Game 69 - 6/20/2006

Pirates 6, Royals 10

I never thought it’d happen, but the Royals were able to reach 20 wins before they lost 50. I wasn’t able to watch much of the game tonight, but it looks like the offense – including the lower third of the order - provided a steady attack throughout the game.

Dayton Moore pulled the trigger on his first trade today. He acquired Joey Gathright and Fernando Cortez from the Devil Rays in exchange for pitcher JP Howell.

I find it interesting that Moore was willing to trade away a somewhat promising pitching prospect for an outfielder and utility infielder. Gathright will join the Royals tomorrow and will take over center field while David DeJesus moves to left. This of course leaves Emil Brown as the odd man out. Moore’s belief is that pitching is improved when the defense is improved.

In 2004, the Royals moved the fences back 10 feet giving Kauffman Stadium a huge outfield. That same year, they signed Matt Stairs and Juan Gonzalez in a puzzling contradictory move. With the expanded outfield, the obvious need was for speed in the outfield. Apparently Baird didn’t agree as he never seemed interested in acquiring speed. In fact, he spent over a year looking for a power bat corner outfielder. His answer was Terrence Long and Reggie Sanders.

Moore, probably irritated by watching Esteban German and Emil Brown butcher the outfield, determined that the Royals needed a speedy center fielder to try to turn those gappers into outs.

JP Howell was a former first round pick and a pitcher that Baird was reluctant to let go of. I’m sure that Biard was worried that if he traded his prospect, that player would blossom elsewhere while his end of the bargain would be a disappointment. I certainly can’t blame his gun shyness given the result of some of his past moves.

Moore doesn’t have any ties to any players and so isn’t afraid to cut them loose. He looks at pitching as “the currency of baseball” and isn’t afraid to turn pitchers into players he feels will improve the team.

Cortez will report to Omaha and Gathright begins his tenure in KC tomorrow night. Time will tell…


The Bell Curve
Actual Record 20-49
Expected Record 21-48
Runs Scored 278
Runs Allowed 429
Projected Record 47-115
Pythagorean Record 48-114
Pythagorean Winning% 0.295

Let's go get 'em