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Building up the Royals


tejdog1

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Kansas City, MO (AP) - In a move that's stunned the baseball world, Kansas City Royals GM Dayton Moore has abruptly quit, abandoning his quest to resurrect the maligned franchise. Kansas City ownership quickly turned to GM Tejesh Patel, who recently had quit the Tampa Bay Devil Rays GM role, over a dispute regarding budget.

"I throughly reviewed the situation in Kansas City, and felt that this would be the best place for me, with regards to taking a team from the ground up. It's true that the Royals don't have the highest budget, but I feel that this team is not all that far off. Dayton set the foundation perfectly, and his departure will hurt the organization, but I hope to make the transition a seamless one." Tejesh said at his press conference.

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In his first day on the job, Tejesh has pulled off a couple of blockbuster trades:

DH Mike Sweeney, AAA starter Kyle Middleton and AA starter Thad Markray were shipped to the New York Mets, in exchange for AA starter Phillip Humber, and AA relievers Matthew Lindstrom, and Henry Owens.

"We have a good set of positional prospects, but were lacking in the pitching prospect department, particularly relief prospects. While older then most AA prospects, we feel Lindstrom and Owens are not all that far away from helping the big league club. And Humber is an elite prospect who could be ace material. Pairing him with Zach Grienke (AAA) and Luke Hochevar (AA) should provide us with a stable young nucleus at the top of our rotation."

In a smaller move, 1B Doug Mientkiewicz was traded to the Oakland Athletics for AAA 1B Daric Barton.

"Adding organizational depth at a position of strength is never a bad thing."

Shortstop Andres Blanco was optioned to AAA Omaha, and outfielder Kerry Robinson was promoted to the big club.

"Blanco wasn't going to play everyday, and we wanted to get him consistent at bats."

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*takes a knee* Thank you, my Master ;)

How're you?

Doing good bro. Working on the rosters trying to kill time before the Colts-Chiefs game in 45 mins :wink:

Good deals so far. I like how you dumped Sweeney to get Humber. As you said, pairing him with Hochevar and Greinke is pretty sweet :)

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The Royals made sweeping cuts across the minor leagues, releasing 5 players, AAA starter Shane Loux, AA starter Danny Tamayo, and A starters Justin Barnes, John Gragg III and Julio Pimentel. Then Tejesh Patel dipped into the Latin American market, signing 3 players for a total of 10.2 million. He inked starters Larry Suarez (16) for 6 years @ $600k per year and Euclides Viloria (lefty, 15) for 5 years @ $600k per year, and third baseman Angel Villalona (14) for 6 years @ $600k per year.

"Adding these 3 supreme talents to our organization is a gigantic step forward. The Royals haven't been active in the Latin market, and I'm pleased to have signed 3 of the top talents in the market."

The Royals also inked deals with minor league free agent reliever Todd Jones (20, AA) for 3 years @ $1.1m per, and AA catcher Jose Hyzdu for 5 years @ $700k per, bringing the total amount spent on the farm to $17 million.

"Our farm system was already one of the top ranked farms in baseball, and we have added 5 high quality players to it. I am very excited about that."

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Doing good bro. Working on the rosters trying to kill time before the Colts-Chiefs game in 45 mins :wink:

Good deals so far. I like how you dumped Sweeney to get Humber. As you said, pairing him with Hochevar and Greinke is pretty sweet :)

It's funny, I almost like building up these small market teams more then taking my Mets and winning with them. More satisfaction with the Royals, DRays and Pirates (especially the Pirates, they have basically *nothing* in the farm)

And if anyone is wondering, I heavily edited UR 8.0, that's where the Latin American prospects came from. They are real players, and some were signed during the 2006 season (Balbino Fuenmayor with Toronto, Jesus Montero with the Yankees, Moises Tejada and Engel Beltre with Boston, and Francisco Pena with the Mets)

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The Royals made one final trade before the season began, sending AAA starter Brandon Duckworth and AA starters Bob Keppel, Ed Yarnall to the Devil Rays for AAA outfielder Elijah Dukes, AA shortstop Evan Longoria and A shortstop Reid Brignac

The Royals also cut A second baseman Fernando Cortez.

It was announced that Ryan Shealy would be the opening day first baseman, with utility man Esteban German serving as the DH.

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The Royals made one final trade before the season began, sending AAA starter Brandon Duckworth and AA starters Bob Keppel, Ed Yarnall to the Devil Rays for AAA outfielder Elijah Dukes, AA shortstop Evan Longoria and A shortstop Reid Brignac.

You robbed the poor D'Rays bro!!!

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June 1st, 2005: The Royals are roughly a third of the way through the season, with 23 victories under their belts. An internal memo was leaked from Tejesh's office, indicating the GM would be "extastic" with a 60 win regular season.

"Sometimes the best thing for a maligned franchise is to amass as many top draft picks as possible, before turning things around." The memo read.

Tejesh also made two more trades to bolster what is already a strong and vibrant farm system. Second baseman Mark Grudzielanek and AAA starter Seth Etherton were traded to the Marlins for a pair of double A starters, Chris Volstad and Jacob Marcuaux.

Also, starter Mark Redman and catcher John Buck were sent to Pittsburgh for catcher Ronny Paulino and AA center fielder Andrew McCutchen.

AAA second baseman Jeff Keppinger and AAA starter Zach Greinke were called up from AAA Omaha, completing the day of activity. The Royals went out and beat the Yankees, 7-4 afterwards, moving to within 4 games of .500.

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You robbed the poor D'Rays bro!!!

*grins* I'll never forgive them for Kazmir :thunder: :thunder: :thunder:

Or Ricky Peterson and Jeffery Wilpon (traitors!)

Although...if Ricky Peterson can turn Oliver Perez into 2004 Perez...lol.

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The Royal ended June with a 35-42 record, still on pace to exceed the internal 60 win goal, and made a trade with the Yankees, sending starter Odalis Perez, top outfield prospect Andrew McCutchen and 23 year old lefty AAA starter Jimmy Gobble to the Yankes for starter Chien Ming Wang.

"We felt that getting a starter the quality of Wang was well worth the minor hit our farm would take from losing Cutch and Jimmy."

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The Royals made a pair of trades at the deadline, sending starters Scott Elarton and Runelvys Hernandez to Minnesota for utility man Phil Nevin and A SS Esmeily Gonzalez, and also trading left fielder Reggie Sanders and AAA catcher Paul Phillips to Boston for reliever Mike Timlin and catcher Doug Mirabelli.

"Both these trades may on the surface look pointless, especially the Boston trade, but they both allow us to clear significant payroll at the end of the season. So while we did take on about $9 million in salary in these two trades, we traded multi year commitments for 1 year commitments. It really wasn't about the prospects we received, although getting another Latin American stud prospect in the Minnesota deal doesn't hurt." Tejesh said.

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The Royals ended year 1 under Tejesh Patel with a very encouraging 74-88 record, tied for 4th in the AL Central. Ownership was pleased with the direction of the team, and announced they would slightly increase the team budget, to $78.2 million. The Royals entered the offseason with $17.2 million coming off the books, and over $58 million to spend.

"We will focus on resigning our own, before worrying about who/what to spend on in free agency." Tejesh said.

And they did just that, not bothering with free agency, and signing their own players. The Royals entered Spring Training with a $20 million gap between their payroll and their budget.

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