Boston Globe's article on the Kansas City Royals

Baseball beat writers have a tough job, especially when the assignment is to write 700 words on a team you care nada about, but this Boston Globe piece pretty much misses the point several times over.

"Royals bank on futures market: young stars start to pay dividends" is a fine enough headline/subhead -- made my heart jump a beat, even, in anticipation of a thought-provoking read -- but the story proves remarkably thin. Three quotes from Buddy Bell and three from Emil Brown are all you'll find that you can't anywhere else.

Yes, Emil Brown is quoted three times.

"[It's good] to see that they are willing to try to put something together, to put this team on a fast-forward track rather than slowly getting better," said Brown, who has been with the Royals since 2005.

"They want to get better right now, which is good. So that's a step in the right direction."

Actually, everything about that quote is wrong. Dayton's M.O. since day 1 has been to avoid the "fast-forward track." Thing is, though, I can't imagine Brown was saying what it looks like he's saying, that the front office is in it for the quick fix; you just think that when you read the article, in which the writer uses the Meche/Dotel signings as evidence of the Royals' commitment to winning. Typical East Coast thinking: money buys wins, happiness.

The writer then makes it look like Brown contradicts himself. "Brown said at the current pace of improvement, the Royals can be contenders by 2009." 2009 is two years away. Wouldn't, "They want to get better right now" mean "they want to get better right now"? Like, say, now, or next year at least?

Then there's this:

"They've only been small-market because they haven't went out and spent," Brown said. "But how much does it show? I don't know, because there's always going to be teams that spend more."

What does that mean???

In other news, the Dodgers have expressed strong interest in Octavio Dotel, according to the KC Star, though it's unlikely they're going to give up Matt Kemp or James Loney. I like what Dayton's doing though -- not underestimating the value of his commodity, which he purchased before the season with the express intent of selling it high when time came. Of course, by "not underestimating" I mean drastically overestimating, but if you're a Royals fan, you've got to think karma owes you one or two, considering.