HRTC: "Hey honey, did you hear that the Royals signed Jason Kendall?"

Mrs. C: "Wait, didn't he already play for us?"

HRTC (racking brain trying to think of connection; perhaps somehow she knows that Fred Kendall was our bullpen catcher or something like that? No, way to obscure for her): "No, he's never played for us".

Mrs. C: "Yeah, he has that porn star mustache."

HRTC (somewhat incredulous): "Do you mean Jason LaRue?"

Mrs. C: "Yeah, that's who I was thinking of."

HRTC: " No, not him."

Mrs. C (long pause): "Oh...Jason Kendall. Isn't he really old?"

Because I know we can't wait to see who's going to be suiting up for the boys in blue next year, I went through and mocked-up a preliminary roster for the Royals in 2010.

This roster still needs a RF, 5th starter, and LOOGY. I estimated arb awards and have $64.5 million spent thus far. So, assuming our payroll is no more than $75 million, we've got about $10 million to burn. Here's what I've come up with:

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After watching today's game and listening to HCMM's postgame comments, it seems that there could be big changes on the way for our Hawks...The offense is flaccid right now and it seems that the main problem is the total inability to run the ball. So, are changes coming for the O-line, and if so, who?

Todd Reesing hasn't looked like himself most of the year save for the Iowa St. game and he seems to be regressing. Besides the fact that I think he's hurt, he holds the ball way too long instead of just getting rid of it. Unless he can't go, I can't see him being replaced, but he does need to get rid of the ball quicker and stop taking so many negative plays.

The defense seems to be coming around some, but is it enough? We had a huge turnover advantage earlier in the game and still couldn't really capitalize because the offense was so inept. With the offense the way it is, the defense needs to be lockdown solid to give us a chance to win, and they were for 3 quarters today but they need to do it for the whole game.

Next up is KSU who has been getting better as the season has gone on, while we seem to be getting worse. Can we win in Manhattan? Sure, but if we play the way we've been playing then we're going to get destroyed.

This team just hasn't come together this year like we would have hoped, whether because of injuries or inexperience or coaching. The schedule hasn't helped, and while we could argue that we are only one game worse than we thought we might be at the start of the year, the truth is that this team seems to be miles away from winning a game.

I won't pretend to have the answers, other than taking better care of the ball and improving the running game, what can we do? And what are our goals now? I think the North is all but out for us with the problems we've got, so are we just hoping to squeak out one more win and get to a bowl? Would one win even be enough?

At this point, I think we just hope to beat our rivals and just be happy with a 3-year bowl streak, to send Meier and Reesing out on a high note. 

Obviously most people are very down on DM right now...however I would venture to guess that everybody (even d_f and will) could reach a point where their opinion of him would change. This post is NOT meant to cheerlead for DM or lay out why he is a good or bad GM...I have been fairly consistent in stating my position on him.

So, what I wanted to throw out there is what in my mind DM MUST do in order to redeem himself this offseason. In turn, I'd like to hear from others, especially those who are most down on him, on what DM can/must do in your eyes to turn things around. No snark please, give me your honest assessment of what it would take for him to redeem himself in your eyes. They may be specific moves or more of a noticable philosophical shift that you can point to, but I'd like to hear them.

Here are mine:

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I wanted to do a little analysis of some of the differences between the Royals' path and the A's as it pertains to some of the trades that each team has made over the past several years, just to demonstrate how much this particular aspect of the organization has hurt the Royals over the past several seasons:

First, a sampling of what Billy Beane has done:

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