The Good Ship Lollipop

I hate those Holiday Inn Express commercials. I'm sure just from that you know what I'm talking about. Some person appears to have some sort of impressive life skill that they most certainly don't have because they "stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night."

Even if he was able to receive some magical boost from a hotel, it's undeniably clear to enlightened observers that Royals GM Dayton Moore has no goddamned idea how to build a baseball team. To end the metaphor, to be a Royals fan right now is to go up in a 2-seater with a pilot you believe is certified, only to find out that he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Oh, and is a fucking idiot. He spent exorbitant amounts of money the past 2 offseasons (in Royals terms) to build a team that cannot get on base and cannot play defense. Getting on base is the single most important factor in scoring runs in a baseball game. An out takes away a chance you had to score a run, and if you're losing, it gets you one step closer to taking the loss. Defense can save runs and improve your pitching staff. It can also lose you runs and hurt your pitching staff. Regardless, the Royals are fuctastically awful in both of these categories. They are so bad on offense and fielding defense that they have some of the absolute best pitching stats in baseball this season - and have already given their fans nothing to root for but a chance to not finishing last for a 2nd consecutive season.

Every Royals fan with a pulse knows this team's glaring weaknesses. Except, apparently, Dayton Moore. Yesterday he traded two minor leaguers for shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt. Betancourt is A) currently injured B) terrible at getting on base and C) horrible in the field. Even if the two prospects they sent to Seattle never contribute anything to the big league club, the Royals lose this trade. They plan on Betancourt being their shortstop of the future, which retards actual progress within the organization to fill that position. They will have to pay him big leaguer money, for 2 years at the very least. His bat and his glove, each ranked towards the very bottom of all major league shortstops, will help them lose games, not win them. To quote more than one critic of the trade: They traded two players with possible futures for a shortstop on the decline - to fill their huge hole at shortstop. Now, 2 minor leaguers lighter, they still have a huge hole at shortstop.

Moore has said that the team acquired "a rising star" who hasn't yet "reached his potential." Betancourt is 27 (possibly older, one never knows with Latin players) and his offensive stats are clearly on the decline. Offensive stats don't get better after 27, especially if they're already in a downward trend. Trey Hillman has applauded Betancourt's "solid offensive stats." Apparently he's unaware that YB's .308 On-Base Percentage is laughably bad and that his career line (Batting/OBP/Slugging) is actually slightly worse than that of one of the all-time most hated Royals, Neifi Perez.

Many baseball people and old-time sports fans hate Sabrmetrics. They seem to miss that the metrics created over the past 30 years by statheads around the country are actually related to winning. They miss that you can prove with case after case after case after case that players peak and decline around a certain age. They miss that "5 tools" don't make a great player. Billy Beane was a great 5 tool player - and sucked as a pro baseball player.

Here we have the Royals, throwing good money after bad. Dayton Moore clearly doesn't get it. Even more, he doesn't care to get it. Every team in baseball knows of the value of statistics (or could if it so desired) and many have hired analysts to help (not replace) traditional scouting. Moore doesn't give a fuck. He is and likely will remain willfully ignorant because he thinks what scouts have always done is the right way to do things. He's trading for players who are just as bad and useless as those he already has. And his team is sucking. And sucking. And sucking.