Royals owner David Glass has apparently decided to extend Dayton Moore’s contract as general manager of the Royals for four additional years until 2014.  Like most fans who follow the team closely for me this is not welcome news.  Personally I thought Dayton Moore’s job security should be leaning towards dismissal, not extension, after his willfully misguided performance these last twelve months.  But I guess that point of view was not shared by the ownership.  It would seem the Glass family is well pleased with Dayton Moore and have no intention of replacing him.

So, that is going to happen.  We don’t like it, but we can’t stop it.  Where do we, as fans, go from here?

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Do you know what would be an awesome bullpen?

J.P. Howell – 59 games, 2.52 ERA, 15 saves.

Ramon Ramirez – 57 games, 2.67 ERA.

Leo Nunez – 60 games, 3.90 ERA, 16 Saves.

Mike MacDougal – 42 games, 3.10 ERA, 14 saves.

Jeremy Affeldt – 58 games, 1.85 ERA.

Joe Nelson – 42 games, 4.02 ERA.

Wow, too bad the Royals can never find guys like this!  Wait a minute….

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I was very excited when Dayton Moore was hired as general manager of the Royals back in 2006.  I remained very happy with him for over a year.  The first major decision he made which I strongly disagreed with was his decision to pursue and sign Jose Guillen to a 3 year/$36 million contract.  Even though I disagreed strongly with his choice, I understood the logic behind the move and accepted that in the end Dayton Moore's judgement might prove better than my own in this matter.  I approved of his replacing Buddy Bell with Trey Hillman that offseason.  I strongly disliked his choice of Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer in the first round of the 2007 and 2008 drafts, but again I accepted that his judgement might prove better than my own in this matter as well.

My trust in Moore took big hits this off-season with the Crisp and Jacobs trades.  I knew these were mistakes and just wasn't willing to give Moore the benifit of the doubt any longer.  The free agent signings of Bloomquist and Farnsworth were also clear mistakes.  I thought Dayton Moore was trying to build a "win now" roster that off-season but had made so many poor decisions that the 2009 opening day roster was actually weaker than the 2008 roster had been.  By March, 2009 the bad of Dayton Moore's tenure was starting to come into balance with the good.  Still, I remained supportive of him and, had I been asked, I would have given him my fan's vote of confidence as late as July 9th, 2009.

My final personal tipping point was the Yuniesky Betancourt trade and his "circle the wagon's" response to the flood of criticism he received for this move.

Today, Dayton Moore has to win back my confidence.  It took me three years to reach this point.  I still want Dayton Moore to learn from his mistakes and improve.  I would prefer improvement to dismissal.  But today, I am at the point were I would be at most mildly opposed to replacing Dayton Moore as Royal's GM this off-season.

What is your story?  

Update time.  Well, it looks like my story is pretty similar to that of most readers of Royals Review.  After about 300 responses roughly two out of every three Royals fans say they still had some level of confidence in Dayton Moore all the way through July of this year.  It was the Yuniesky Bentancourt trade that was the breaking point for most.  Confidence in Moore fell from about 65% before the trade down to about 15% after the trade.  If Yuni reads RR, he must be feeling pretty bad right about now. 

Even though 2009 has long been a wasteland for the Royals as a team, there are a few players who are chasing personal records.  There has been a lot of talk about Billy Butler’s chase of the Royals single season doubles record.  Hal McRae hit 54 doubles in 1977.  Butler has 41 as of today which puts him on pace to hit 55.  Butler is also on pace to collect more than 180 hits this season.  If he steps it up a little bit and collects 184 or more hits he will have one of the 20 highest hit totals in Royals history.  George Brett’s 184 hits during the 1985 World Series campaign currently holds the #20 slot in team history. 

Stat Quiz (no peeking at the record books): Brett holds two of the top five slots in the Royals single season hits record list (#2, 215 in 1976 and #4, 212 in 1979).  What three players hold the other slots in the top-five list?

There are several other Royals who look like they might pass personal statistical milestones or set new personal single season records this year.  As we pull for the Royal’s to reach 63 wins we can also can also cheer on these individual players in the closing weeks:

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At 6'6, 225 lbs Tanner Poppe was a stand out athlete at Girad High School in football, basketball and baseball. He settled on baseball and committed to KU earlier this spring. Poppe was drafted by the Royals today in the 37th round. (via www.cjonline.com

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Kansas had four current players and two signees selected in this week's MLB draft:

David Narodowski - 15th round by Arizona

Shawn Blackwell - 24th round by Texas

Shaeffer Hall - 25th round by the Yankees

Paul Smyth - 35th round by Oakland

Tanner Poppe - 37th round by Kansas City

Brian Heere - 48th round by Boston

Blackwell and Poppe are both incoming freshman pitchers.  Both are highly regarded.  I have no idea what Blackwell's chances of signing with Texas are versus his coming to Kansas in the Fall.  I understand that Poppe was leaning towards coming to Kansas but his selection by Kansas City might complicate that situation.  Poppe is from Girard High School in Kansas, and the Royals have a recent history of paying over slot signing bonuses to late picks, so my confidence in him coming to KU is a bit diminished from where it was prior to the draft.

Two draft eligable players I was surprised not to see selected are Preston Land and Buck Afenir.  Both might sign as undrafted free agents this week.  Preston was drafted by the Twins out of high school and always attracted a fair amount of scouting interest during his time at KU.  After a very impressive freshman season Land's struggled to rediscover his power stroke.  He hit for low average and struck out often during his final three years at KU.  Despite his unimpressive plate numbers I still expected to see him go in the draft due to his size, his good plate judgement and his plus defensive skills at first base. 

Buck Afenir has always hit well for a catcher.  Hell, Buck has always hit well for any position on this field.  His defensive skills improved noticeably during the last year and a half.  Afenir threw out 11 of 34 base stealers this season and was a favorite among the pitching staff due to his game calling, leadership and ability to block balls in the dirt.  I came to believe Buck could stick at catcher in the pros.  Given his offensive skills - he hit .333/.382/.534 his senior year - I fully expected him to be drafted and am rather surprised he was not taken.

A few other players drafted of interest to Jayhawk nation:  Beau Stoker (SS of Bishop Ward HS); Connor Crumbliss(2B Sr. at Emporia State), Stephen Cilladi (C Sr. at Kansas Wesleyan), Chad Duling (SS at Bishop Carroll High School), Michael Morin (RHP at Shawnee Mission South High), Jeffrey Soptic (RHP at Shawnee Mission East High) and Vidal Nuno (LHP at Baker College).  Morin and Soptic were both taken by the Royals.  I love seeing some of the NAIA players like Cilladi and Nuno called.  There are quite a few NAIA teams in the mid-west and often they have more than a few decent players on their rosters.

Major League organizations have until August 15th to come to terms with drafted players.  Should they fail to sign the players before the deadline they go back into the draft pool the following year.

Brian Heere, KU right fielder.

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Brian Heere, Kansas starting right fielder, was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 48th round of the MLB draft.  Heere is a red-shirt sophomore with two years of NCAA eligibility remaining.  He certainly would be welcomed back by the Hawks should he not sign a professional contract before the August deadline.  Brian is a product of Lawrence High school.

After playing very sporadically in 2008 Brian broke out in 2009.  In 209 at bats Heere hit .364/.459/.531 with 12 doubles, 4 triples and 5 home runs.  He drove in 40 runs and scored 55.  Brian showed remarkable patience at the plate in his first full year of NCAA action.  He walked 39 times while striking out only 29.  Brian stole seven bases in nine attempts.  Brian also distinguished himself in the outfield only making two errors all year while providing consistently steady, and at times outstanding defense.

Brian's production was recognised by his being named second team all Big-12.

Should Brian sign a professional contract Kansas would have to replace two outfielder slots.  Starting centerfielder Nick Faunce graduated in May.  Casey Larson, Jason Brunansky, Jimmy Waters, Zac Elgie and Jake Marasco all started games in the outfield last season and will return in 2010.

Like Aman, I do not expect Heere to take the dive into professional baseball yet, but he will have an offer on the table and anything can happen.  Hearing your name called on draft day is something to which every college baseball player looks forward.  Below are Aman Reaka's thoughts on Heere prior to the draft:

Brian Heere and Robby Pricewould shock me if selected this year but if either of them can work out a deal to go in the top 10 rounds then I could see a slight chance that one of them might sign. Both seem to be prototypical college ballplayers that would want to play as much college ball as possible and to continue their education. Robby has his Senior season and playing his last year for his father to look forward to and Heere I'm quite sure will strive to get his degree before testing any professional baseball opportunities.