Dayton Moore: Trust The Silliness

Despite keeping the Royals the perpetual laughing stock of baseball, the AL's Pittsburgh Pirates, since taking over as Royals GM in 2006 (handing out silly contracts to guys Jose Guillen and Juan Cruz, while trading for guys like Mike Jacobs and Yuniesky Betancourt), Dayton Moore's patented process has quickly converted the Royals' once relatively barren farm system into one of baseball's best in modern memory. Makes you think that Dayton Moore might actually know what he's doing, right?

Especially when he says the following about Saber-darling Kila Ka'aihue:

Kila is a smart kid. He works hard. We think that what we saw in the last three weeks of the season from him is what he's capable of. We think he can hit .240-.260, hit 20-25 homers, .370 OBP. It will be a nice problem fitting all these guys in the lineup.

Gives you confidence that they'll give him a shot, rather than relegate him to a reserve role, right? Maybe leverage Butler to fill a team hole and plug the Kila Monster in the vacancy with Hosmer sharing 1B/DH duties? Still, when Moore continues talking, it makes you wonder if he's really the "genius" he's retroactively being touted as:

We need more speed and athleticism. My ideal team would have someone like Adam Jones or Torii Hunter up the middle, a guy who can provide speed, defense, and power. We'll have to see if Lorenzo Cain can be a player like that.

Increasing athleticism and power would be admirable goals if, beyond the fact that on base is 1.3 times as important as slugging, the people you aspire to acquire were actually athletic. Just to set the record straight, Torii Hunter has been a below average outfielder by both UZR and Total Zane estimates for the past half decade. He's accrued a -26.3 UZR over the past five seasons, posting a UZR/150 of -9.0 or worse in two of the past five seasons. Likewise, Adam Jones has not been a positive centerfielder in either of the past two seasons. His career UZR/150 in center is a tad better than -2.0, but his 2009-10 cumulative UZR is -12.6. Jones' "power," average or worse in all but one season of his career, is also quite dubious.

Keep in mind the Rays also got a better haul, at least in my estimation, for Garza than the Royals did for Greinke. Silly Cubs.

Then again, this is the same organization that thought that they had "the greatest offseason in the history of whatever” last year...