I think I can understand why Dayton Moore wanted to get rid of Andy Sisco. Sisquatch is very, very big, and at least in 2005 he threw very, very hard, and complemented his fastball with a hard-breaking slider that made him look like a Rule 5 steal and one of the more promising young left-handers in the league. But everything went wrong last year; his fastball wasn’t nearly as fast, his slider didn’t slide so much as roll, and his command of both pitches went from borderline to non-existent. His ERA more than doubled, from 3.11 to 7.10.
More than that, though, I think what soured the Royals on Sisquatch was the same thing that soured the Cubs on protecting him two years ago, allowing the Royals to grab him in the first place. Sisco has a reputation for being, shall we say, less than totally dedicated to his craft. This can best be summed up by the email I received from Paul Swydan on November 29th, when he forwarded me an email from a gentleman named Bruce Baskin, who maintains a newsletter devoted to Mexican baseball. Here’s the relevant excerpt:
“Check this out: Andy Sisco, the 6′9″ kid from Eastern Washington who pitches for the Royals, was just cut by Mazatlan. He was pitching well enough, however the team director saw Sisco munching on a couple of tacos in the stadium concourse…during the first inning of the game. Apparently, he showed up in the dugout sometime in the second, but his fate was sealed.
“What a bonehead! Hadn’t he been down there long enough to figure they take the game a whole lot more seriously in Mazatlan than they do in Omaha? Hope he got his tacos to go.”
I can’t confirm that this actually took place, but it’s telling that the people I’ve talked to find this anecdote to be completely in character. It’s also telling that Sisco hasn’t pitched in Mexico since November 19th, even though his last outing was 6 IP, 1 ER, 8 K gem.
So I can’t say I don’t understand why Moore traded him, or even that I blame him entirely. Sisco, like Ambiorix Burgos (traded for Brian Bannister) and Runelvys Hernandez (released), had an unacceptably high talent-to-performance ratio, and that the Royals have erased all of three of them from their pitching staff in 10 days means, if nothing else, that they’re sending a message to the rest of the organization that potential without production will no longer be tolerated.
But Ross Gload? What on earth do the Royals need Ross Gload for? It’s not that Gload is a bad player; he’s a lifetime .298/.343/.437 hitter with a good glove at both first base and the corner outfield spots. He’s a legitimate .300 hitter, maybe better; he hit .327 in 2006, .321 in 2004, and while he was terrible in 42 at-bats with the Sox in 2005, he also hit .367 with power in 60 games in Triple-A that year. He’s a popular player in Chicago, gets good marks for his clubhouse reputation and his work ethic and all that. A lot of teams could use a guy like that on their bench.
The problem is that if 29 teams could use a guy like Gload, the Royals would be the outlier. First and most obviously, there’s the little matter of the 100 losses last season. Generally, teams that just lost 100 games (for the 4th time in 5 years, mind you) do not generally make improving their bench a priority. For all his issues, Sisco certainly has a higher upside than Gload, and shouldn’t a team in the Royals position be looking to trade for upside, not to exchange it for consistency?
And then there’s the little matter of Ryan Shealy at first base. And Mike Sweeney at DH. And David DeJesus in centerfield. And Shane Costa, Joey Gathright, Emil Brown, and Reggie Sanders in the outfield corners. And Justin Huber, who ought to play somewhere. And Alex Gordon, who probably will force Mark Teahen to rightfield on Opening Day. That’s 9 OF/1B/DH candidates already, most of whom are out of options, for a maximum of 7 roster spots. And now you add a 10th player to the mix?
Dayton Moore had an impressive reputation when he was hired six months ago, and he still does. He’s made a lot of moves, some obvious, some under the radar, that look very promising in the long-term. But the month of December has not been kind to him. The Gil Meche signing has the potential to be an albatross for the rest of the decade, but at least you can see a scenario in which Meche stays healthy and reasonably effective and proves to be a worthwhile addition to the team. Now Moore has traded a promising, if flaky, left-handed pitcher for a backup first baseman/outfielder to add to a roster already groaning under the weight of too many options to fill those positions.
I’m sure Moore had a reason for making this trade. But it’s not evident from where I sit as to what that reason was. A lot of people have a lot of faith that Moore is the man to lead the Royals back to relevance. But moves like this make it hard for me to put my trust in Moore based on pure faith alone.
0 comments have been left for this post.
