OBP to Kendall is more than Doubled, Tripled and even Quadrupled by the 100 points higher of slugging Buck gives the offense.

Just think about this as your watching the offense this season. Yuniesky Betancourt had the lowest OBP of any everyday player last year. Jason Kendall had the lowest Slugging % of any everyday player last year. They will likely be batting 8th and 9th in the SAME offense. Jason Kendall can still work the count and draw a walk. But he will no longer have the luxury of batting 8th in a National League lineup and getting unintentionally intentionally walked to get to the pitcher in certain situations. He will be attacked because the worst that will happen is a single.

Maybe it improves defensively over Buck. Maybe. Buck threw out only 16% of baserunners last year, Kendall threw out 20%. The year before that he threw out 43% and the year before that only 15%. So in the last 3 years Kendall has thrown out 15, 43 and 20%. Which one do you think is the abberation.

It's probably premature because we will be going through this year with Kendall making 2.25 million, roughly what you would have payed Buck. It's next year that will be the key to this signing when Kendall is making 3.75 as a 37 year old.

Where does the cliff come for a guy that has caught for the last 14 years in the major leagues? Some will argue that the cliff may already be happening. I will argue that cliff has yet to happen and it will be steep and drastic. Dayton is praying the cliff doesn’t happen for two more years…his prayers may be echoed by his fan base hoping for a team to lose less than 90 games.