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Thursday, June 02, 2005 |
Pickoff Moves
The Little .300 Club
In case you missed it, Bryan Smith profiles the minor leaguers at or above .300. Angel prospects include Howie Kendrick, Reggie Willits, Brandon Wood, and Mike Napoli; Dodger prospects include Andy LaRoche, and Wily Aybar.Eric Chavez Trade In The Works?
Chicago's Daily Herald imagines a trade between the A's and the Chisox: Eric Chavez for Joe Crede and pitching prospect Brandon McCarthy. Unasked is why the Sox would want to ditch one underperformer for another.Hire Jim Alexander
Can we maybe rally 'round the evenhanded prose by Jim Alexander of the Press-Enterprise for a moment? I don't normally spend my days reading T.J. Simers for fun or illumination, but when Simers sets up Tracy as some kind of soon-to-be-departed saint after blasting him with illiterate broadsides for months, it just makes me miss Jon and his daily dose (now not so daily) all the more. If, as Jon mentioned recently, you're gonna fire somebody, you'd better have a better guy in mind first. Kids, meet the better guy.Blez Drops The Ball?
For a time, Blez had guys like Jason Grabowski writing periodic pieces for him; now we see Huston Street in ESPN. Whether it's just an example of the limits to access by bloggers (Blez has a couple minor leaguer interviews in the pipe) or just the greater pull that ESPN has, it seems like this is the kind of coup that Blez should have pulled off.Royals 3, Yankees 1
Stop the presses: the Royals won a series. Against the Yankees, with überstar Randy Johnson on the mound, no less. Maybe that slogan about the Royals being "number one in fun" wasn't just a marketing campaign, after all, at least, for a couple of days. But Rob Neyer isn't so convinced, and recommends euthanasia:In truth, though, it probably matters very little who's managing the Royals. The franchise's general manager blows virtually any decision that involves more than a million dollars. The franchise's hands-on president is 1) the owner's son and 2) oh, did I mention he's the owner's son? If you were trying to build the perfectly dysfunctional sports franchise, you'd have a hard time topping this one: incompetent ownership and management (complete with nepotism), tiny market and old (if still functional) ballpark.This season marks my 30th as a fan of the Kansas City Royals, and columns like this one are painful for me (which is why I rarely write them). It's been a pretty good run, and I'm grateful for each of those 30 seasons (yes, even this one).
But it's been a dozen years since I lived within easy driving distance of Royals Stadium, and perhaps the distance allows me the perspective to write the following: Maybe it's time to give up. Maybe it's time to admit that Kansas City simply isn't a major-league city and can no longer support a poor, poorly managed franchise. Maybe there's not room for the NFL, NASCAR and major league baseball in the same medium-sized Midwestern city.
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