Post by John on May 25, 2006 22:29:27 GMT -4
Insider: Woeful Royals in disarray from top down
By Scott Miller
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
In 1962, New York Mets manager Casey Stengel famously asked, "Can't anybody here play this game?"
In 2006, Kansas City Royals pitcher Scott Elarton famously (around Kauffman Stadium, at least) analyzed his own team and said it is "bad in every facet of the game."
Sometimes, the link between those awful, hilarious and wretched expansion Mets, who compiled the worst record in baseball history at 40-120, and the awful, not-so-hilarious and wretched teams of today that threaten to limbo right under those futile '62 Mets is not that far.
"I don't care if Casey Stengel's our manager and (we have) the greatest general manager in history," Elarton continued. "If guys aren't willing to put out the effort and do what they're capable of doing, it's not going to get any better."
The Royals matched the second-longest losing streak in club history Wednesday by dropping a 12th consecutive game, this time to Detroit. This on the heels of an 11-game losing streak in April. And a club-record 19-game losing streak last summer.
The icing on the cake: blowing a 6-0 lead against the Tigers on Thursday, losing 13-8 as first-place Detroit completed a four-game sweep.
"Jim Leyland is more paranoid by a long way than I am," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said earlier in the week of the Detroit skipper -- in the immediate aftermath of the Cardinals' three-game sweep of Kansas City. "He can't sleep, he can't eat. All he can do is smoke.
"I heard him say (Monday) that he was scared of the four-game series against Kansas City -- and he meant it."
Ba-da-bum.
That the Royals, long since removed from the graceful days of George Brett, Amos Otis and Frank White, are an organization in shambles is obvious with every monthly dozen-game losing streak they compile.
That it starts with owner David Glass -- the Wal-Mart king -- is evident simply by the way things currently stand. Glass first threatened the possibility of sweeping organizational changes on April 20 -- as the Royals were putting the finishing touches on an 11-game losing streak.
Then he said that he was out of patience on May 3.
Through these statements, he has all but publicly locked general manager Allard Baird in the stocks down at public square, yet he inexplicably allows a good man to die a slow GM death.
Well, perhaps "inexplicably" is overstating it a bit. Here's the explanation: Under Glass, the Royals have deteriorated so thoroughly that he's paralyzed from firing Baird because he apparently cannot get anybody else to take the job.
Industry sources say that, among others, Glass has approached former New York Mets GM Steve Phillips and current Atlanta assistant GM Dayton Moore about taking the GM job. In fact, Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star reported Thursday that Glass was in Atlanta this week to romance Moore.
During a telephone conversation with CBS SportsLine.com on Thursday, Baird declined to comment on either his situation or on Glass' reported presence in Atlanta this week to recruit Moore.
"Anything concerning my job ... I have more important things to concern myself with in terms of the ballclub, the staff, the minor league staff, the scouting staff," Baird said. "I'm not trying to dodge the question, but that's the approach I want the people in our organization to take."
Given the impending organizational upheaval and Glass' reputation for paying below-industry-standard-wages to his baseball people -- from executives down to coaches and scouts (but hey, at least they get benefits -- unlike many of Glass' Wal-Mart clerks) -- the Royals GM job has become a harder sell than Barry Bonds for sainthood.
Once, the Royals were a model franchise.
Now, Kansas City has sunk so low that it is viewed as a dead-end, career-killing job.
The timing of what appears to be the beginning of the end for Baird, when the Royals had to return struggling third baseman Mark Teahen to Triple-A Omaha, was no coincidence.
An organization that became lost in the choppy seas of baseball's imbalanced economic system more than a decade ago simply can't miss on trades when its own franchise players become too expensive.
After missing on Jermaine Dye and Johnny Damon, Baird and the Royals were backed into a corner with Carlos Beltran. They had to get high-impact young players in return, or else risk getting thrown off the tracks.
What they ended up with was Teahen, who has disappointed, catcher John Buck and right-hander Mike Wood.
As things have turned out, the Royals didn't exactly acquire the second coming of, say, Brett and Ivan Rodriguez.
For Dye, they essentially wound up with shortstop Neifi Perez.
For Damon, they acquired shortstop Angel Berroa, the 2003 AL Rookie of the Year who has settled in as just another Joe; catcher A.J. Hinch, who impressed so much that Baird viewed it as necessary to take another stab at acquiring an impact catcher in the Beltran deal; and reliever Roberto Hernandez.
This year, the Royals decided to go young -- but a couple of Saturdays ago, no player in the starting lineup was under the age of 28.
During one stretch, their second through sixth hitters averaged in their mid-30s -- guys such as Mark Grudzielanek, Reggie Sanders and Matt Stairs.
"One thing we were trying to do, and obviously it did not work, was get enough veterans to take some of the focus off of (David) DeJesus, Teahen, Buck and (Zack) Greinke ," Baird said. "But then we struggled early, and the pressure was on those guys."
The Royals have fired through three hitting coaches in the past year alone, and eight pitching coaches in the past nine seasons.
Meanwhile, Glass, according to the New York Times, received $64.5 million last year from Major League Baseball -- $30 million in revenue sharing, and $34.5 million in media money (from national television contracts, cable, radio, Internet and the sale of merchandise). Yet he continues to lowball draft picks -- and since the Royals have the No. 1 selection in this June's draft, keep an eye on that one.
In another lesson of Bad Owners Gone Wild, by chopping Baird's legs out from under him more than a month ago and then sitting back and doing nothing, Glass has removed some of the responsibility from the players. At the very least, he has given them an opening to lay back and coast until changes are made.
"It's just a vicious cycle, and we're stuck in it," Elarton said earlier this week. "It doesn't look like anybody cares about it. If that continues, it's going to be a long season. If nobody in here cares about it, it's just going to get worse."
The pitcher did not name names during his outburst, though the players held an hour-long meeting to discuss the situation.
"It's getting to be pretty sickening," first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz told Kansas City reporters. "I'm sick to my stomach, going and losing every day."
Or, as Stengel himself once said, "Been in this game a hundred years, but I see new ways to lose 'em I never knew existed before."
The Royals matched the 1965 Kansas City A's, 1979 Toronto Blue Jays, 1987 San Diego Padres, 1994 San Diego Padres and 1998 Arizona Diamondbacks in compiling the fourth-worst record of all time after 41 games by going 10-31.
Only the 1988 Baltimore Orioles (7-34), 1952 Pittsburgh Pirates (8-33) and 2003 Detroit Tigers (9-32) started worse.
"It's a collection of a lot of things," Baird said. "One, everybody has injuries, and the injuries we've had impacted us from (the beginning). And with all of the speculation, it's tough on a lot of people.
"But the bottom line is, this is a big boys' game. It's based on results. There are a lot of good people here, from the clubhouse to the front office. They're taking a good work ethic right now, and that's how we have to approach it."
Outtakes from the Cardinals' clubhouse
A few days with the first-place Cardinals in San Francisco:
Tony and the Man in the Corner: Much as La Russa preaches the team concept and admires everything Albert Pujols does in that regard, Giants star Barry Bonds could never play for him. The Cards skipper had an interesting analysis of Bonds this week.
"I knew him when he was with Jim (Leyland, in Pittsburgh)," La Russa said. "I've watched his career. I just wish he'd have been more a part of things. He kept a distance. I don't think that was healthy for him. I think he would have enjoyed it more, had more fun, but that's the way it is."
Albert and the record book: Pujols has been the game's best hitter for the past two years, and he has had an incredible run since his rookie season in 2001. But never before has he raced out as quickly as he has this spring, with a stunning 23 homers and 57 RBI -- putting him on pace to break both Bonds' single-season record of 73 homers and Hack Wilson's major league record 191 RBI, set with the 1930 Chicago Cubs.
While he undoubtedly has matured as a hitter, Pujols thinks there's another reason for his quick start -- this spring's World Baseball Classic.
"I think the adjustments I make, the dedication I have, and maybe it's facing tough pitchers this spring," Pujols said. "Facing pitchers like Carlos Zambrano and Johan Santana (in the WBC), you look at that Venezuela staff and it was unbelievable. Puerto Rico ... you're facing the nastiest pitchers in the game. And facing them so early like that in spring training, it's tough.
"That probably helped me out. But you still have to see the ball and hit it, and I'm still making adjustments you guys don't need to know about."
How about his own growth chart, too?
Though he was defeated by the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday as the Sox finished off a sweep of Oakland, Athletics right-hander Danny Haren was dazzling in shutting out San Francisco over eight innings Friday and is establishing himself as one of the most trusted starters on manager Ken Macha's staff.
At 4-4 with a 3.91 ERA, the most impressive thing about Haren is the way he goes after hitters. At midweek, he was tied with Curt Schilling for second in the AL in issuing the fewest walks per nine innings (1.2). Minnesota's Carlos Silva was first (1.1).
"He's under the radar," A's teammate Barry Zito said. "I've kind of wondered why the A's don't capitalize on Danny Haren. You see a lot of Nick Swisher, Rich Harden and Joey Blanton, a lot of the young guys featured.
"I think he's got a bobblehead doll coming out this year, so that's good."
Batting around
Five memorable quips from the Ol' Perfessor himself, Casey Stengel:
1. "Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in."
2. "The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided."
3. "They say some of my stars drank whiskey. But I have found that the ones who drink milkshakes don't win many ballgames."
4. "Don't cut my throat, I may want to do that later myself."
5. "Don't drink in the hotel bar, that's where I do my drinking."
By Scott Miller
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
In 1962, New York Mets manager Casey Stengel famously asked, "Can't anybody here play this game?"
In 2006, Kansas City Royals pitcher Scott Elarton famously (around Kauffman Stadium, at least) analyzed his own team and said it is "bad in every facet of the game."
Sometimes, the link between those awful, hilarious and wretched expansion Mets, who compiled the worst record in baseball history at 40-120, and the awful, not-so-hilarious and wretched teams of today that threaten to limbo right under those futile '62 Mets is not that far.
"I don't care if Casey Stengel's our manager and (we have) the greatest general manager in history," Elarton continued. "If guys aren't willing to put out the effort and do what they're capable of doing, it's not going to get any better."
The Royals matched the second-longest losing streak in club history Wednesday by dropping a 12th consecutive game, this time to Detroit. This on the heels of an 11-game losing streak in April. And a club-record 19-game losing streak last summer.
The icing on the cake: blowing a 6-0 lead against the Tigers on Thursday, losing 13-8 as first-place Detroit completed a four-game sweep.
"Jim Leyland is more paranoid by a long way than I am," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said earlier in the week of the Detroit skipper -- in the immediate aftermath of the Cardinals' three-game sweep of Kansas City. "He can't sleep, he can't eat. All he can do is smoke.
"I heard him say (Monday) that he was scared of the four-game series against Kansas City -- and he meant it."
Ba-da-bum.
That the Royals, long since removed from the graceful days of George Brett, Amos Otis and Frank White, are an organization in shambles is obvious with every monthly dozen-game losing streak they compile.
That it starts with owner David Glass -- the Wal-Mart king -- is evident simply by the way things currently stand. Glass first threatened the possibility of sweeping organizational changes on April 20 -- as the Royals were putting the finishing touches on an 11-game losing streak.
Then he said that he was out of patience on May 3.
Through these statements, he has all but publicly locked general manager Allard Baird in the stocks down at public square, yet he inexplicably allows a good man to die a slow GM death.
Well, perhaps "inexplicably" is overstating it a bit. Here's the explanation: Under Glass, the Royals have deteriorated so thoroughly that he's paralyzed from firing Baird because he apparently cannot get anybody else to take the job.
Industry sources say that, among others, Glass has approached former New York Mets GM Steve Phillips and current Atlanta assistant GM Dayton Moore about taking the GM job. In fact, Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star reported Thursday that Glass was in Atlanta this week to romance Moore.
During a telephone conversation with CBS SportsLine.com on Thursday, Baird declined to comment on either his situation or on Glass' reported presence in Atlanta this week to recruit Moore.
"Anything concerning my job ... I have more important things to concern myself with in terms of the ballclub, the staff, the minor league staff, the scouting staff," Baird said. "I'm not trying to dodge the question, but that's the approach I want the people in our organization to take."
Given the impending organizational upheaval and Glass' reputation for paying below-industry-standard-wages to his baseball people -- from executives down to coaches and scouts (but hey, at least they get benefits -- unlike many of Glass' Wal-Mart clerks) -- the Royals GM job has become a harder sell than Barry Bonds for sainthood.
Once, the Royals were a model franchise.
Now, Kansas City has sunk so low that it is viewed as a dead-end, career-killing job.
The timing of what appears to be the beginning of the end for Baird, when the Royals had to return struggling third baseman Mark Teahen to Triple-A Omaha, was no coincidence.
An organization that became lost in the choppy seas of baseball's imbalanced economic system more than a decade ago simply can't miss on trades when its own franchise players become too expensive.
After missing on Jermaine Dye and Johnny Damon, Baird and the Royals were backed into a corner with Carlos Beltran. They had to get high-impact young players in return, or else risk getting thrown off the tracks.
What they ended up with was Teahen, who has disappointed, catcher John Buck and right-hander Mike Wood.
As things have turned out, the Royals didn't exactly acquire the second coming of, say, Brett and Ivan Rodriguez.
For Dye, they essentially wound up with shortstop Neifi Perez.
For Damon, they acquired shortstop Angel Berroa, the 2003 AL Rookie of the Year who has settled in as just another Joe; catcher A.J. Hinch, who impressed so much that Baird viewed it as necessary to take another stab at acquiring an impact catcher in the Beltran deal; and reliever Roberto Hernandez.
This year, the Royals decided to go young -- but a couple of Saturdays ago, no player in the starting lineup was under the age of 28.
During one stretch, their second through sixth hitters averaged in their mid-30s -- guys such as Mark Grudzielanek, Reggie Sanders and Matt Stairs.
"One thing we were trying to do, and obviously it did not work, was get enough veterans to take some of the focus off of (David) DeJesus, Teahen, Buck and (Zack) Greinke ," Baird said. "But then we struggled early, and the pressure was on those guys."
The Royals have fired through three hitting coaches in the past year alone, and eight pitching coaches in the past nine seasons.
Meanwhile, Glass, according to the New York Times, received $64.5 million last year from Major League Baseball -- $30 million in revenue sharing, and $34.5 million in media money (from national television contracts, cable, radio, Internet and the sale of merchandise). Yet he continues to lowball draft picks -- and since the Royals have the No. 1 selection in this June's draft, keep an eye on that one.
In another lesson of Bad Owners Gone Wild, by chopping Baird's legs out from under him more than a month ago and then sitting back and doing nothing, Glass has removed some of the responsibility from the players. At the very least, he has given them an opening to lay back and coast until changes are made.
"It's just a vicious cycle, and we're stuck in it," Elarton said earlier this week. "It doesn't look like anybody cares about it. If that continues, it's going to be a long season. If nobody in here cares about it, it's just going to get worse."
The pitcher did not name names during his outburst, though the players held an hour-long meeting to discuss the situation.
"It's getting to be pretty sickening," first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz told Kansas City reporters. "I'm sick to my stomach, going and losing every day."
Or, as Stengel himself once said, "Been in this game a hundred years, but I see new ways to lose 'em I never knew existed before."
The Royals matched the 1965 Kansas City A's, 1979 Toronto Blue Jays, 1987 San Diego Padres, 1994 San Diego Padres and 1998 Arizona Diamondbacks in compiling the fourth-worst record of all time after 41 games by going 10-31.
Only the 1988 Baltimore Orioles (7-34), 1952 Pittsburgh Pirates (8-33) and 2003 Detroit Tigers (9-32) started worse.
"It's a collection of a lot of things," Baird said. "One, everybody has injuries, and the injuries we've had impacted us from (the beginning). And with all of the speculation, it's tough on a lot of people.
"But the bottom line is, this is a big boys' game. It's based on results. There are a lot of good people here, from the clubhouse to the front office. They're taking a good work ethic right now, and that's how we have to approach it."
Outtakes from the Cardinals' clubhouse
A few days with the first-place Cardinals in San Francisco:
Tony and the Man in the Corner: Much as La Russa preaches the team concept and admires everything Albert Pujols does in that regard, Giants star Barry Bonds could never play for him. The Cards skipper had an interesting analysis of Bonds this week.
"I knew him when he was with Jim (Leyland, in Pittsburgh)," La Russa said. "I've watched his career. I just wish he'd have been more a part of things. He kept a distance. I don't think that was healthy for him. I think he would have enjoyed it more, had more fun, but that's the way it is."
Albert and the record book: Pujols has been the game's best hitter for the past two years, and he has had an incredible run since his rookie season in 2001. But never before has he raced out as quickly as he has this spring, with a stunning 23 homers and 57 RBI -- putting him on pace to break both Bonds' single-season record of 73 homers and Hack Wilson's major league record 191 RBI, set with the 1930 Chicago Cubs.
While he undoubtedly has matured as a hitter, Pujols thinks there's another reason for his quick start -- this spring's World Baseball Classic.
"I think the adjustments I make, the dedication I have, and maybe it's facing tough pitchers this spring," Pujols said. "Facing pitchers like Carlos Zambrano and Johan Santana (in the WBC), you look at that Venezuela staff and it was unbelievable. Puerto Rico ... you're facing the nastiest pitchers in the game. And facing them so early like that in spring training, it's tough.
"That probably helped me out. But you still have to see the ball and hit it, and I'm still making adjustments you guys don't need to know about."
How about his own growth chart, too?
Though he was defeated by the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday as the Sox finished off a sweep of Oakland, Athletics right-hander Danny Haren was dazzling in shutting out San Francisco over eight innings Friday and is establishing himself as one of the most trusted starters on manager Ken Macha's staff.
At 4-4 with a 3.91 ERA, the most impressive thing about Haren is the way he goes after hitters. At midweek, he was tied with Curt Schilling for second in the AL in issuing the fewest walks per nine innings (1.2). Minnesota's Carlos Silva was first (1.1).
"He's under the radar," A's teammate Barry Zito said. "I've kind of wondered why the A's don't capitalize on Danny Haren. You see a lot of Nick Swisher, Rich Harden and Joey Blanton, a lot of the young guys featured.
"I think he's got a bobblehead doll coming out this year, so that's good."
Batting around
Five memorable quips from the Ol' Perfessor himself, Casey Stengel:
1. "Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in."
2. "The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided."
3. "They say some of my stars drank whiskey. But I have found that the ones who drink milkshakes don't win many ballgames."
4. "Don't cut my throat, I may want to do that later myself."
5. "Don't drink in the hotel bar, that's where I do my drinking."