The McGovern Manifesto- 11th Hour

[royals19]

INTRODUCTION





The day after the World Series, the Royals paraded down the Country Club Plaza with their new hardware. George McGovern, the Royals' victorious owner, stood on the balcony of his house watching the scene unfold across the small stream. On this day, McGovern was hosting a party of high profile guests who had more or less become his entourage. As the parade continued amid the showers of blue and white confetti and the cheers of the fans, Royals legend Frank White joined George McGovern on the balcony.

Quote: Originally Posted by Frank White

Congrats on your World Series win George and thanks for having me at the game last night. It was awesome to finally make my return to the franchise.

Quote: Originally Posted by George McGovern

No problem Frank but I've got a little problem and I need your help. There's been some trouble. Bo and Friedman are missing and Dayton is on life support... everything's falling apart.

Quote: Originally Posted by Frank

What the hell happened?

Quote: Originally Posted by George

Yost turned on us... we were set up and ambushed up in Toronto.

Quote: Originally Posted by Frank

That sun of a gun! Have you caught him yet?

Quote: Originally Posted by George

No, no.... we're trying. But this is where I need your help. I need you to take over as owner of the Royals. We'll be ruined if I don't find an owner. Frank, there's people out there that will kill to have this team.

Quote: Originally Posted by Frank

Well George, my only problem is that I don't wanna get killed running a darn ball club!

Quote: Originally Posted by George

The people that did this wouldn't dare try this again... we've upped the security around the ball park... Choppers, gunned up SUVs... pressure sensors; ain't nobody coming in that isn't supposed to.

Quote: Originally Posted by Frank

Well seeing as I owe you one... fine, I'm in.

[royals19]

Well, after that World Series win, we had to take a little time to watch the Red Sox on TV every single night, plus play a little baseball ourselves. But hey, now we're back ready to do it all over again. With a World Series title in our rear view mirror, things start to mean a little more around here.

If you don't wanna sift through 40-50 pages of action and commentary then you'd better read this so you have at least some clue as to what we're doing around here.



2012
George McGovern was living a happy life, as a scout for Dayton Moore... however there was a catch. He wasn't doing this just for kicks, he was doing this to keep a smll grasp on what was rightfully his. You see, George McGovern been awarded the Royals after the death of long time friend and Royals owner Ewing Kauffman. Before a single game had been played under McGovern's ownership, he was outed under mysterious circumstances and his fortunes were drained.

Fastforward to 2012 and as a result of the discovery of 2012 first rounder Austin Meadows, McGovern was forced to put a plan in motion to rightfully reclaim the Royals before Mr. Glass learned of his presence in the organization. Realizing that he would never be able to outright own the Royals again, McGovern enlisted the help of superstar Bo Jackson to purchase the team. Bo would run the franchise while McGovern would have General Manager like responsibilities.

On the field, the Royals featured the newly acquired James Shields, Ervin Santana and Wade Davis; who proceeded to form one of baseball's more reliable rotations. The year also saw the emergence of Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer as potential cornerstones.

Eventually, everything combined to form a wild card berth for the young Royals who put together an amazing walkoff win in the lone wild card game against Texas. However the Royals luck would run dry and they would lose a 14 inning Game 5 to the Tigers in the ALDS...

2013
With George McGovern prepared to manage the Rouals first offseason, the decision was made to hire Andrew Friedman to keep McGovern's hefty spending efforts in check. The Royals would end up letting Ervin Santana and Jeff Francoeur walk for draft pick compensation. However, the Royals did make a splash and inked long time Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester to a 6 year deal and penciled in deadline acquisition Domonic Brown in right field.

All seemed to be running smooth but after George McGovern was spotted at the Royals Opening Day ceremonies, certain people became unhappy and dispatched former Manager Ned Yost (who had been replaced by Joe Maddon). Yost kidnapped Jeremy Guthrie and demanded he tell the identity of a the man wearing the white suit (McGovern). Upon hearing of the kidnapping, McGovern dispatched pitching coach Dave Eiland to find Guthrie; which he eventually did before Guthrie cracked. For his own good, Guthrie was shipped to Milwaukee to assist in their playoff race...

Meanwhile on the field, the Royals started out poorly and eventually Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Alcides Escobar were all optioned to AAA. An injury to Domonic Brown as a result of a HBP also added salt to the wound.

Once all the players returned to form in early August, the Royals went on a run to the postseason which included a 23 game win streak in September, erasing Detroit's 13 game lead and catapulting the team to its first 100 win season in Franchise History.

Despite inconsistent play during the regular season, the Royals were able to mop the floor against Detroit in the ALDS and tackle the mighty Blue Jays en route to their first World Series berth since 1985.

After the Royals victory over the Blue Jays, Bo Jackson and Andrew Friedman were kidnapped in the same ambush that nearly claimed Dayton Moore's life in Toronto. The Royals, with heavy hearts were able to win the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

So despite the **** hitting the fan, the Royals were able to become world champs for the first time since 1985...

And that's where we'll pick up our story.

[royals19]

The past two years have seen their fair share of international players make their way to Major League Baseball, guys like Yu Darvish, Wei Yin Chen, Yoenis Cespedes, Jorge Solar and Yasiel Puig come to mind. All of these guys have shown the potential to be franchise changing players, but that's nothing compared to baseball's latest free agent...




Jose Dariel Abreu

Abreu might be the greatest player to ever come out of Cuba, hell he might be the greatest player in the World right now. But saying he's the best player to ever come out of Cuba is saying a lot considering talents like Cespedes, Puig and Aroldis Chapman have come out of there in recent years. The legends about this ball player are mythical, almost Bo Jackson like. Here's the scary part though, Abreu has the numbers to back it up.

Quote:

799-6 2866-AB 918-H .342-AVG 167-2B 16-3B 184-HR 593-RBI

And he's only 26.... But what's more scary than that is that this dude is on his way here at this very moment...

We're not gonna let this dude waste his time goofing off in the sandlot or playing pick up games in the streets... No, he's gonna be wearing a big league uni come this spring... it's only a matter of where and that's the whole pint of this post.

JOSE DARIEL ABREU LOTTERY
Rules & Stipulations

Hah, darn straight it's a lottery, somebody's about to hit the jackpot and land the Cuban Barry Bonds




Rule #1- Team Must be in need of a 1B or DH
Look, what good does it do if the team already has a first baseman or designated hitter. It makes no sense for the team to sign him and make him come off the bench. Abreu is arguably the best international to come here in recent years. Therefore, he ain't comin' off the bench for nobody...

So here's the teams after Rule #1

Quote:

Nationals Brewers Phillies Rockies Red Sox Yankees White Sox Athletics Twins

That list is still too long so we gotta chop it down even more.

Rule #2- Team must be able to ffer a deal worth more than 42 million dollars.
Abreu's agent has already come out and said he's going to get his client more than Yasiel Puig's 7 year-42 million dollar deal. So that's the precedent here. The team is going to have to offer some serious coin up for this guy if they really want him that bad.

So here's who moves on to the next round:

Quote:

Brewers Phillies Twins Rockies Red Sox Yankees

Just a tad too long...

Rule #3- The team must have finished above .500 two of the previous 3 seasons. Barring a special circumstance.
The special circumstance was going to be Miami but since they aren't in this, don't even worry about it.

Abreu came to the United States to play pro baseball and win. The keyword there is win. We aren't going to allow a sub .500 team to throw all their money at Abreu and steal him away from a team that truely needs him for the playoff race. That's not fair to the winning teams, that's not fair to the teams who didn't make the cut and that's just not fair to baseball.

And here's the final 5:

Quote:

Phillies Brewers Rockies Red Sox Yankees

So that leaves us with 5 questions.

• Do we send him up to Milwaukee to be the face of their Franchise win Ryan Braun on the hot seat?
• Maybe we send him up to Philly to bring back the hardware one last time?
• What about the thin air of Colorado where he could pile up the homeruns?
• Maybe he heads to Boston and leads the next group of Red Sox players with Dustin Pedroia?
• Or, we could send him up to New York to team up with Robbie Cano and C.C. to form the Yankee's next dynasty.

Luckily the Royals aren't in this or we would have to be fighting against bias... regardless, I'm gonna leave this one open for everyone to ponder and we'll revisit this in a few days time.

Personally, I liked Colorado the best because he could terrorize the league with CarGo and Tulo... the only qualm is the market isn't very big.

I also liked Boston as an option because they've lost a ton of guys to Free Agency and to retiring leaving Dustin Pedroia, Shane Victorino and Jacoby Ellsbury as the only true veterans on a really raw and inexperienced team.

[royals19]

For this year's winter baseball meetings, George McGovern and Frank White flew on down to the good city of Orlando for some waves and sunshine... oh yeah and to sign some players... Speaking of player's here's the consensus "Elite 8" for this offseason.



Now I'll be admit, this certainly isn't the best class ever but it's a heck of a lot better than last years class, that's for sure. However, the more I think about it, the more I like it. The potential for McGovern to bring in a good class is here but if he screws up, it won't be that bad; there are some good impact players in this class.

My only problem with this group is that the top 3 players at each position are some how qualifying players. Hopefully, McGovern's smart enough not to goof up and give up a draft pick for Nate McClouth.

Coming into the offesason, we had some clear cut issues we needed to sort through. Last year's pen was inconsistent, George Kottaras had trouble as a backup last year, Chris Denorfia's good and he's now aware of it and not to mention the right field situation.

Outside of our own issues, Detroit has to fix their own bullpen and find replacements for the now retired Victory Martinez and Torii Hunter. Cleveland made some strides last season and now has 80 million dollars in budget space to play with. As for Chicago, they're pretty much done after giving Jake Peavy an 8 year deal for 60 millionish. Then you have Minnesota who has no money and will therefore suck again this season.

If we don't make any moves, our chances going into next year don't look too good. If Detroit makes some splashes they should be the easy favorite to take the division next year.

So for George McGovern, the pressure is on to put another playoff contender on the field.

[royals19]

OFFSEASON- PART 1 OF 3
Hometown Discount


This offseason would've seen three potential cornerstones hit the market. Indeed, the cash would've been flowing this offseason but twas not to be. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on you point of view, the tightwads of baseball finally decided to pay their best players what they were worth. Here, see for yourself...


I originally wanted Kershaw to hit the open market but I soon realized that the Dodgers were going to be the only team that had the financial capability to pay Kershaw what he was worth. I had Kersh written off as an easy candidate for our first 300 million dollar contract (a new feature of the game is that you can now pay players 30 million dollars annually) had he hit the open market because other teams would have driven the price up.

Bringing back Kershaw gives the Dodgers the nod for the forseeable future in the west. Losing Kershaw would've taken them from being a great team to a good team. In this situation, I'm OK with Kersh heading back to LA but it would've been nice to see where else he could've landed.


Now this is a move that really grinds my gears; Verlander has done so much for the Tigers and the city of Detroit. In return, the Tigers throw peanuts at him... seat cushion change... That's a poor showing by the Tigers.

Verlander though, being a class act or more likely humiliated, accepted their offer. I'm left scratching my head as to why he didn't get any more money. V-Mart and Torii Hunter retired so their hefty contracts came off the books... I just don't know, this isn't right... I understand a hometown discount but this is borderline ridiculous... Verlander should've been asking for the world in return but instead took Detroit's petty offer. At least this keeps the AL Central interesting...


This is the only discount that I 100% like. Dustin Pedroia has gone through thick and thin with Boston and recognizing that Boston needs players to replace the slew of players they lost last season, he cut back on his demands for the greater good.

With Big Papi, David Ross, Ryan Dempster and Johnny Gomes all retiring after the end of this season, the Red Sox need to retool... big time. With the face of the franchise slot now open with Big Papi's departure, it was really cool to see Dustin Pedroia come back to Boston to lead the franchise into the sunset of his career.

Greedy CPU GMs....

[royals19]

OFFSEASON- PART 2 OF 3
Cookin' Grits

Every offseason, there's always an interesting storyline, heading back home to round out a solid career, a young player getting a massive contract that he deserves... this year however wasn't one of those feel good moments. It was star players slapping thier old teams in the face. There's nothing that grinds a team's gears more than when a former star heads to your bitter vial. Unfortunately, we ended up drawing one of the short straws as a result of this but first , let's head over to the wild, wild NL West and examine an important Arizona D-Backs signing.



Hanley Ramirez leaving LA to sign with Arizona might now sounds like a huge deal but it is. It was Hanley Ramirez who began the rebirth of Dodger Nation, it was Hanley Ramirez coming through in the clutch just about all the time, it was Hanley Ramirez who lead the Dodgers to their 2013 W.S. title. But for our purposes, it was Hanley Ramirez who lead the Dodgers to three straight wins over the D-Backs to get the Dodgers to the World Series.

If anything, this is one of baseball's most entertaining rivalries and Hanley Ramirez just threw more gas on the fire. It may be a good baseball decision to let Dee Gordon take over at short (although I doubt it). But that was an awful PR move, at the very least, he should've been brought back for one more year. Despite the Dodger's looking the baseball team version of Megatron, this makes the division interesting... If LA Faulters, then the D-Backs should be right there to take the lead.



Remember how we traded Billy Butler to Seattle in hopes that we'd only have to deal with him once every blue moon? Well that plan didn't work. You see, the Cleveland Indians... yes the F'n Indians pulled money out of their *** to bring Butler in...

That doesn't make me mad.... no it makes me furious that our bitter rival backs up the money truck to one of our former stars. This also shows the absolute lack of respect Butler has for our franchise. When Butler steps foot in Kauffman Stadium donning his new Cleveland Indians Uni, there's gonna be hell to pay. We might throw eggs at him... we might throw some ribs at him... hell, we'll probably throw his own BBQ sauce at him. He's not going to get away with this. If he thinks he's coming to KC to hit, then he's got another thing coming...

[TheNumber35]

Excellent! Another McGovern adventure to keep my sane during the year. I have been so frazzled that I haven't had the time to play the Show in weeks...hopefully things settle down enough for me to get some PT in soon.

On more relevant notes: Any plans for FA specifically? I see there's a couple quality arms available, and as you know: you can never have too much good pitching depth. Backup catcher is kind of an issue too, add in right field like you mentioned and there is potential for you to really make a splash without getting a big name guy. And please tell me Butler will be getting Matt Kemp treatment if he signs in the Central.

[lilbiggio]

Over/Under Billy Butler catches a fastball with his mouth on his return to Kaufmann.

Quote:

. If he thinks he's coming to KC to hit, then he's got another thing coming...

After this line, and with the precedent set in past years...I'm going with the over on this one...