Even though Bill O'Reilly has convinced me that I shouldn't say "Merry Christmas" anymore, I will say in the words of the immortal Krusty the Klown, "have a merry Christmas, a happy Hannukah, a kwazy Kwanzaa, a tip-top Tet, and a solemn and dignificed Ramadan!"

via www.simpsoncrazy.com

And then after the holidays we can get back to Royals hot stove season!

via www.rob-clarkson.com

Ever since Dayton Moore was hired as the General Manager of the Kansas City Royals in May of 2006, I’ve been continually evaluating and re-evaluating him.  I guess that’s what fans do with GM’s.  All of this evaluation has been with the caveat that there has been less data to evaluate him on than I’d like for a sound, comprehensive evaluation.  Well, this offseason has given us several more data points.  And while the evaluation of a GM, just like with a player, is never done, I think we have a good picture of what kind of GM Dayton Moore is and how good he is.

Since it is final exam season for many of you, I decided to put this evaluation in the form of a report card.  There are several categories which we must look at (classes) and they are given their appropriate weight (credit hours).  Assigning a grade to each will allow us to come up with GPA for Dayton Moore.  I’ll call it his General manger Proficiency Average.

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The Royals payroll has undergone significant changes over the last month and the murky picture of who would be included in that payroll has become considerably more clear.  The bottom line is that the Royals 2009 payroll currently projects to be about $77.8 million, including estimates for players eligible for arbitration and those who are still pre-arbitration. 

Last year's payroll was approximately $67 million.  But this should not lead one to the conclusion that the Royals have only spent $10 million in new outlays.  A significant part of that $67 million came off the books at the end of the season (including almost $10 million from Berroa's and Grudzielanek's contracts alone).  There's so much more the Royals could have done with that $78 million, but they've chosen to do this:

Crisp + Fransworth + Jacobs + Ramirez + Waechter = $15.94 million.  Kudos to you, Mr. Glass for increasing payroll when most organizations are not.  I only wish Dayton Moore had done better with your money.

The Royals official site has announced that Farnsworth passed his physical and the deal is official.  The story also has some interesting tidbits about the bullpen:

• Farnsworth makes $4.25M in 2009, $4.5M in 2010 and there is a club option for 2011 for $5.25M or a $500K buyout.  The contract includes $750K in performance bonuses for each season.
• Moore thinks McClure can help Farnsworth.

"Kyle has been very, very dominant at times in his career, and we feel that he's continuing to get better," Moore said. "We feel that he can get better. Bob McClure, our pitching coach, recognizes some things in his delivery and his approach that, with some necessary adjustments, we feel that he'll continue to improve with his consistency in the strike zone."

• The likely bullpen is starting to come together.

The signing has the Royals' bullpen looking to be nearly complete for next season. Along with Farnsworth and Mahay, the other members of Kansas City's projected seven-man bullpen would appear to be Waechter, left-hander Jimmy Gobble and right-hander Robinson Tejada. That leaves two open spots.

Isn't the writer (not Kaegel this time) leaving out someone?  Like the closer?  If those are the likelies for the pen, that leaves one open spot.

• Bale could be back with the Royals.

Although left-hander John Bale was among four players non-tendered by the club on Friday, he's likely to be re-signed by the club to fill one of those spots. Bale, who made $2.2 million last season, has been plagued by injuries the past two seasons.

• This info was already out there, but the Royals signed Cuevas to a minor league contract, and re-signed German (terms not yet disclosed).

So it appears this is what the bullpen is likely to be at this point:

Soria (R)

Farnsworth (R)

Mahay (L)

Waechter (R)

Gobble (L)

Tejeda (R)

Bale (L)

That raises some questions.  Apparently Peralta was tendered.  Does this mean he battles Waechter for a bullpen spot in spring training?  Peralta is out of options, so either makes the 25-man roster or he's gone.  Given Moore's apparently favorites, it doesn't look like there is room for Carlos Rosa.  His performance in 2008 shows that he's major league ready.  Are the Royals continuing to groom him as a starter, or is he just a future MLB reliever who is going to be wasted in Omaha?  I think he's likely better than three or four pitchers on the above list.