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.