It’s been a little over eight years since Kansas City Royals general manager, Dayton Moore took to the media, and told the fans that bringing a championship to Kansas City would be a “10-year process.” We are now in year eight of Moore’s so-called “10-year process” and this Kansas City team is not any closer to contending than they were eight years ago.
In Dayton Moore’s time as general manager, the Royals have shown little to no improvement. The club’s best year, statistically speaking, was last year, yet they still fell short of reaching the playoffs for the 28th year in a row. At the end of the year, however, Dayton Moore’s contract was extended. The Royals got off to a decent start, and entered May with a 14-13 record. As soon as the calendar flipped to May, the Kansas City Royals started a downhill spiral, just like in the previous season.
Who is to blame for the horrific play of this team? Is it all the coaches that have tried to motivate the players? No. Is it the manager, Ned Yost that continues to make excuse after excuse? Partly. Is it the Players themselves who have a lack of talent, and zero ambition to do work? Again, partly. While the Royals failure over the last 28 years is partly due to poor management in the Royals dugout, and dismal performances on the field, Dayton Moore and his lack of accountability for this team is a large part of the Royals lack of success, at least in the last eight years.
Since 2012, the Royals have gone through five major league hitting coaches: Kevin Seitzer, Andre David, Jack Maloof, George Brett, and Pedro Grifol. On Thursday, Kansas City decided to “re-assign” their latest hitting coach, Pedro Grifol, and promote third base coach, Dale Sveum to hitting coach. This move seems eerily similar to the one they made the previous year when they hired George Brett and Pedro Grifol to relieve Andre David and Jack Maloof of their hitting coach duties.
Why do Dayton Moore and the Royals keep going through hitting coaches so fast? Look at it this way: There are three people in a boat: Dayton Moore, Ned Yost, and the hitting coach. In this case, the one who gets tossed overboard will most likely be the hitting coach. It’s not the hitting coach that has the problem, yet he is the one that gets the boot. It isn’t Ned Yost that gets tossed for having the third worst managerial record of managers that have managed at least 1500 games in the MLB, and thanks to the Glass family, who refuses to fire Dayton Moore, it isn’t him either. For Moore, the easy solution is to just keep firing the hitting coaches. Hitting coaches are very easy to replace. Dayton Moore has continued to take the easy way out, all the while his team continues to flop like fish out of water. Dayton Moore has yet to reach that next step, which is to fire the one in charge of the hitting coach, Ned Yost.
I’m not totally convinced that Yost is the problem. Yes, some of the decisions to leave starting pitchers in there two batters too late have cost the team maybe two games this year. Most of Ned’s decisions have been spot on. The problem I have with Yost, and with Dayton Moore, for that matter, is that they both can find an excuse for why their team is playing horrifically. The first, and only time I have ever heard Yost take accountability for something was last week. In reference to the lack-luster offensive lineups Ned keeps throwing out there, he said this, “There really is no excuse anymore. They just aren’t hitting.”
Here you see someone actually taking accountability, but Dayton Moore is nowhere to be seen. It’s time for something to change. Either Dayton Moore needs to own up, and take some accountability for this ball club, and start making the proper decisions based on what is best for the team, or he needs to resign. I do not see either of these happening, but one of them needs to.
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