Was he drunk?

Question

David Glass, the Kansas City Royals owner, said he guarantees his team will be top contenders in 2007. Now I am curious. How does a team led offensively by Reggie Sanders and Angel Berroa and whose best pitchers are Zack Grienke and Gil Meche become legitimate contenders? Look at their divison. They have to play every team in their divison 19 times this year. (19 times 4 =76) If the Royals go 10-66 in their divison, I will be stunned. Can someone please tell me how he thinks they will contend or was his statement BS?

Answer 1

First - sir_real4127 - The Twins won't have Radke or Liriano this season. Liriano had Tommy John surgery and is going to miss the entire season and Radke retired. The rotation now consists of Santana and four question marks comprised of youngsters like Scott Baker, Matt Garza, Glenn Perkins and Boof Bonser. There is also hope that Carlos Silva or recent signee, Sidney Ponson will rebound, but the Twins don't have nearly the same stability to their rotation as they have had in recent years.

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Moving on to the question at hand.

I think many people have hit the nail right on the head. Part of it is to sell tickets. Only an awful owner would come out and say "My team is screwed!" It would keep attendance to a minimum and it would probably kill any team morale before the first pitches of spring training.

The Royals do, however, have the benefit of a solid core of young superstars and a good mix of seasoned veterans. The offense will be led by the lacks of Tehean, Shealy, Gordon and DeJesus not Berroa and Sanders. Meche will assume the ACE role, but he'll be backed up by solid young arms like Brian Bannister, Odalis Perez and Scott Elarton. The bullpen is going to be, at first glance, a weak spot but if Octavio Dotel can rebound to his pre-surgery form the team has a legit closer for the first time in years.

Also realize that although the Royals have to fight the teams within their division 76 times...so does everyone else. If the Twins, Tigers, White Sox and Indians spend all season beating each other up maybe the Royals can swoop in and get some vulture victories here and there. I don't think the team is going to contend in 2007, but crazier things have happened. The Tigers were picked by most experts to be a fourth place team last season and needless to say, they did just a little bit better than that. The White Sox and Indians were supposed to be going tooth and nail to the wire again, not the Twins and Tigers...so anything can happen.

Like I said, I don't expect them to contend, but there is an outside chance. I'd expect them to have a few more lean years before the young guys really gel and Kansas City gets a chance to return to the prominence it once had as a great baseball city.

Answer 2

I too will be stunned. I'm a Tigers fan so last year was a hugh gift for us. Our first winning season since 1992 and a trip to the World Series. Awesome, but I digress. The Tigers are the team to beat this year in the AL Central. They signed Gary Sheffield for DH and Jose Mesa in the pen, have a very young starting rotation that's just going to get better, and our AAA team, the Toledo Mud Hens, won the IL Championship for the second year in a row. Our MLB team is stacked, our farm system is loaded with talent, if we don't make the playoffs I'll be stunned. The White Sox have made no major changes that I can see, but I don't know what their minor leagues looked like. The Indians could be in it if their players mature into what they were supposed to be last year. The Twins are a close second to the Tigers, again, not sure what the farm system looks like for upcoming talent. This team is the team I'm most concerned with. They have awesome starting pitching so if they get another minor league star to come up with Radke, Santana, and Lariano, they'll be tough. Then there's Kansas City. They signed no one! Unless they have some serious talent no one's heard of on the farm, they're still a good 2 years away. So yea, there must be a crack dealer camping out around Glass' parking spot at Kauffman cuz I have no idea what he's talking about.

Answer 3

Boy, I'll tell you. If I was in K.C., I'd be banging down the gates to see Gil Meche pitch on opening day...wait, let me put down the water-bong. K.C. sucks. Meche was rumored to go to a contender because he was worried about being "the man". He wanted to be the 4th or 5th starter on a perennial playoff team. But, when you are offered the Darren Dreifort Special ($55 mil over 5), wouldn't you take it? The Royals are flush with money from the revenue sharing, and had to spend it somewhere. Do you think Dice-K (BoSox) would have gone to KC? If you drop the posting fee that the Red Sox paid to Japan, he was signed for 6 years and $52 mil. How about Soriano? No real stud wants to go to an organization like the Royals. And it really is a shame. They have quite a history with some classy players and a gorgeous ballpark...Now, Mr. Glass, you can hit the bong again...

Answer 4

Anything can happen in a season. Look at the Tigers going worst to first in one season. The only bad, really bad, deal the Royals made was to give Gil Meche 55 Million dollars. That was way nuts.

Answer 5

Among the many things that make baseball so great is its umpredictable success stories.

A number of teams have gone worst (or nearly worst) to first in one season. If the game was completely logical the Yankees could be expected to win about 125 games or more every year based upon payroll & talent in their dugout!!

One of the exciting things about a club loaded w young prospects is that they don't know they aren't supposed to be any good!! They play hard & have a hunger many of the obscenely paid veterans lost many seasons ago.

And besides....every team has visions of making this year the season they win the World Series!

Not a Royals fan myself, but hey GO ROYALS!! Baseball can use another rags to riches success story.

Answer 6

I would not say he was drunk but I think he was a little over-exuberant and over confident . Do you want an owner to come out and say the team was going to lose a lot of games ?.Yes,there is realism in thinking the Royals will struggle this year but I think they will show signs of improvement but you cannot blame David Glass in believing his team will contend even though it seems to be premature and lacking sound evidence.

Answer 7

No.

I fully expect The Royals to have a somewhat decent season.
They may not be exactly contenders this year, but will be in a few years time. I fully expect the chicago whinny sux to fight KC for last place.

Answer 8

His statement was about selling tickets. That's all. He spent money on a few free agents in an effort to fill some seats and make a few bucks this year. They likely won't finish higher than last place though.

Answer 9

Who knows, they might make a big turn around season like the Detroit Tigers did.

This is baseball, and in baseball anything can happen within a 162 game span.

Answer 10

KC has some good young players. Chemistry is everything and anything can happen in baseball. Just ask the '69 Mets.