The Royals have signed several players in recent days. Jimmy Gobble signed a one-year deal worth $1,312,500. Ross Gload signed a two-year contract with an option for the 2010 season. And John Buck and Jorge De La Rosa signed one-year deals. Mark Teahen, Zack Greinke, and Esteban German are negotiating with the Royals right now. If they can't agree on a deal, they'll be headed for arbitration next month.
Dayton Moore has signed a couple of free agent starting pitchers recently as well. He signed Brett Tomko to a one-year deal worth $3 million plus incentives and he signed Brian Lawrence to a minor league contract and issued an invitation to camp. Tomko, 34, had an awful season with the Dodgers and Padres last year, going 4-10 with a 5.55 ERA. He's 93-92 in his career with a 4.62 ERA, but you have to go back to 2004 to find a season in which he posted good numbers (11-7, 4.04 ERA). This is a good indication about how hard good starting pitching is to come by and since the Royals didn't spend a lot to get him, I'm not upset about the signing. Moore is doing everything he can to bolster the rotation. Lawrence has missed most of the past two seasons with a torn labrum and rotator cuff in his right shoulder.
Mike Sweeney continues to hold out hope that he'll be able to re-sign with the Royals, but his chances are looking slimmer by the day. Moore is saying that the Royals would need to "make some kind of trade to create room and create opportunity, and I'm not sure where we go with that. I'd love to be able to figure something out. I just don't know what we could do." I still can't imagine seeing Mike in some other uniform.
Jose Guillen is already making news the wrong way. He told a reporter recently that he wasn't going to play left field this year. Trey Hillman has been saying that Guillen is going to be his left fielder, so Moore got involved and they supposedly came to a compromise, which means Hillman will "keep an open mind" about the subject going into Spring Training. Hillman wasn't happy about it. He said that he respected the fact that Guillen feels he could help the team more by playing right field, but then he said, "I don't need anybody copping attitudes on my plans to get better defensively." Yeah, no kidding. Guillen hasn't even played one game yet in Royal blue and it's hard not to notice an attitude problem.
Former Royal Jeremy Affeldt signed a one-year $3 million deal with the Reds. Ken Rosenthal is calling it a bargain. Sounds like Affeldt will have a chance to make the rotation during Spring Training.
4 comments:
I love the Affeldt deal for the Reds.
I have been confused by the Guillen signing from the beginning... he was trouble before he even came to KC.
I was glad to see Affeldt have a breakout season for the Rockies last year. He's fun to watch. I've interviewed him on a number of occasions for different publications and he's one of those rare guys who will tell you what he's thinking.
I agree, the Guillen deal has been an odd fit for the Royals since the beginning. And before he's even played a single game for the Royals, he's already causing problems. Not good.
Lee, not to defend Guillen, but isn't it fair to suggest this topic should have been broached during the free agent negotiation process?
Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't - but if it wasn't I think it's fair to say that was an oversight by Moore.
Don't take this wrong - I'm a HUGE Moore supporter; just thought this angle on the flap should have been explored by the journalist in the article.
Anonymous, you make a good point. However Moore doesn't ever talk about what happens during the negotiation process, so I doubt he would have in this case.
And you have to remember that the Royals were pursuing other free agent outfielders as well. So, it would have been difficult for Moore to promise a specific outfield position to Guillen.
The thing that really bugs me about this is...here you have a guy with a known attitude problem who is presumably looking for a fresh start with a new team. The last thing you think he'd want to do is rock the boat before the season even starts.
And in recent weeks, Hillman hasn't kept his line up a secret. He's been saying that Guillen is going to be his left fielder for some time. So, I can't figure out why Guillen didn't talk to him about it if he had a problem.
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