I think the weakest area of the Dayton Moore era in KC has been what he has been preaching since he got here.

Developing starting pitchers from the draft.

The Royals have been awful at this for a long time and that was and still is a huge problem. The starters closest to ready in the minors are two guys not drafted by the Royals, Odorizzi & Verdugo.

As you said this combined with some bad free agent signings and contracts be can't be given away and it is not hard to see why this team is in the mess it is in now.

Solution? Well it is not just releasing Yuni and firing the first base coach. I hope the inside info Innings has given us happens. You can't fire an owner but nearly everybody under him that have been steering the ship has to be on thin ice now.

Seems most everybody under ownership are doing everything they can right now to save their job. It has started as two very, very minor replacements and one insignificant trade. This could snowball into something bigger.

Right. I know it's not easy to evaluate, draft, and develop starting pitching ... but it shouldn't be impossible, either. Every other team seems to be able to do it. As we've said many times on this board, the only really good starting pitcher the Royals have developed through their own system in the last 15 or 20 years has been Zack Greinke. And that wasn't on Dayton Moore's watch. The jury is still out on Danny Duffy.

Appier was just getting started 20 years ago, and of course there was Jose Rosado.

But yeah, the record ain't pretty. You'd think someone would say, "Maybe we should try doing something else."

And at one time, Runelvys Hernandez looked promising, too. But that didn't last long. Rosado had arm problems of some sort, if I remember correctly. Neither one lasted all that long -- Rosado longer than Hernandez.

Rosado was also a two-time All Star.

Mark Redman was an All-Star, too. So was Ken Harvey. Being an All-Star as a Royals hasn't always meant much. But I hear what you're saying. Rosado was a pretty good pitcher for a couple years.

"If I were Glass, I would have put a stop to it also. "

when you're upset with the way that your GM is spending the money, you don't pull back on what he can spend, you FIRE him. you certainly don't extend his contract - which is exactly what mr. glass did.

why would he do that if he were not content with the progress being made?

also, what sense would it make to continue spending millions building around pedestrian free agents if you now have a slough of talent in a farm system - which, by the way, they invested major resources to rebuild - that is ready for major league duty? what sense would that make?

dos glass sits at the head of the table. this is their plan, and they're well aware of the amount of time that it can take to pull off. we spend entirely too much time aiming our frustrations at the GM and the field manager. just my opinion.

[["when you're upset with the way that your GM is spending the money, you don't pull back on what he can spend, you FIRE him. you certainly don't extend his contract - which is exactly what mr. glass did."]]

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This is actually a salient point. Which only adds to the confusion. Not refute the point.

If he were happy with how he was spending the money, why would he reign it in?

they started out building the team around free agency. why? because there wasn't a reliable farm system. free agency is more expensive - even for the mediocre talents that are out there.

once the farm system was ready to go, or very close to being ready, there's less reliance on free agency.

it's a less expensive avenue by default.

the payroll came down because the team got younger.

From $71mil in 2010 to $36mil the following year?!

Really?

I mean, I understand the overall logic of what you're saying...

But, really?!

think about what came off of the books after 2010.

i believe guillen, meche, greinke, yabuta, farnsworth, dejesus, ankiel, podsednik, bloomquist, cruz were no longer on the payroll. that has to be over $50 million gone right there.

they then signed frenchy, francis and cabrera to low end deals, brought back chen relatively cheap, and on came guys like escobar, jefress, o'sullivan, holland, crow, collins, paulino ...... and of course, hosmer, moustakas, duffy, coleman, giavotella, herrera, perez and the likes ..... were eventually called up.

some of the names and years might be inaccurate, but generally ...... that type of 1 year transition will chop the payroll significantly - and for the better, i might add.