He’s old and terrible. He’ll be extremely cheap. Isn’t that exactly the kind of player we’re looking for, given “the economy”?

I have to believe that Josh Byrnes actually cares — but I’m not really sure how many more executives ::cough cough:: in upper management in this franchise actually give a crap about trying to contend.

rolls eyes

But are we in a race with the Padres to see who can become the “Kansas City of the West”? We’ve got the highly-touted young players who don’t quite develop. It looks like we’re trying to plug roster holes with bargain-basement, low production veterans. And, if we’re not careful, we’re close to losing our best home-grown talent as soon as they can sign with another team.

But really, if we’re going to do this right, we need to announce a reasonable strategy for growth and then drop it on a flimsy pretext before it can bear fruit. Oh. Right. Check.

I know, we still have a long way to go before we reach the Royals’ special level of futility. I remember a great Joe Posnanski article (probably the reason why the Royals are my gold standard for awfulness) where he described the low points of rooting for his home-town team. Until we have a pair of outfielders start jogging back to the dugout while a pop fly lands behind them, or have a player climb the wall to catch a fly ball, only to have it drop onto the warning track in front of him, we are strictly bush league. But, if we keep trying as hard as we have this off-season, I bet we can catch them in a couple of years.