Time To Uncouple “ButlerandGordon”

If there is anything that symbolizes the great hopes of Royals fans over the past few years, it’s ButlerandGordon.  Er, I mean, Billy Butler and Alex Gordon.  Ever since 2006, when Alex was the Minor League Player of the Year and Butler won the Texas League batting title while they were teammates at Wichita, these two players have been inextricably linked in the Royals universe.  And why not?  They were the most promising hitting prospects in a long time for the Royals, they were drafted only one year apart, and at Wichita, they were the best 1-2 hitting duo in the minors.

Things change, however, and with that change, I’m suggesting that it’s high time that “ButlerandGordon” simply become Billy Butler and Alex Gordon.  Butler has emerged this year as a legitimate hitting star who can play a competent first base; Gordon has taken at least one big step backwards both offensively and defensively.

I should preface this by saying that I have never particularly been a big Alex Gordon fan.  He’s never impressed me as a guy who was willing to work and sacrifice to get the most out of his admittedly significant talent.  I’m reminded of a two-game stretch after his return from a hip injury in August when he dropped a popup one night because he was trying to catch it one-handed – then he returned the very next night and did exactly the same thing.  That, to me, shows a guy who prefers to look good rather than play well. 

That said, there’s no denying the separation between their 2009 seasons.  Butler spanked his 49th double last night (his 68th extra base hit of the year) and has posted a season line (to date) of .300/.358/.487.  Not All-Star material yet, but for a player who turned 23 at the start of this season, that’s pretty salty and gives an indication of future potential.  Meanwhile, Gordon’s season has admittedly been hampered by injury – but when on the field, he’s struggled to a .227/.333/.359 line.  Worse, Gordon has looked less like a professional third baseman and more like a gorilla with scoliosis and an inner ear imbalance while in the field. 

The difference?  In my mind, it’s work ethic.  I busted on Butler after Fan Fest for looking distinctly Rosie O’Donnel-esque, but there’s no denying that on Opening Day, he was in great shape and has applied himself not only to realizing his potential with the stick, but in learning how to wear a glove for something besides a handwarmer.  Let’s be honest for a moment – Billy had the easy way laid out in front of him.  Just be a DH, Billy.  We love your bat, we know you can hit, and you can devote all your energies to doing it.  Instead, Butler has fought tooth and nail for the opportunity to be a complete baseball player – one that plays in the field, as well – and through work has turned himself into, at worst, an adequate first baseman.  On his best day, Mike Sweeney never picked throws like Billy has been able to this year.  Billy will, of course, have his moments at first base, but it’s unlikely that he’ll ever be confused with the famous “Doctor Strangeglove,” Dick Stuart.

Butler’s development at first base hasn’t just helped himself; it’s helped the team.  Without Butler’s glove, we’d have been watching Mike Jacobs butcher first base all year.  By making himself adequate in the field, Butler creates an opportunity for the Royals to sign a dedicated DH.

Meanwhile, Gordon stuttered through April before his hip injury, in Joe Posnanski’s words ”moped and pouted” his way through an Omaha assignment, and is finally showing some flashes of competence with the bat in September.  His defense, however, makes you wonder if moving Butler away from third base was such a bad idea back in ’04.  In this blog, I suggested in Spring Training that the Royals really needed to set up a competition for the 3B job between Gordon and Mark Teahen; a competition that Gordon might just lose.  Well, the way it worked out, Gordon has posted a lost season while Teahen has comprehensively demonstrated that Gordon should be considered #2 at the 3B depth chart.

In fact, at this point, Gordon might be our third-best option at third base. More than one scout has observed that Alberto Callaspo has both the quickness and the arm to play third base, and in fact when he’s been slotted there, Callaspo has played well.  This wouldn’t be a big deal – except that Alberto has emerged from the pack to establish himself as the second-best bat in Royal blue this year.  At 26, Callaspo is sitting at .298/.351/.450 in 533 AB’s.  The guy who scouts said might NEVER hit a big league homer has gone yard 10 times this year, along with 37 doubles and 7 triples (that’s 54 extra base hits for those keeping score at home).  In addition, he’s the toughest strikeout on the Royals, with only 42 in 533 AB’s for a ratio of one K every 12.7 at bats.  With 45 walks, he’s also the only everyday Royal who walks more than he strikes out.  And as noted, he’s 26, and the breakout season tends to come at 27.  If this isn’t the breakout season, we at least have SOMETHING to look forward to in 2010.

When I look at the differences between Billy and Alex, I can’t help but be reminded of the draft situations with both.  Butler was widely criticized as a “signability” pick by Allard Baird, while the Royals were cheered from all quarters in signing Gordon, the College Player of the Year.  Billy’s signing went through like crap through a goose.  One day he’s drafted, a couple of days later he’s at Kauffman Stadium wearing a Royals jersey and signing a contract, and a few days later he’s an active Idaho Falls Chukar.

Alex, who professed to being a “lifelong Royals fan,” missed the first potential half-season of development while playing contract games with the Royals.  In fact, Butler was the last first-round pick the Royals have had who simply signed and went and played ball, rather than doing the “sit out” game.  Hmmmmm….wonder if there’s something to be said for “signability,” if “signability” means “a kid who would rather play baseball than sit around with his thumb up his ass waiting for an extra $500,000 on his signing bonus?”

The fact is that the Royals’ first round picks since Butler have disappointed at least a little (Gordon) to a lot (Luke Hochevar), and each of them have been willing to miss Rookie league ball in favor of extorting the maximum signing bonus.  Look at the numbers – Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer have each posted disappointing years (even while being promoted), and Hochevar – well, Hochevar has sucked this year, 80 pitches against free swinging Cincinnati notwithstanding.

Perhaps – and I’m just suggesting – perhaps there’s something positive about a ballplayer whose primary ambition is to be a ballplayer as soon as possible.  We simply don’t have a lot of luck with players who don’t. 

In any case, it’s time to think of Billy Butler and Alex Gordon as separate entities, one whose career is on the upswing and one whose career may be hanging in the balance.  If the Royals want to get the most out of Gordon, they need to do something that they never have – make him win his job.  They moved Teahen to the outfield to accommodate him, and according to Sam Mellinger’s blog, they are determined NOT to entertain the option of Callaspo as the third baseman because it might interfere with Gordon’s progression.  At this point, there is nothing – repeat, nothing – to indicate that Gordon might have a better MLB career than Callaspo.  The Royals need to keep that in mind.  And perhaps, committing to playing the best player at a particular spot is a good way to start.

Will Brayan Pena Become the Next Matt Diaz?

Well, given free tickets, Mr. and Mrs. URF attended yesterday’s win over the Angels.  The win was nothing short of miraculous, considering that Davies held them to one run for five innings and then the pen had to go three innings before Soria came in the game.  But what struck me was that this is an organization that is in trouble, and seems not to know it.  For instance, both dugout suites were EMPTY.  I don’t ever remember attending a Royals game where they had failed to rent out both dugout suites.  The high-dollar Diamond seats?  Mostly empty.  The crowd itself seemed more interested in walking around the park than paying attention to the games.  Folks, I believe the bill is coming due for organizational neglect, and if you think this is bad, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

The good news – from my perspective – is that the Royals allowed Brayan Pena to dust off his catcher’s mitt.  I’m told that it had become so stiff from disuse that they had to oil it up and tie it around a baseball the night before  just so he could catch yesterday.  For a team that claimed to “want to see what they had” in Pena as a catcher, the Royals have been fairly committed to keeping him riding the bench or DH’ing during these last meaningless weeks of the season.

Which reminded me of another Royal mistake from a few years ago – Matt Diaz.  Remember him?  Allard “The Genius” Baird acquired him for next to nothing from Tampa Bay because he was stalled behind the outstanding Tampa outfield.  In 2004, Diaz had gone .332/.377/.571 at AAA Durham, with 21 homers and 47 doubles.  He was ready to make a move.  However, the Royals also had a powerful outfield in 2005: David DeJesus in center, Emil Brown in right, and Terrence “Magellan” Long in left.  Brown, of course, emerged to hit .286/.349/.455 after a horrendous start, and Long went .279/.321/.378.  Meanwhile, in the first half of the season, Diaz hit .371/.408/.649 at Omaha.  Finally called up in August, Diaz mostly got splinters in his ass on the bench while watching the losingest Royals team ever.

That September stands out to me, remembering Buddy Bell and The Genius stating – seriously – that they just couldn’t find playing time for Diaz in left because Long was a bona fide Gold Glove outfielder.  Yes, I remember it – and so does Joe Posnanski. Check his blog.  Diaz eventually got into 34 games and 89 AB’s, hitting .281/.323/.404.  It got weirder.  Deciding that Diaz was blocked at LF and 1B (his second position), The Genius decided that his ultimate value might be as a backup catcher, and sent him to the Arizona Instructional League to learn the position.  Diaz was freed from the asylum that is the Royals by a trade that netted us the legendary Ricardo Rodriguez and sent him to Atlanta.

Rodriguez called it quits after posting a 5.40 ERA in High Desert in 2006.

Long didn’t win his Gold Glove; in fact, he was non-tendered by the Royals and played a sum total of 12 more games in the major leagues.

Emil Brown had one more good season for the Royals in 2006, a bad one in 2007, a mediocre one for Oakland in 2008, and has played in three games this year for the Mets.

After shaking off the stink of Kansas City, Diaz has been a very reliable pinch hitter and outfielder for the Braves, averaging about 350 AB’s a year.  His career MLB line to this point is .312/.357/.460 in 1,218 AB’s.  He had an injury plagued 2008, only hitting .244/.264/.304 in 135 AB’s, but so far this year (106 games, 309 AB’s), is hitting .320/.392/.495.  His platoon splits have ranged from “negligible” to “still not bad.”  This year is his worst against righties, and he’s hitting .269/.358/.414.  Oh, and he’s making the princely sum of $1.225 million this year, his first in seven figures.

See, the ones that drive me nuts aren’t the Dye/Beltran/Damon types.  We couldn’t afford to keep them.  But a Matt Diaz?  This organization HAD him and were TOO STUPID to keep him.  His MLB performance was completely predictable by his minor league stats, and yet, we let him go for some rag arm that’s back in the Dominican now.  All because we couldn’t see what he had because we had to play Magellan Long.

I’m not suggesting that Matt Diaz is/was an All-Star in the making that could have turned this team around.  Bearing in mind the transition to the National League and the exposure of playing daily, you’d probably have to adjust his numbers down.  Maybe .290/.350/.450 would be realistic.  Still, how would you like to have a cheap guy like that in a corner for 3 of the past 4 years?  The Royals haven’t taken one big fatal wound during this 25-year slide; it’s been a death of a thousand cuts.  Diaz is one such cut.

And perhaps you’re seeing how this little missive is coming full circle.  As the next candidate for “Diazing,” I present Brayan Pena.  Pena has stalled in our organization behind those two powerhouses, Slow John Buck and Miguel Olivo.  Pena’s minor league career numbers are .303/.353/.404.  This year, he’s gotten into 50 games, only 22 of those starting at catcher.  He’s hitting .279/.321/.465.  Like Diaz, he has good offensive skills for his position.  Like Diaz, he’s willing to draw a walk.  Like Diaz, he has good power (5 homers and 9 doubles in limited action).  Like Diaz, he plays his ass off.

And like Diaz, he’s stalled behind two veteran stiffs who are unlikely to ever have another starting role in anyone else’s uniform.  If nothing else pisses you off about this organization, this should. 

The Kansas City Royals are an organization that needs badly to be committed to the development of young players.  Yet when they have the opportunity (when all is lost and the vets are mediocre), they consistently give playing time to the vets who have killed the season, rather than the promising player that might help next season.  Then they trade the promising player because he “hasn’t shown them anything.”

Doesn’t matter whether it’s Trey Hillman or Buddy Bell.  You get the same result.  “Why” is a topic for another day and perhaps another commentator.  But those empty dugout suites bear mute witness to the realities of being a Royals fan:  Not only is there no joy in Mudville, there’s no hope either.  The only question left is – who gets Pena, and what does he do for them?

Dayton Moore Costs the Royals More Season Tickets

At least I’m betting that will be the effect.  I can’t imagine season ticket holders renewing very enthusiastically after reading this article from Bob Dutton:  http://www.kansascity.com/sports/royals/story/1423631.html

In it, Moore renews his faith in Trey Hillman while throwing various and sundry players under the bus for 2009′s debacle, all without noting that many of those players were his own acquisitions.  In fact, just for giggles, let’s break down the article and GMDM’s words.

“Yes, Trey will be back,” Moore told The Star in an extended interview. “I think Trey has done an exceptional job under the circumstances. I think it’s important that Trey gets the opportunity to see this thing through.  My own curiosity is what “circumstances” he’s talking about.  If the “circumstances” include being saddled with some terrible players after Moore gutted a cheap, effective bullpen in favor of an expensive and wildly ineffective bullpen, he might have a point.  But it gets better.

“I know things would have been drastically different if we would have stayed healthy, and I don’t think it’s fair to completely judge Trey’s performance based on what’s happened with the lack of wins with our major-league team.”  Oh, bullshit.  The players that have logged DL time were unproductive before the DL time.  Coco Crisp never saw the good side of a .250 BA this year; Alex Gordon regressed badly from a marginal performance in 07/08, and Jose Guillen has been an incredibly expensive Emil Brown since we got him.  As for the injuries to Gil Meche and Joakim Soria, there’s a good argument to be made that Trey’s use of those pitchers caused the injuries.  Blaming injuries is a weak excuse for weak people.

“In our immediate-gratification society,” he said, “everybody wants to point fingers. But from what I’ve seen from everything that goes on in this organization, Trey Hillman’s leadership is one of the strengths of our organization.  Uh, Dayton, there’s nothing “immediate” about this.  You were hired in 2006; that’s three years ago.  Our beloved Royals have sucked dead ass for nearly a quarter-century, and if you’re going to keep babbling to the press, you might consider respecting that fact.

The Royals enter play tonight with the league’s worst record at 51-82 and on pace for a fifth 100-loss season in eight years. They are 33-71 since that heady start.  Always nice to inject facts into the discussion.  33-71 equals a .317 winning percentage.  At that rate, this team would have paced for 111 losses, beating our worst season by five losses.  As it is, if the team continues at that rate (and there’s no reason to believe it won’t), the team projects to go 9-20 for the rest of the season and finish with 102 losses.  And if I were betting and 102 were the line, I’d take the “over.”  This team has no competitiveness whatsoever.  Oh well, next jewel:

“The biggest criticism that I’ve read that people have of Trey is he can’t manage our bullpen,” Moore said. “I’ll tell you, I’m not sure the greatest baseball mind in the history of the game could figure the right matchups on certain nights.  And I’ll clarify that by saying we have very talented relief pitchers in our bullpen who just haven’t performed up to their capabilities. To me, that’s no fault of Trey’s. That’s just a reflection of guys all having down years at the same time.”  Actually, if you look at our relief corps, most of them have performed EXACTLY to their career lines.  If GMDM were willing to condescend to look at a stat page, he’d know that.  And of course, relief pitchers are notoriously unstable in their performance. 

Moore similarly absolves Hillman of any responsibility for pushing starting pitchers into higher pitch counts.

“I hear some of that stuff,” he said. “I should be blamed on that if anybody wants somebody to blame. I sat Trey and (pitching coach Bob McClure) down before the year and said I wanted these guys stretched out.

“Last year, I felt we were too conservative, that we didn’t let guys stay in long enough and work through situations and pitch deep into games. I wanted that mind-set changed.”  Just out of curiosity, did they bother to check with the players?  And in the middle of the season when the pitchers were reporting dead arms, did they think to change?

“Is it Trey Hillman’s fault (on Monday night) that we have a player walking back (to the mound) and doesn’t have his eye on the play?” Moore asked. “Is it Trey’s fault when a pitcher throws the ball into right field on a routine inning-ending double play?  I’m willing to put that blame on Hillman.  Since July, it’s been obvious that our team has been loafing through games with their heads firmly implanted in their asses.  It’s Hillman’s job to keep them involved – or remove them from the games.  For all of Moore’s talk about how Trey will “get in their faces,” I call BS.  I think he was firmly cowed after he lost the clubhouse last year, and it’s staying that way.  But the biggest nugget of all is about to come:

“Is it Trey’s fault that in giving a young Billy Butler the opportunity to play first base, that we’ve had numerous 3-6-3 opportunities for a double play — and can’t execute that?  It was at this point that I developed an overwhelming urge to bitch slap Moore until the snot ran from his nose.  This year, we have had ONE – count ‘em, ONE – player who has stepped up and noticeably improved his game.  That’s Billy Butler, who had projected as a lifetime DH.  He’s turned into an acceptable first baseman.  And Moore picks HIM to throw under the bus in the paper?  What in the HELL is wrong with this guy?  And when, exactly, were all these missed double plays that would have made the difference in the season?  Were they on non-televised games?  Of all the unadulterated crap that Moore has flung this year, this is by far the most arrogant, gutless, chicken-shit thing he has put in the press.  Perhaps Moore isn’t just a bad general manager – maybe he’s a bad guy.  Of course, we must remember that Butler was not a Moore acquisition – which likely explains both his good performance and his scapegoat status.

(Quick side thought – the Royals could raise the money for a $100 million payroll by charging fans $20 a throw to bitch slap Trey and/or Dayton.  No closed fists, full swings.  I’d probably end up paying for a player myself.)

“It’s worked on every day. The bottom line is we’re not good enough yet, and again I emphasize yet. I still believe we have many players on our team who will begin to execute better. We’ve seen signs of that already.”  What signs are those, pray tell?

In short, what concerns me is not the fact that Hillman is returning.  For better or worse, Moore has hitched his horse to the Mustache.  What concerns me is the incredible level of know-it-all arrogance coming from Moore.  His Process appears to be pretty much identical to Allard (the Genius) Baird’s Plan.  And it’s working just as well.

Trust the Process – For Four More Years

So, the word is that the Royals are signing Dayton Moore through 2014.  There’s not much I can say about this, except to say that Moore must have incredibly huge balls just to ASK for a contract extension during the season the Royals are having.  I wish the Royals showed that kind of guts on the field.  In any case, here are a few other thoughts that occur to me:

Joe Posnanski has confirmed something I have thought for quite awhile about Alex Gordon; i.e. that he hasn’t the best of attitudes.  Early in Pos’ excellent article on Disco Hayes, he refers to Gordon “moping his way through games at Omaha.”  Now, it’s known that I’m no big Gordon fan.  I think he’s an underachiever, and might always stay that way.  His trip through Omaha has been a long time coming, and I hope he learns at some point what DeJesus, Teahen, and Butler figured out during their remedial trips to O-town.

Am I the only one who can’t figure out Mitch Maier?  He spent the first 300 at-bats of his major league career proving that he’s the classic 4-A player.  And now he’s spent the last 30 at-bats making a statement that he should be locked in as the Royals’ 2010 center fielder.  Seriously, 0 homers for 300 AB’s, and then three in the last 30?  What the heck is up with that?  And whatever it is, how can we keep it?  Since the All-Star break, Maier is hitting .296/.389/.469 in 81 at-bats.  Those numbers, of course, are helped a LOT by the three dingers in the last week – but Maier also brings a bit of speed, with 7 SB’s against 1 CS, and a decent glove in center.  As the Royals try to figure out what to keep for next year, is it too much to hope for that Trey plays Maier virtually every day for the rest of the season?  If Maier can keep an OPS of .750 or so the rest of the way, he’s a cheap and effective alternative in center.

And while we’re talking about players who should be playing every day, how about keeping Brayan Pena behind the plate?  Let’s see what the kid has, and whether he can be the first decent-hitting Royal since Mike MacFarlane?

Well, that’s all, just trusting the process from under the sack.  And of course, wondering which Luke Hochevar will take the mound tonight in Oakland.