Tag Archives: Major league baseball

November 7, 2017 · 8:16 PM

GM For A Day: Free Agent Edition

Here’s my rapid free agency analysis of what I’d do as the Kansas City Royals GM For A Day. They missed a great opportunity to trade these players for some future value because they wanted to squeeze a few more marketing dollars from the fan base. Not trading at least the Big Three (Hosmer, Cain, Moustakas) throws the rebuild from a potential 4-5 cycle to probably a 7-10 years cycle. It won’t be another 25-30 year cycle, I promise…

The Royals under Dayton Moore built the modern model of competing in the post-steroid (???) age. Draft well. Trade smart. Put together a core group. Let them lose 90-100 game and slowly get better over next two seasons. Make a run at a championship by bringing in free agent pieces to the big puzzle picture. Don’t get attached, use veterans to get draft picks, retool, and repeat.

The Royals management played the plan to a “T” until it came time to let guys walk out the door. The Gordon signing sent the plan reeling. An organization that should have had at least two World Series championships and four playoffs appearances fell short without even showing their face in the playoffs the past two seasons.

Free agency 2017-2018 needs to be focused on getting back to the plan. Cycle back to first base and start again.

What would old Coach Hays do?

(Royals Free Agent List as obtained from MLB.com)

Eric Hosmer

  • Let him walk and go cry in the closet for a week. I love the way the kid plays, but he’d bankrupt the organization. Signing him at even 75% of his market value will handcuff the organization for years. They could have possibly pulled this off if they’d shown some discipline and let Alex Gordon walk.

Alcides Escobar 

  • Keep. Escobar can be signed for a reasonable amount. He is a proven defender. His offense fits into a 7-9 in the order batter. He’s a known swimming in a swamp of unknowns. Also will allow the club to try and sell the potential of Raul Mondesi for a couple young arms.

Mike Moustakas 

  • Sayonara, Moose! What does Moose’s production mean in terms of “W”s? Not much. Let me put it in simpler terms. He had a club record 38 homers in 2017 and didn’t even crack 90 RBI’s (85). Solo HRs don’t win baseball games.

Lorenzo Cain

  • Walk. He is 31. At this age, he is already physically breaking down. Money spent on Cain might be money spent remodeling the training room.

Jason Vargas 

  • Walk. He doesn’t have the arm stamina anymore and may not get it back. He should have been dealt at the deadline before his arm withered and he floundered the second half.

Melky Cabrera 

  • Walk. He was in the way of younger outfielders. Bringing him in for the second half of 2017 hindered development of Bonifacio, Orlando, and Soler. The future was now for these young guys. Melky was a waste of time.

Peter Moylan 

  • Keep. He showed promise in the bullpen. Ned just wore him to shreds by mid-August.

Trevor Cahill 

  • Keep him & hope to hell he finds himself. (That’s the subject of my next Royals GM for a Day post…Hope to Hell These Guys Find Themselves.)

Mike Minor

  • Keep. At his price point, it would be a waste to not find out what he can do for the next 2-3 years.

So there’s my Royals GM for a Day, Free Agent Edition. What would you do? Please leave your ideas in the comments section. I’d like to read your ideas! And stay tuned for the next Royals GM for a Day, where we’ll look at the returning roster and dream.

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January 21, 2013 · 5:22 PM

Stan “The Man” Musial

“It is a very sad day for me. I knew Stan very well. He used to take care of me at All-Star games, 24 of them. He was a true gentleman who understood the race thing and did all he could. Again, a true gentleman on and off the field — I never heard anybody say a bad word about him, ever.” – Willie Mays commenting to ESPN on Stan Musial’s death.

Willie Mays and Stan Musial Standing in Locker Room

Unfortunately, I missed Stan Musial’s active playing days in baseball. I have seen film of him. One of the sweetest swings I’ve ever seen and, arguably, the best left handed swing of all time. Musial is consistently ranked among the top five professional baseball players in the history of the game, but, I remember him more as an ambassador of the game. He represented himself, the Cardinals organization, and the city of St. Louis with dignity and class until the day he passed last Saturday.

Stan Musial did magnificent things on the baseball field, but perhaps his greatest contribution to the game came in helping to change the racial atmosphere of the 1950’s baseball clubhouses. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, but there was still a racial divide among the players in the clubhouses long after. An ex-baseball coach of mine posted the following story yesterday recounting how Stan Musial played a key role in the acceptance if the negro baseball player into Major League Baseball.

 “Mays , Aaron , and Campenella were playing cards in a NL All-Star clubhouse in the mid-fifties and Musial came over and sat down and said to deal him in . As the foremost NL player of the time , it validated the black stars in their fellow all stars eyes . I have seen both Mays and Aaron say they thought it was classy and they were very grateful to Musial for the gesture.”

I think the greatest lesson Stan Musial leaves us with in this age of modern sport is that the individual, no matter how good, should live to serve the sport. We acquire great things from our sports and too often we expect the sport to serve us, instead of us serving our beloved sport.

Stan Musial, 1920-2013

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