This is the issue I have with the Royals–they have decided that Gordon, Kila, Pena, and at one point Aviles were not solutions without ever giving any the requisite ABs/playing time to actually know -AND- they have done this while giving players who we KNOW aren’t the solution the actual ABs/playing time.

We’ll have to agree to disagree on a few points. I don’t believe that playing Kila or Alex is playing young guys just to play them. Neither is young for one and I have no doubt in my mind that we are a better team now if they play ahead of Ankiel, Guillen, or Pods. We’re not talking about .290 hitters here–both of those guys have RAKED in the minors and Gordon has shown above average stretches in the major leagues.

I would not advocate Pena everyday, but he should play 3-4 days a week and I believe we are better with him than Kendall. Kendall is no defensive wizard or expert staff manager by my eyes. Pena certainly may not be either, but he can hit and I believe he’s no worse than Olivo back there.

We had plenty of veterans in the Baird era, but those veterans were awful just like our current ones.

2) Pods just got traded, don’t really agree with that trade. We have no reasonable C depth in the minors, so Kendall is the best option. If you mention Pena, I think the C position is more about defense, managing the team, handling the pitchers than offensive numbers.

3) Gordon hasn’t really performed in the ML level. And he just got promoted. Gordon hasn’t made the proper adjustments from what I hear. Maier has been playing but he hasn’t slugged past 400 in the past 2 years. Yes, he is good on defense, but by no means is he a ML starter. He is a 4th OF at best.

4) Finally, you want to try and win on the ML roster. Royals play their young guys. They have to deserve it or it’s b/c of no choice. Positive side is when you deserve PT, you get Butler (Butler got demoted a couple times), Tejeda and Soria. But when you play someone who hasn’t made the proper adjustments or isn’t a ML caliber pitcher, you get mildly successful or not so great players like Gordon, Kyle Davies, Hochevar,…

5) You just don’t play young players for the sake of playing them. I would think if we were in Ned Yost’s position, we would want to be able to win every time with a fair balance of developing young players. Unfortunately the guys you have stated aren’t really ML worthy players. They are not as good as Kendall, Pods, Ankiel,…

6) Royals aren’t winning b/c we have no depth and not the right mix of players in the minor leagues. We are still void of a great SS, C, RHP’s, CF, RH power bat. We just don’t have enough players at the right positions. For the ML roster, we have no LHP as a starter. This ML roster needs upgrades and improvements. But it doesn’t happen by playing youngsters for the sake of playing youngsters. It happens by selecting and playing the right players.

7) I have been reading Royals Authority since 2007. I hear the same arguments all the time, playing the next big minor league player like Justin Huber, Luke Hochevar, Chris Lubanski, Branyan Pena, but hey, none of these are ML caliber players. If they were, you think the Royals wouldn’t be playing them?

8) I read another blog about the Pods trade. They were blasting Ned Colletti and Dodgers for not promoting one of the 3 AAA outfielders that were all hitting in the 290′s or 300′s. Similar story huh? Fans don’t really what the scouts see and rely 100% of heresay and stat’s. Stat’s only tell half the story. There will be misses and cracks but hey I respect what this Royals regime is doing.

9) You look at all the young players the Royals promoted and played during Baird’s regime. Most failed while they were with us and some had better success when they left the Royals. Do you know why? Veteran support and leadership. Royals had none of that and are beginning to develop it in the ML roster. We don’t see the results in win’s yet, but I think DM and the front office is doing the right things.

I don’t think anyone ever indicated that the Royals don’t have some promising minor league talent, but my fear is that the handling of Kila and Gordon is a pre-cursor to handling of other minor leaguers who have nothing left to prove. If Moore continually fills the major league roster with underperforming, highly paid, veteran talent then all the minor league prospects in the world can’t save his job. The Bullington promotion is another example of this. Who is more likely to contribute to the major league team in the long run — Bullington or one of Coleman and Hardy? If Moore waits until a whole wave of players are ready before giving them a big league shot then will we be prepared to fill the holes when some of them predictably flame out? Wouldn’t it make more sense to find about players once they’ve proven the minor leagues aren’t offering sufficient challenges? Why does Willie Bloomquist start today while Alex sits–does this have any basis in reason?

You seem to be cherry picking arguments. I’d be happy to address any point you make but you seem to ignore counterpoints. Start here:

Do you think the Royals were justified in keeping Herges over Hayes? What possible justification is there for that decision?

Since you don’t like that question perhaps you can shed light on how playing Pods, Kendall, Bloomy better prepares us for 2011-2012 then playing Gordon, Pena, Maier, etc.

By the way Victor Marte down, Bryan Bullington up. Wouldn’t want to see if Holland, Hardy or Coleman can get major league hitters out, would we?

Royals have very few quality SS right now. It makes the trade of Rey Navarro even more interesting for Carlos Rosa (I know he is 2B right now).

You want a winning team in the ML’s, lets see how Royals handle these 3 key positions and then we see if they will win in the near future.

I am sure we are all in agreement that Arbuckle knows how to win and knows how to put a team together. After all he was integral in the Phillies success. How can we bash the Royals for not “thinking outside the box” or doing things differently. I am sure these decisions, Arbuckle was a part of. So, are we disagreeing with Arbuckle’s philosophy of drafting projectable players that are athletes and loading up on them. Or do we want to keep these iffy marginal prospects like Chris Hayes?

Do you want to know what is outside of the box thinking? Joe Nathan is an example when he was converted from a SS to pitcher. Royals did that with TP Jr. It just didn’t turn out how we wanted it to be. It’s like trading Daniel Cortez for Yuni. We get a ML SS (granted not great) for a headcase. It’s trading Daniel Gutierrez, another headcase for 2 solid minor leaguers for depth.

I think the Royals are close to breaking out. They are doing a lot of the right moves, not completely, but a lot. To me, Royals are almost there building depth in the system. Winning teams are not only about having Kila, Gordon,…and so and so on the ML team. It’s also about having a lot of depth at AAA to handle a season’s injuries. And finally for every silly DM move like Mike Jacobs for Leo Nunez, he has made a lot of good moves.

I’m anxious to see what happens in the offseason. I worry that Dayton will not be able to let himself go into next year with the young or unproven players getting a full opportunity. I would nearly guarantee that he will go after a veteran ‘bat’ that will further block Kila or Gordon. He’ll think, “We’ve got to replace the power outage from losing Ankiel, Guillen, the speed from losing Pods, etc.” Kila and Gordon don’t haven’t shown the power/speed needed so here’s 4 mil for that washed up veteran, here’s 2 mil for that never was vet and then we still won’t know for sure what we actually have.

Again, we’re painted in a corner where a trade of Kila could be justified by saying “he couldn’t get MLB ABs”. BS. I certainly hope I’m wrong.

It’s great to a farm system, but the GM has never shown the propensity to bring someone up and let them play unless forced to do so (Aviles, Maier, hell even Gordon this time around).

That is probably true, but does it make any more sense to make a determination ‘that player X probably can’t hack in the majors so don’t even give him a look?’. That is probably my major complaint with the current Royals administration.

Carlos Rosa has 27 major league innings spread over three seasons of sporadic work. He might not have the control it takes and flipping him for a former prospect who might not have the bat is a decent gamble.

In the case of Chris Hayes, the Royals jettison an uncoventional 27 year old in favor of keeping Matt Herges or Josh Rupe. Whether Hayes catches on with another organization is not really relevant, it is more an exhibit of an organizational mindset that leads to trading for Mike Jacobs instead of finding out about Kila Kaa’ihue.

Dayton Moore has done a nice job of positioning the Royals minor league system to produce hopefully a bevy of players. We’ll see how it plays out.