royalsandcelebs

Sorry I haven’t written for a few days.  I’m unemployed, and apparently, the job market is weak.  I had no idea.  I should read one of those newspapers or watch some CNN.  Maybe that Larry King show.  I like his suspenders.  He’s like an older, wiser Urkel, but without the inventions.  Also, Larry King is not a fictional character.  Actually, they’re not so similar at all.  I guess I did deserve a D+ on my thesis paper at Mizzou.

First, before I talk about Jose Guillen, let me preface this with my long-standing opinion on baseball players: if they can play, and they are playing well, and they haven’t committed a serious felony (basically anything with violence or stealing money), we should probably leave them alone, because all we, the fans, should want (or require from them) is to play baseball.  Jose Guillen hits.  He leads our team in RBIs (and actually has a lot–this isn’t an Emil Brown-type situation), and he leads our team in home runs (double digits at the end of July–again, a real, literal home run leader). 

Is he a malcontent?  Yes.  Is he a cancer?  That word has taken on a whole new level since my dad fell ill.  I think the next time Jose Guillen blows up and someone like Kevin Keitzman calls him a “cancer,” I’ll probably blow up and write a huge, emotional posting about how we use strong words loosely and out of context, but right now, I haven’t the emotional strength nor the time to type such a piece.  I’ll just say no, Jose Guillen is not a cancer, because the club is not at risk of anything “life-threatening” right now.  They’re not courageously winning in spite of him and his maybe/possible desire not to be with the Royals.  The Royals are winning, and Guillen is aiding them. 

Guillen plays every day.  He could pull a Frank Thomas every once in a while and sit out, but he doesn’t.  He is a competitor.  He’s a lot of other things, too, but he’s a gamer.

There is no reason to give up Jose Guillen unless we get value back.  If we release him, say good-bye to any shot at Moore receiving the go-ahead to sign long-term extensions and quality stop-gaps.  If you’re okay with the days where Zack Greinke would’ve been traded for a Chip Ambres, a Blake Stein, and a Jay Witasick, and Matt Stairs hits third for three seasons, then yeah, release Jose Guillen.

I’ve also heard some talk that we couldn’t get anything of value if we did want to trade Guillen, and that there’d be no interest.  To this, I give a confused look.  Didn’t the Yankees just win a bidding war for some guy named Xavier Nady?  Nady of the career .281 batting average, and the career high RBI total of 72?  He’s hitting .325 this year, so if you take that anomaly out of his lifetime numbers (and it will be an anomaly), and that’s, what, a .260s lifetime average?  As for the career high RBI total of 72… Emil Brown led the Royals in RBIs the last three seasons, and he logged more RBIs than that in two of them.  Emil had 62 in 366 at-bats in part-time duty in 2007; Nady had 72 in some 431 at-bats that same year.

Everyone and their mom coveted Professor Xavier, and you’re telling me there’s not a market for Jose Guillen?  Yes, he has an attitude problem, and yes, he has a mouth, but he can hit.  There’s a reason teams traded for Carl Everett in the middle of their playoff runs–that d-bag could hit.  If we really wanted to, we could get two good prospects–if we wanted to.

That leads right into the trade talk, I guess.  Although I think we should trade Guillen, and very well could work out a favorable deal, we won’t.  Won’t happen.  Should happen; won’t happen.  People are speculating that, because everyone denied that Guillen wanted out of KC, that the organization would have to “stick to their word” and keep him.  That’s garbage.  That should be a poker face.  You tell people “Everything is fine” so no one grows suspicious, deal the guy, and then later say, “Oh, yeah, we couldn’t tell you.  Otherwise, it would have blown the deal.”  It’s business.  That said, I don’t think that’s what the team is doing.  They believe what I believe–if the guy hits and hasn’t been pitting dogs against one another to the death, you keep him.

Apparently there’s no market for Gruds, which is too bad.  I love me some Gruds, but he’s 38, and we’ve signed him to, what, two options now?  He did what we asked of him.  We should try and get something of value in return.  Unfortunately, I don’t think we will, although the Castillo injury in Minnesota is an interesting development.  I suppose I’ll know more later today.

Ron Mahay should stay unless we get blown away, and teams that trade for veteran relievers usually give up more than they should, which is a good sign.  Two prospects for one middle reliever?  Sign me up!  The shelf life of a one inning pitcher is the shortest in baseball.  Great one year; washed up the next; decent the year after that.  It’s a roller coaster.  Look at Jimmy Gobble.  He went from an absolute reliability to an absolute liability in one year.  You get rocked once, and it takes a year to recover (if you ever do recover).  Always trade a middle reliever.  Always do it.

As for being “sellers,” it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, which is awesome, in my opinion.  I remember the Appier trade; I remember the Damon trade; I remember the Dye trade; I remember the Beltran trade (they all involved Oakland, and they all involved trading for inferior talent).  Sure, this is a new regime now, and more than likely, we’ll scout the prospects better, but I don’t want to be a seller anymore–not yet.  Not in this year of Greinke’s contract; not in this year of Meche’s contract; not in this year of DeJesus’s contract.  I want to keep them this year, unless the return is a small farmclub.  The return has to be HUGE.

I think a trade will happen, but I don’t know if it will be major.  I’m excited, though.  I like it when this team changes.  Before, change scared me with the Royals because they seemed to just be going through the motions.  Now, I think they associate changing with adapting to their surroundings.  When a wild animal goes through the motions, surprises can spring up, and they can die.  When they know how to adapt, surprises aren’t really surprises, because they can become a member of the changing climate.  They can survive.  The Royals are finally learning how to survive.