The Dayton Moore Era Has Officially Begun

Yesterday brought the official start of the Dayton Moore era as the Royals' newly acquired GM made his first trade. Kansas City brings in Tampa Bay speedster Joey Gathright and infielder Fernando Cortez for lefty JP Howell. If anyone other than a Royals' fan reads about the trade it will appear to be two mediocre fringe players for one (with some potential). However, Royals' fans would, to a man, disagree. How many soft throwing left handed pitchers does one team really need? We've still got Gobble and Redman, but for a while there you could add Darrell May into that mix. I think we're still OK on that front. Joey Gathright, while hitting right around .200 with the Rays this year, is quite possibly the fastest guy in baseball. The addition of a true speed threat (the first since Tom Goodwin, maybe?) cannot hurt this club. It has been said that Gathright will join the club today (Wednesday) and play center field. The Jesus is not a bad center fielder but move him to left and get Emil Brown out of the outfield and you have immediately improved you defense - a lot. Gathright, while not hitting this year in the Majors, did hit a somewhate respectable .275 last year. If this guy can bring a bat to the ballpark each night he will make a very nice leadoff hitter. I'm not sure about his plate disclipline, but nobody else the Royals run out there each night will take a walk (other than Matty Stairs or some of the other veterans - on occasion) so we really wouldn't lose anything there even if he doesn't walk. Maybe he's a number nine hitter. When he does get on base he's there (in scoring position because he singled and stole second) for the top of the order. I'm intrigued to see what this does to the lineup and the overall feel of the team.

On a related note, this does mean we've got an extra outfielder now. Hey, does anybody need a bat to help with a playoff run? Reggie Sanders, get your Reggie Sanders here! I know the Yankee's are rumored to be interested due to the injury to Gary Sheffield. I'm sure Dayton Moore could find somebody the Yankees have in their system for Sanders.

Apparently the Ryan Freel to KC rumors are alive in Cincy too. We'll see how that works out. Take care Royals' fans. Don't lose hope.

A Different Look

Well there are all sorts of "different looks" since my last post. Personally, I got married June 3rd, headed off to sunny Florida for about week and had all four wisdom teeth removed yesterday, the day we returned - hence the reason for the lack of posts.

As for the Royals' I didn't pay a whole lot of attention other than the occasional USA today articles or whaterver I could catch on Sportscenter or BBTN. Speaking of USA today, the paper did a story on Luke Hochevar and another on Dayton Moore. I was very surprised to two entire articles devoted to the worst team in baseball in a national newspaper. However, I did keep up on the team enough to remember some of the more important moves.

The boys' in blue went 1-3 in the four game set in Seattle June 2-5, then 1-2 against the Rangers June 6-8 and 1-2 against the D Rays June 9-11. The team then headed back to the west coast to start a 6 game road trip against Anaheim and Houston, losing the first game to the Angels last night 4-3.

As for the "different looks" for the Royals, obviously new GM Dayton Moore heads up that list. Following closly on his heels would have to be the starting rotation. The rotation, as I see it, now consists of Ellarton, Redman, Keppel, new acquired Brandon Duckworth and Mike Wood. I'm pretty okay with that rotation seeing as how three of the guys could be a part of the future. The Royals also acquired reliever Todd Wellemeyer from the Marlins.

On an interesting note, the Royals turned the first triple play in club history since the 1995 season. It was an odd play and I don't feel like describing it when you can read about it or watch it at:

http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060611&content_id=1500442&vkey=news_kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc

I'll work on making that a decent hyperlink when I remember my html. As for now if you can't figure out how to copy and paste the above then I don't know how you found this.

A New Era

Well, quite a lot has transpired since the last post here at Royals' Dish. After snapping the 13 game losing streak in New York, the boys' in blue managed to lose their next two outings in the Bronx. However, with a team as bad as the Royals currently are, taking even one of three in New York isn't that bad. The team then made the short trip to Oakland and promptly took two of three from the struggling A's. The last game of the series the Royals were shutout, however they did confirm the Dayton Moore rumors.

The Allard Baird era is now over and the organization welcomes the former Brave's assistant GM Dayton Moore. Everything I've read about this indicates it was a great move. 810 WHB midday guy Soren Petro interviewed Mr. Moore Wednesday and asked whether the rumors that he had requested total autonomy when it comes to baseball moves. He gave the political answer but it sure sounded like he was going to be solely responsible for player personnel changes. This can't be bad new for the Royals.

More good news on the Royals front. Zachary Greinke will make a rehad start this evening with the Wranglers. Hopefully, this means he's close to returning to the big league team. Let's see, with him back and the plethora of pitching moves the Royals have made of late - see Runelvys Hernandez and Joe Nelson back to Omaha, the trade for Seth Etherton (who won one of the aforementioned games in Oakland) and Affeldt back to the 'pen - the rotation is going to look very different. Maybe something along the lines of Elarton, Greinke, Bobby Keppel, Redman and Etherton. At least three of those guys might figure into the teams' future plans.

Don't think it's just pitching that the good guys are mixing up. Both "The Jesus" and Costa are back (which sent Gueil back to Omaha) and Reggie Sanders is back in the lineup after being slowed by an injury. Blanco is here and German is still seeing way too much time on the bench.

All sorts of potentially good stuff.