From the official release:

The Kansas City Royals have declined 2010 options for outfielder Coco Crisp, catcher Miguel Olivo and right-handed pitcher Yasuhiko Yabuta.  Crisp and Olivo are now eligible to file for free agency.  Yabuta can elect free agency if he doesn’t sign a 2010 Major League contract with the Royals by November 16.

If the Royals had picked up Crisp's option for 2010, he would have earned $8 million.  That's a hefty salary for someone who likely won't be ready to play until May after having surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder.  Instead, he gets a $500,000 buyout.  This was an easy call for the Royals.  Someone will take a chance on Crisp, but it will likely be on an incentive-laden contract and on a team that can afford to give some cash to a guy who figures to open the year on the DL.

I'm kind of surprised the Royals didn't offer to pick up Olivo's option for $3.3 million.  It's a mutual option, meaning Olivo could have (and most likely would have) turned it down.  The Royals probably knew for certain that Olivo didn't want to return at those terms, so they decided to dispense with the formality and let him go at a cost of $100,000.  This doesn't necessarily mean the John Buck will be your number one catcher next year.  The Royals still have to decide whether or not to tender him a contract for 2010.  It's not out of the realm of possibility that the Royals and Olivo reach an agreement on a new contract that would pay him more than the $3.3 million he was due for next season.

And Yabuta... Complete bust.  He gets a $500,000 buyout.  Good riddance.

Okay, so the Mark Teahen to the White Sox deal is curiously stuck in trade limbo.  Is is simply a case of waiting for Chris Getz to pass a physical?   Is it a matter of the Royals kicking in some cash to make the deal?   Are there prospects involved?

I am taking the stance that all this 'smoke' must be coming from a pretty fair sized 'fire' and as such that this deal will eventually happen.  

Taking that assumption let's have a little fun:

To be fair, Roberts returned for a partial season in AAA at age twenty-five and put up a line of .315/.401/.399/.800.  

Okay, one more table:

Roberts had already logged 113 games in the majors in 2001 and 2002, but 2003 was basically his first year of regular duty, so that seems to be pretty comparable to Getz's true rookie season.

Am I saying that Chris Getz is the next Brian Roberts?  No, but it is interesting to note that Roberts came into the majors without a particularly impressive resume, either.

Make sure you read all the way to the updates... An interesting day, for sure.  Original post follows...

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According to the NY Daily News:

While the Yankees and Phillies continued to wage their World Series battle Wednesday night, the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals were making a trade.

The Daily News learned the White Sox have agreed to send second baseman Chris Getz and third baseman Josh Fields to the Royals for Mark Teahen, who is expected to replace Jermaine Dye as Chicago's right fielder.

Dayton Moore doesn't wait around.  The man pulled the trigger on last year's Jacobs deal hours after the World Series and it looks again like he's getting a head start on the Hot Stove.

And unlike last year's first trade which was a stinker, this one has some potential.

I'll have some more analysis later - pending confirmation from the Royals - but the most important thing to note is both Getz and Fields are under club control for the next two seasons.  That makes them inexpensive.  Teahen made almost $4 million last year and was sure to get a bump in his final year of eligibility for arbitration.

This certainly raises some questions.  What happens to Alberto Callaspo at second?  Getz isn't that much better defensively and Callaspo has a stronger bat.  Where will Fields play?  He's not a good defender, but will the Royals move him or Alex Gordon to first and then shift Butler to DH?  Or will Fields be the primary designated hitter?

My instant reaction says getting two cost controlled players for one expensive, mediocre talent makes this a win for the Royals.

If the Daily News report is accurate and this deal is done, it's safe to say GMDM is off to a much better start this off season.

UPDATE:  The Chicago Sun-Times says the White Sox have confirmed the deal.

UPDATE #2:  Dayton Moore says, "There's nothing to announce."

UPDATE #3:  Mark Teahen is sleeping in his Royal PJs.

UPDATE #4: The Chicago Tribune says nothing has been confirmed.

At last, we reach the final positional analysis of our long running series on the Royals versus their American League Central foes:  the bullpen.   Let's not waste any time and jump right into the numbers:

Some of you may be thinking, 'why losses?  After all, won-loss records are perhaps one of the poorest indicators of a pitcher's performance'.   You are right about that, but when dealing with a bullpen as an entire unit, I think losses is a very telling stat.  I cannot think of a way for the bullpen as a whole to be tagged with a loss without having something to do with it.

As such, that the Royals led the division in this dubious category is no surprise.   That they did not lap the competition (I guess lap in reverse might be the better term)was a surprise. 

Very few of you are probably shocked to see that the bullpen had a division worst earned run average.   As the Royals' FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) reflects, the relievers were certainly not helped by the Royals' ridiculously poor fielding.   Still, with a markedly higher WHIP than anyone else in the division, this unit was a major weakness on a weak team.  

Trust me, you don't even want to know how these numbers shake out if you take Joakim Soria's 1.132 WHIP and 2.21 ERA out of the equation.

Throughout the 2009 campaign, the Royals' pen was generally mismanaged and, as it turned out, poorl y constructed in the off-season.   General Manager Dayton Moore signed Kyle Farnsworth to a horrible three year contract which will likely make him the highest paid garbage innings reliever in baseball next year.   Manager Trey Hillman went from a strict 'this is your role and that is the only way I will use you' type handler to a 'ride the hot hand' guy to a 'pick names out of a hat' gambler.  

 To his credit, Hillman did use Soria for mulitple inning saves after the All-Star Break with a great deal of success.   That is not a long-term solution for a good team, but for struggling group it gave them a chance to win a couple games a week and stay below 100 losses.   The funny thing about this is that I think Hillman went to Soria for two inning saves at first to prove a point:  hoping that another save situation would come up the next day with Soria unavailable and then everyone would shut up about how he should be using his closer.   What transpired was that the Royals simply were not very good at producing save situations in back to back games and the two-inning save strategy actually worked!

At any rate, once Juan Cruz went from effective to ineffective to injured, the Royals bullpen outside of Soria was a disaster.  I like to play craps in the casinos...a lot..and I don't think I would have had the intestinal fortitude to show up at the ballpark everyday knowing that at some point I was going to have to roll the dice on a reliever not wearing the number forty-eight.

Solution

The Royals are stuck with Kyle Farnsworth (due $4.5 million in 2010) and Juan Cruz (another $3.25 million).   At this point, no one in baseball believes, or should believe, that Farnsworth will ever be effective in a high leverage situation.   The Royals should just reconcile their egos to this fact and use Farnsworth in the blow-outs or when they are down 5-1 in the 8th inning.   He will actually be fine in those situations and likely allow the club to save more effective relievers for another day.

As for Cruz, the organization has to hope that his decline prior to going on the disabled list was actually a result of tyring to pitch through an injury.   The alternative is that Juan has simply 'lost it'.   Probably the correct course of action would be to put him in middle relief to start the season and see what happens.  Maybe they get lucky and Cruz bounces back to become the primary set-up man.  Maybe not, but the Royals will certainly find out:  they don't have any other choice.

As for the rest of the pen, I see no reason to bring back a Jamey Wright or John Bale or Bruce Chen or just about anyone that we saw last year.   It is sink or swim time for twenty-four year old Carlos Rosa, so barring a spring training meltdown, he gets a spot in the pen and the Royals should be fully prepared to give a slew of relievers who were in AA and AAA last year a real shot at making the team for 2010.

Frankly, by June of last year, I thought Northwest Arkansas had a better bullpen than Kansas City did and I was only being a little sarcastic.   Chris Hayes, Chris Nicoll, Dusty Hughes, Greg Holland and others are likely to be as good, if not eventually better, than the six, seven, even eight guys that the Royals tried in front of Joakim Soria last year.   

Next Monda, I will wrap this series up with my thoughts on the Royals' off-season.

Brad Lidge imploded in the ninth inning of Game Four of the World Series last night and harkened back to a series previously written on this website.  About one month ago, I speculated on a possible trade of Joakim Soria to the Phillies.   Did Lidge's continuing problems just make this idea, rampant speculation that it is, more relevant?

On Wednesday, I will finish off our review of the American League Central:  focusing on, you guessed it, the bullpens.   For now, I pose this question:

If the Royals actually do put Joakim Soria on the market, is he the most desirable closer out there?   If so, would you as the Royals' general manager (not as a fan, mind you) pull the trigger on the deal I proposed or a different one or not at all?

Over the past couple of weeks, we have compared the positions in the field of the five American League Central teams.   We learned that as frustrating as the Royals' catchers are, they hold up pretty well in comparison (offensively at least) to their divisional brethren.   While we probably knew that Billy Butler, Alberto Callaspo and David DeJesus were okay, our research affirmed that they more than hold their own at their respective positions.  We also knew and had reaffirmed that Mike Jacobs and Yuniesky Betancourt are awful and that center and right field seem to be an abyss of an undetermined, yet horrific, depth.

Today, we move on to the starting rotations.   We will use some standard metrics (innings pitched and earned run average) along with the nearly standard WHIP and BABIP (batting average of balls in play), plus we will also use Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP).   Most of you probably are aware of FIP and that it is used to try to analyze what the pitcher can control and take either a good defense or a horrible defense out of the equation.   Let's have a look:

How much is BABIP effected by a team's defense?   I ask that only because the White Sox starters allowed a pretty low BABIP, which helped them to a division leading WHIP and earned run average.

What we see from the Royals (if you are willing to put stock in FIP) is that their starters were considerably better than their earned run average reflected.   Of course, it helps that you have Zack Greinke in the equation and if you took his numbers out of the Royals' totals the rest of the rotation would become very Cleveland-esque, but we don't have to do that.  Zack Greinke will be in the rotation next year and give Kansas City the luxury of trotting out the best pitcher in baseball every fifth day.

Solution

Imagine how the Royals' rotation would have compared if Gil Meche had repeated his performances from 2007 and 2008?   The key 'solution' in the off-season is to make sure Meche is healthy come day one of spring training.   Ditto for Brian Bannister.

Assuming Meche is not completely wrecked, he gives the Royals a legitimate number two starter behind Greinke.   Then you add Brian Bannister to the equation (again, assuming he is healthy), whose 2009 season is probably a better representation of who he is than either 2007 or 2008 was.   While Bannister is not a true number three - he likely is a solid number four and that is probably enough to keep the Royals from making some mad reach for an additional starter via trade or free agency.

I make that statement based more on the greater needs of the Royals in other areas as opposed to some faith that either Kyle Davies or Luke Hochevar finally....FINALLY, develop into a consistent middle of the rotation guy.  

Given the tremendous holes both, offensively and defensively, in the everyday lineup, Kansas City almost has to take a gamble that they can find two serviceable or, at least, not horrible starters from the group of Hochevar, Davies, Robinson Tejeda and Anthony Lerew (I kind of liked him in the limited amount of work he got at the end of the year).    If the Royals can soldier through 2010 with two those four - again, assuming both Meche and Bannister are healthy by spring - then they can look to a hopefully emerging Aaron Crow in late 2010 or the beginning of 2011.

In addition, by spring of 2011 at least one of the many promising arms in A ball might be ready to push for a spot in the rotation. I'm not asking for all of those youngsters to develop, just ONE to be close to ready the season after next (Montgomery probably?).

Whatever cash the Royals might have available (likely not much) and whatever trade chips (pathetic as they might be) exist, they would be wise to use those on the everyday lineup and hope a dose of good health and in-house talent fleshes out the starting rotation in 2010.

To Motley, for THE TITLE...

Thanks to Kent for reminding me.  After this many years, the memory becomes fuzzy.

I still have my tickets for Game 6 and Game 7...

Here's to the Royals of '85.

I’ve been away… did you miss me?  I missed you.

Unfortunately, October has been a great time for Royals fans to escape for the last 24 or so years.  I can cut myself off from baseball for a week or so and the only thing I’ll miss is a Steve Phillips Slumpbuster or a Mariano Rivera spitball.  Unless either of those things matter to you, it’s just about the best time of the year to take a vacation.

Anyway, here are a couple of Royal tidbits from the last week or so with a little commentary thrown in.

ITEM:  The Royals name Nick Kenney as their new head trainer.

Kenney was an assistant trainer with the Cincinnati Reds from 2003 to 2004 and has been with the Indians in the same capacity since 2005.  The Cleveland training staff was named the best in baseball by Baseball Prospectus and the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Association in 2007.

A positive from this:  The Royals wisely went outside the organization to fill this position.  When you have a training staff that couldn’t remove a band-aid, you need to think about going in a different direction. 

And Cleveland does seem to be doing mostly the correct things when it comes to injury.  I mean, somehow Kerry Wood avoided the DL last year.  Hopefully, Kenney had something to do with that.

ITEM:  Zack Greinke was named the Sporting News AL Pitcher of the Year.

It’s not the big award, but still…

This award was voted on by GMs and assistant GMs around the game.  While awards such as this don’t carry the same kind of publicity as some of the other hardware that will be handed out next month, it has to be extremely gratifying that the guys who are supposed to be the game’s top talent evaulators recognize Greinke’s outstanding year. 

My colleagues at Baseball Daily Digest did a vote in a format similar to the one used for the Cy Young and Greinke finished first with 14 out of 15 first place votes.  Somehow, he was third on one ballot.  CC Sabathia was the only other pitcher to earn a first place vote.  That’s embarrassing. 

The Cy Young will be announced on November 17th.

ITEM:  Hal McRae was let go as the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and was replaced by Mark McGwire.

As far as McRae goes, I’m sure this is of interest to a number of fans, but there’s nothing to see here.  Kevin Seitzer is your hitting coach for 2010 and Trey Hillman is your manager.  You are certainly free to dream, but I’m just trying to caution you to not get too worked up over this. 

No, Seitzer didn’t have a great first year as the Royals hitting coach, but again, he’s not dealing with major league caliber hitters.  Sure, there are some, but there are too many guys who have no business being in the big leagues on this club.  I’m not sure anyone can deal with this crew.  For now, I’ll buy into Dayton Moore’s mantra that patience is necessary.  For now.

And if you want (or are hoping) McRae would return to KC to manage… Please.  I have no clue if he’s still bitter about his time here and the way it ended, but he doesn’t strike me as someone who let’s things like this go away easily.  Even though there is a total new regime in place, I don’t think he’ll ever return.  Besides, I think I saw somewhere that he’s not interested in managing again. 

Actually, I’m more interested in the sideshow that’s going to happen in the big top in St. Louis now that Mark McGwire is back with the team.  I can’t wait for that first confrontation in spring training when McGwire is asked about steroids, because you just know he’ll say something about not talking about the past.  This will be high comedy that has potential to devolve into a large distraction for the Cardinals.  I’m fine with that.

ITEM:  AFL Update

A few minor leaguers of note are toiling in Arizona.  Jerrod Dyson is hitting .333/.333/.467 in 15 at bats.  Jeff Bianchi is .313/.378/.438 in 32 at bats.  And Mike Moustakas is .276/.313/.483 in 29 at bats.  Moustakas is tied for second on the team with 9 RBI. 

Blake Wood has thrown five innings in two starts and has a 3.60 ERA.  All players are on the Surprise Rafters.

Following the Facebook Fiasco, I wonder how strange things are for the Royals minor league department when they watch Danny Gutierrez pitch for the Rafters.  He hasn’t allowed a run in 6.2 innings spanning a pair of starts. 

I don't know about you guys, but I can't wait until the World Series is over and the first bone headed move by our General Manager to announce the off season.