Poor Choices

The Royals finally jumped into the free agent fray this week and on the whole their four signings were underwhelming.

I thought this team had money to burn on good players. In a nutshell this is what Kansas City GM Allard Baird got for $14.55 million.

1. A thirty-three year old catcher with a lifetime OPS+ (on-base + slugging average) of 68!
2. A below league average starting pitcher with a very spotty health record.
3. A first baseman that has hit fifty-five home runs in over 2,500 at bats in his career.
4. A thirty-six year old league average second baseman -- the best of the bunch

For all of that money they could've taken a chance on Nomar Garciaparra or ponied up the cash to bring back Paul Byrd for another go around. The catcher, Paul Bako, is nothing more than roster filler. At least he only cost 700k. The weak hitting first baseman (with a great glove by the way) is Doug Mientkiewicz who's posted back-to-back OPS+ rates of seventy-five and ninety-one -- and those OPS+ figures are against the league average, not the average first baseman!

The new Royals starter is Scott Elarton who at best may have a chance to give the Royals 150 to 180 league average innings. But that's a big if because he hasn't done that since the 2000 season when he pulled in a lucky 17-7 record in Houston. The thirty-six year old second baseman is Mark Grudzielanek. He's been pretty much the same player the past three seasons and didn't show much in the way of slippage with his batting eye last year so he's probably worth a shot at $4 million for one year. Grudzielanek will also help to make the right side of the Royals infield the most impossible infield to spell in the history of the game.