Like Los Angeles Lakers great James Worthy, they call him “Big Game James” due in no small part to his propensity for clutch performances. He owns every major pitching record for the Tampa Bay Rays, has a World Series victory, finished 3rd in 2011’s American League Cy Young voting, and struck out 15 batters in his final performance for the only team he has ever known.
Wil Myers has no nickname (at least, none that I am aware of), was this year’s Minor League Player of the year, and, according to his Twitter feed, has a real fondness for Olive Garden.
James Shields is 31 and now under Royals’ control for two years. (He HAS stated that he’d be interested in signing an extension, but, well, he’s been here 2 days. Let’s see how all that pans out.)
Myers is 22 and will likely be with the Rays for at least 6 years and, given their proclivity for handing out long-term extensions to their young players, probably longer than that.
It was an interesting trade to say the least, an all-out, balls-on-the-cutting-board move perpetrated by general manager Dayton Moore that will either leave him a Grand Kansas City Hero, or cause elderly women to spit on the sidewalk whenever his name gets mentioned.
For declaring that, “the future is now, there’s no time like the present, and the rebuilding days are done,” I commend Mr. Moore. In an extremely high stakes game of poker, he just went all-in. He doesn’t appear too willing to look back now, and for that, I say “kudos,” and, “it’s about goddamned time.”
It had to be done sometime; everyone knows that. What nobody knows, however, is whether this racket will ever be shaped into something resembling music.
Meaning, “what now? Was this a good move?”
And that’s up for debate. And will be for a long, long time.
There are camps of people—passionate, intelligent statisticians and sport-folk—who cannot believe that this deal was made. The idea of trading someone as certain a sure-thing as Myers for a chance to maybe crack the playoffs next year, and maybe the year after, is mind-blowingly daft to them.
These folks are ardent believers that slow and steady will always win the race.
Then, there are camps of people—passionate, intelligent statisticians and sport-folk— who cannot believe that the first group is so perplexed. Myers is a prospect, after all, a good one, to be sure, but can’t we name 15 prospects who fizzled? 20 prospects? 100?
These folks are hardcore Royals fans who look at the record books and realize that it has been TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS since the team last made the postseason. They are so tired of being a laughingstock fan base that they are literally willing to mortgage the future to see a winner now.
It’s hard to fault them for that.
And frankly, it’s hard to fault either camp and it’s just as hard to find imperfections in either argument. Some of them wanted one cookie now, and the others wanted to wait and get TWO cookies in ten minutes. Hey, cookies are good, you know?
Which camp wins is anyone’s guess. It really, truly is. It’s not a cop-out answer, it’s a “show me your working crystal ball and I’ll believe what you have to say” answer. There are a million things that can go wrong between now and the time when a grade can be given.
Injuries. Ineffectiveness. Potential. A million other components (Wade Davis, for starters) that I didn’t even get into.
So for now, all we can do is argue. And that’s fun. And it’s (mostly) healthy. And it’s one of the best things about sports—you know, aside from WATCHING or PLAYING them. We can second guess and play armchair GM and we can think people who we consider to be friends are idiots if they disagree with our stance. And that’s fine.
For what it’s worth, I hope I’m wrong about this move. Right now, I’m just too uncomfortable with it. I think that trading Myers leaves a gaping hole in right field that desperately needs to be addressed, and I think that Shields will be really good but probably not great, and I think that years from now, when Myers is a perennial All Star, we’ll all be cursing the name of Dayton Moore.
I really, really hope I’m wrong.
Follow me on Twitter: @StandfordWhistle
It was time to make a move. Time to try. In baseball pitching is everything….we had really no starters that mattered…now maybe we do….this town will have a parade if the Royals are over .500, they might be…so if thats all we needed, might be on the way.
Anything under .500 is completely unacceptable next season.
glaze…what no hotties at 4am? whats up with that?
what up glaze…no hotties at 4am?
whats up with that dude?…
cold outside….we’re all waiting for more salacious stories….
hahaha
Good article Brandon.
I look at it this way. The Royals were not going to be competitive with the rotation as it stood at season’s end. No one can deny that Shields, Davis, Santana, and Guthrie enhance the Royals chances to be competitive sooner. In the AL Central if you can be competitive you have a shot at winning it all.
Will this deal put KC in the World Series? Impossible to say, but if the Royals are playing meaningful games in August and September this town will go nuts. Also, imagine how attractive KC can be to potential free agents down the road when they see this team playing competitively.
I can’t wait for the day when Detroit comes to town in mid-September for a three game series for first place. I’m hopeful this deal put the Royals a year or two closer to that happening.
Thanks, Paul. Great points. 2003’s fluke got my wife into baseball, and that was pretty exciting. Not surprisingly, her interest waned with the successive failures that followed. It will be very nice to see people get behind the team again, even if it IS bandwagon-y. I’ll take it.
“I can’t wait for the day when Detroit comes to town in mid-September for a three game series for first place.”
Excellent! So Detroit will be playing the White Sox at Kauffman in September? Will the Royals be in the stands or on the road?
Because the Royals will have to get past the Indians, and White Sox, to even think about getting close to the Tigers next year. Talent-wise, the Tigers are on another level entirely.
Personally, I’m really not too worried about the Sox, the Indians or the– wait for it!– Twins. You’re right about the Tigers, though, and as a Royals fan, it’s annoying that people keep failing to mention them. Unless something crazy happens injury-wise, Detroit is still the odds-on favorite to win the division.
We’ll see how this pans out but to rag on Royals fans after repeatedly getting pissed on in their damn faces by the ownership for the past twenty years is a bit much to shoulder. For anyone to consider themselves a hardcore fan of the Royals at this time pretty much classifies you as a hardcore sadist. Even Cubs fans smell the playoffs every now and then.
Sadist, here.
As I was helping my friend with his Star routes early this morning, we were discussing this latest trade and the ramifications of it. He liked the deal and thinks it did enough to make the Royals a legitimate contender for the top spot in the weak AL Central. But the guys who had an off year offensively last year will need to at least repeat what they did in 2011 to support the pitching, of course. And the team will need another good year from Butler, a steady defense and solid work from the bullpen. No, they may not win the division, but if they’re still in the hunt when the calendar flips over to September, the vast majority of fans will be happy. At the very least the team needs to finish .500! Detroit? I sure rooted for them against the Giants, but the boys from Motown really let me down in the Series.
Me too.
rick buddy….throwing papers at 4am.?.
maybe get with glaze…he might be able to help you.
And if things don’t work out on the truck rick…the royals might
be needing a 5th starter. And i’ve heard you got a good arm with
the sunday paper!
I�m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back later on. Cheers.