Kansas City Royals

This morning right before waking up - I had a dream where I owned the Kansas City Royals. I have no idea why I would have such a dream but it got me thinking - what would I do if I did own the Kansas City Royals?

Well the first thing I would do would be to hire Bill James as a Sr. VP to help consult with me and find ways for the Royals to maximize their meager assets. I'm thinking James would take the job because he's a Royals fan. I'd keep Dayton Moore as GM and Buddy Bell as manager but I would tinker with the roster.

Last year the Royals had a payroll of about $67 million but there's over $32 million that could come off this offseason. The money would come from:

Mike Sweeney - $11 million
Odalis Perez - $7.75 million
Jason LaRue - $5.2 million
Reggie Sanders - $5 million
Emil Brown - $3.45 million

There is a good core of young players to build around. The core includes (with ages in parenthesis):

Alex Gordon 3rd (23)
Mark Teahen RF (25)
Billy Butler DH (21)

Gil Meche SP (28)
Brian Bannister SP (26)

The major needs would be LF and 3rd starter. I would probably take a risk on Bobby Kielty for LF (or maybe Eric Hinske and possibly both). I figure Kielty and/or Hinske would cost less than $10 million over 2 years. For the 3rd starter I would take a risk on either Kris Benson or Matt Clement (whoever had the better medical prognosis). My thinking on 3rd starter is that either one of those guys need a season where they could get a lot of starts to show that they are back at top levels. They would come relatively cheap and if they showed lots of progress by the All-Star game then they could be dangled for prospects.

Overall I think the Royals should be competitive - not win the division competitive but at least .500 competitive next season. Dayton Moore has them moving in the right direction but if I were owner - I'd take all the credit.