Comments on: Grading Dayton Moore – Part 1

By: Kyle

Kyle — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:45:11 +0000

Jason, had Fields been healthy all season it would not have been close to a wash. Teahen only played 77 games because he performed so poorly, while Getz played 72 and Fields played 13 mostly due to injury. Teahen was getting paid 3.75 mil versus the 1 mil combined for Getz and Fields. So yes, I agree it was a salary dump, but the production was not that close. Fields is not a great defender, but Teahen is not good. I still feel that the Royals won this trade.

Fields will battle Moustakas and Betemit for the starting job at 3B next year, hopefully it goes to Moustakas. Getz will battle with Aviles for the starting job at 2B. Teahen is nothing more than a corners utility player that can’t hit.

By: fb0252

fb0252 — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:47:30 +0000

if all you judge a GM on is “personnel” moves, then I agree with the post except for Kendall. Can we blame GM that Kendall misused by his managers? Can blame GM for the managers though.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:00:04 +0000

Kyle — The Teahen deal is still a wash production wise. It was a financial move from the beginning regardless of the lip service.

FWIW … Betemit and Chen being the most productive players is more of an indictment than a success for Moore. Any GM can take a flier on a player and hit the jackpot. What seems to go unnoticed is that Moore can’t seem to hit when he’s playing with money.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:09:06 +0000

I disagree on the Teahen deal. That is a win for the Royals. You forgot to mention how pourly Teahen played this year. We not only saved the money, but we lost zero production. I was glad to see Teahen and Buck gone. We finally can forget the Beltran trade ever happened.

I might be a Moore apologist, but he has made some pretty good moves. As for the “blind hog”, these were minor league FA signings. You never get that much production at the MLB level from minor league contracts. Those are HUGE wins, in my book. Even if you only got 2-3 decent starts out of Bullington and Humber, and a few innings of decent relief work out of Rupe and Thompson, that is a win. Betemit and Chen were in KC for alot of the season and were the most productive players on the team.

By: dls

dls — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:36:51 +0000

If the Royals would not have jerked around John Buck the past coupla years and kept him happy and simply kept him, they would be in a lot better shape at the catching position. Buck would be the starter and Pena the backup.

By: Craig Brown

Craig Brown — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:33:26 +0000

Ghost- Obviously, the Kendall deal was the biggest blunder of the moves I reviewed. Horrible. But I’ve beaten that horse so many times, there’s really nothing left. And I agree on the Teahen trade… He needed to shed some salary and chose one of the better guys to deal. Since the Royals didn’t really get anything in return and since they tossed some cash Chicago’s way, I can’t term this a win or a loss.

GMDM gets a point for letting Jacobs go because it means he essentially admitted to making a mistake. That’s something we all thought he was incapable of doing.

By: kcghost

kcghost — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:15:43 +0000

I think you are being way too kind to GMDM. The Teahen trade was a simple salary dump and to try and hide it as the Royals with the idea we actually got something back other than organizational filler was silly.

Considering GMDM had three better choices at catcher than Kendall and still went ahead with a 2-year deal for Kendall just re-inforces the idea that when he gets a ludicrous idea in his head he stubbornly clings to it. He was going to get someone else to catch besides Olive and Buck and quality be damned. Olivo and/or Buck are nothing to write home about, but are distinctly better than Kendall. And they would not have gotten away with bullying Hillman/Yost into getting 90% of the playing despite horrendous productivity.

Obviously picking up Chen and Betemit was a classic “even a blind hog finds an acorn now and again”. They were certainly useful this year, but their long-time value remains doubtful. Betemit has to hit to be of value because he treats batted balls like they are radioactive.

I don’t know how you can give a guy points for dumping Mike Jacobs after the same guy traded a decent young relief pitcher to get him. No, this was a major loss and remains so.

By: Austyn

Austyn — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:08:22 +0000

I really can’t disagree with anything you said, it was right to the point.