Well, It's 2004 Again for Royals' Fans

Boy, does this team suck or what?  I will be honest, my enthusiasm for this blog has mirrored the Royals’ enthusiasm for baseball—damn near nonexistent.  There’s just not much to say when the team that you follow goes out and flops through the motions of baseball every night.  Especially when expectations for contention—or at least a .500 effort—were what they were this year.  In fact, expectations for 2009 were higher than they have been since 2004.  Remember 2004?  That was to be Allard Baird’s magnum opus—the year that The Genius’ Master Plan came together.  Instead, we got the most pathetic Royals squad in memory.  This year feels a lot like that year.  All we’re lacking is Eduardo Villacis.

The Star reports this morning that the Royals have reportedly opened the doors for the fire sale.  Nearly everyone on the roster is up for trading, with the possible exception of Grienke, Butler and Gordon.  And why not?  This team sucks and is going nowhere.  Trade and reload seems to be the Royals’ motto.  Except…

Except, we need to answer one teeny weeny little question.  See, while the 2009 Royals suck like an Electrolux, the players themselves have not always sucked.  In fact, many of the players on this team have been average-to-good in the past.  But, like many other Royals of the past 15 years, they have not played up to their potential while wearing Royal blue.  And why is that?  It can’t escape the attention of management that we seem to have chronic underperformers.  Hell, it doesn’t even escape my wife.  In her words, “Why do our players play well before they come here, suck while they’re here, and then play well after they leave?”  That’s a great question, isn’t it?

We can break the 2009 Royals out into a few simple groups:

Star Caliber:  Here we have the guys who are really getting the job done.  It’s a short list.  It starts with Zack Grienke, and, well, it pretty much ends there.  Zack will unquestionably be our lone All-Star this year.  Unlike past years, Zack will deserve it.  Unfortunately, he’ll be the only one.

Adequate:  Here we have the sorta-kinda-league-average guys.  Alberto Callaspo would lead this group, which would also include Billy Butler, Mark Teahen, Gil Meche, Brian Bannister and Joakim Soria.  Yes, Soria is in this group—his numbers look good, but he’s seldom had a single dominant outing like he routinely posted last year.  Butler and Teahen are hitting OK, but not for corner spots.  That’s part of our problem—our corner guys are good hitters for middle infielders.  We might also put Willie Bloomquist here; the Spork has dropped off from his early performance (as should have been expected), but has hit and gloved well enough to patch us through at shortstop.

Below Average But Meeting Expectations:  This group would basically consist of Miguel Olivo and John Buck.  Neither would be a starting catcher anywhere else in the league, but they’re meeting their career lines.

Can’t Anyone Here Play This Game? – Or, the Underachievers:  The longest list on the Royals, which is the problem.  This team SHOULDN’T be this bad.  They’re only this bad because a lot of players are posting career-low type years.  Although injured, Coco Crisp would head a long list that also includes David DeJesus, Mike Jacobs, Jose Guillen, Mitch Maier, Kyle Davies, Sidney Ponson, Luke Hochevar, Juan Cruz, Ron Mahay and Horacio Ramirez.  If even half of these guys had performed up to their career lines, you’d be seeing a vast difference in the won/lost record of the Royals.

Getting the Benefit of the Doubt Because They’re Injured:  Alex Gordon and Mike Aviles.  Coming soon to this list—Gil Meche.

So, here we sit, thinking of trade time.  The problem is that there’s no upside to this for us.  At least in 2004, we had Carlos Beltran as trade bait.  The Genius turned that into Teahen, Buck, and Mike Wood.  In other words, jack squat.  This year, what do we have working?  Other than Grienke and perhaps Butler, I can’t imagine anyone on the roster generating a single major league ready player in return.  And we’re not letting those guys go.

So, unless some of the above mentioned underachievers collectively remove their heads from their behinds and start playing up to form, forget about 2009.  Forget about 2010, too, because there’s nothing in the pipeline that will improve anything.  I’m keeping the sack on for the foreseeable future.