Primarily, initially, for Moore: It came down making people “wonder” about the Royals again (Players and fans alike), and recreating an image. Humor me hear.

No free agent in the game who is decently good in the majors is going to get all giddy and drool at the thought of playing for that farm team the Royals. This is a fact. Dayton Moore inherited not just a franchise with no stock, but in essence, he inherited a laughing stock. Moore had not just to change the substantive product on the field but primarily the IMAGE that comes to a player and a fan’s mind when he hears the name “Royals”… They are blooper real, a ‘minor league team’, right? Yep. How do you change that image? Not easy. You need to be smart. You need to be philosophical.

This recreation of an image is not easy when you don’t have money. You have to get philosophical if not artsy… you have to create shadows with nothing, create draft smoke screens and optical illusions, and bluff when you have no cards, and purposely lose some hands just to sit at the table with big whigs (insert Meche and Guillen)… you have to wear fancy suits that you can’t afford… and even be the first team out of the trade gate to just to get the baseball world thinking about the ‘fast moving’ Royals… like we saw this summer with DeJesus. Word association…

Images: Look back to that summer we bid on Tori Hunter. Dayton Moore, even with his Aramani suit and a renovated ballpark knew he was never going to get Tori Hunter to sign for the Royals. How many surprising headlines did the Royals make though? That was huge. Yet, Moore had to step up to the table that off-season, and the ridiculous contract of Guillen and Meche was not the main point; it was the price he had to pay to get people associating the “Royals” with “spending money”. It is like Pavlov’s theory… people need to begin to drool when the think of the Royals. The image had to change slowly, if not awkwardly. Moore knew we never were going to get anybody really good, he had to overpay to get average. But that wasn’t the point.

If none of that makes sense, think of Guillen and Meche this way: those signings were analogous to purchasing a seat and a beer in the MLB. Sometimes you have to overpay on a scalped ticket and buy a $10 beer that in the end sucks… that bitter beer was Guillen and that scalped ticket was Meche. They were the price of admission to get our franchise in the purview of serious folks. That is priceless. Even if they still chuckle and wonder why with Meche and Guillen, at least got people wondering about the Royals. Philosophy begins in wonder.

This trade is obvious guys… if you live in the land that is outside of the box.

What do we see? Moore will want an impact bat (or two) for Greinke. He is making that clear with this trade. We already got ‘pitching’ for our trade-chip in DeJesus. Moore knows that we have front line starters in the minors, and now have a couple more back of the end starters in Mazarro and Marks to throw in the mix. Pitching is the currency that we have in the minors. DeJesus was never going to bring us an impact bat (let alone an impact arm)… DeJesus never fit the Moore franchise mold.

Brethren: Moore wants the big league clubs who covet Greinke to realize that they are going to have to give a huge prospect bat or two and NOT pitching to get Greinke. Jeff Francouer might be wearing Royal Blue come Spring… but I am still convinced that Dayton Moore is looking for the “Mold” center fielder… the next Andruw Jones. Where is he? Is he swimming over in the Angels minor league system (Mike Trout?) or is he up in the land of the Twin Cities (Aaron Hicks?)

Wherever. Moore loves smokescreens and hidden messages. The message or logic in this trade: Don’t try and give us pitching for Greinke. We have that. Give us a five-tool-kind of guy who plays center-field.

I agree Abh that we lost one of our above average hitters, but I would say the goal is to open spots on a losing team so that we can discover new above average hitters who will be around for more than one year.