The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

[royals19]

Howdy, folks... It's been quite a while since we've heard from George McGovern and the boys in blue hasn't it? According to my calendar, it's been exactly one month since I was exiled from my PS3 to the Vita and I must say, I'm looking forward not having to determine balls and strikes on a 4.5x2.5 inch screen.

Before we get back to McGovern's crazy antics and the ball games, I might as refresh you're memory on what all has transpired this season.



Fresh off of our Wild Card berth and a loss at the hands of the rival Detroit Tigers, we entered the offseason with a purpose and signed James Shields to a 4 year deal and Jon Lester to a crazy 6 year deal as well as the firing of Ned Yost and his replacement with Joe Maddon... Fastforward to Spring Training and things seemed to be looking up, Hosmer and Moose were tearing the cover off the ball and Domonic Brown was looking like the second coming of Bo Jackson...

Unfortunately though, things began to fall apart right from the get go, losing streaks, Hosmer and Moose not producing and eventually ending up in the minors, Bullpen issues, Rotation issues... It was the whole 9 yards, everything that could've gone wrong did go wrong.

Off the field, a group simply known as "The Trust" was working diligently to displace George McGovern from his Presidential role and even went as far as a botched kidnapping attempt of Jeremy Guthrie that resulted in Ned Yost waking up on a pacific island.


Things are starting to get extremely hairy as we make our way to the trade deadline. The Royals fall from baseball's most promising team to a team 3 games above .500 is almost, almost 2012 Boston Red soxish.

At this point in the season, we're no where close to being finished. We've still got quite a few questions to answer like:

• Billy Butler is in the last year of his contract, will the Royals trade him?
• Who is this "Trust" that we heard from this season?
• When will we see guys like Kyle Zimmer, Yordano Ventura and others?
• Can the Royals stage an incredible comeback to make the postseason?
• Where is Austin Meadows at?
  

With a brand new PS3 that so slim, it makes the old one look like a toaster, we're ready to rock and roll here in the second half.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

An elderly man sat at the head of the table, on each side of the table sat 5 men... They were a distinguished bunch... people that could easily be identified by the everyday American...

The man at the head of the table sat reading the day's newspaper and the other's sat quietly and waited until he was finished.

Haha... he thinks that he's got us off his trail now. He traded Guthrie to Milwaukee.

The room was filled with an assortment of laughs.

George should've known better... We stole the team from under his nose back in '94... what in the hell makes him think he can get away with it this time?

Indeed, Mr. McGovern was always a crafty son of *****...

Does he know that it's us? This could further compound the issue.

That's highly unlikely, he didn't know it was us the first time. Last time we were able to downright steal the team from under his nose... This time, it's not going to be as easy... things will happen and people will disappear.

So you're absolutely sure he doesn't know it's us?

Yes, we're 100% sure that he do...

All of a sudden, the phone sitting on the middle of their table began to ring... The men all looked at each other and then looked at their leader. He stood up to answer the phone.

Yeah, who is it?

Bobby, I know it's you and I'm coming to kick your *** you sorry sack of ****.

Then, the line went dead... McGovern had hung up.

He knows... he knows it us. I don't know how but he knows.

There was obviously some panic among the wary faces of "Bobby's" Fellow comrades...

Don't worry my friends... this just speeds up our timetable...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

TRADE DEADLINE 2014

So with the PS3 back in action, it's down to business. This is my favorite time of the regular season... It's almost like Christmas in July. I've always liked making a splash or two at the deadline but I've noticed that it quickly gets out of hand if you stay here too long so it's best to get this done quickly.

We're one big piece away from making things interesting here down the stretch

Couldn't have said it better myself George. We're 9.5 outta the division and we're 5 games back in the Wild Card and there are so many questions to answer. This is one of those times where you can't stay pat if you want to be a legit contender. We might have to make a move just to make one to show the league that we're in...

Here's the thing though, we don't have to go all in this season, we're still young enough that we will be competing in future years. However, we won the Wild Card last year and anything less than a playoff berth is a step backwards.

This year's trade market has to have been one of the best I've seen. A lot of teams that thought they were going to be contending aren't and are selling off their talent in groves. We've got a log jammed farm system so everything is ripe for the pickins'.

We're also at a cross roads... Billy Butler is going to be a free agent at the end of this season. Alex Gordon will be a free agent next season. We're essentially facing the same dilemma that the Cardinals did with Albert Pujols. We could resign Butler who's asking price is going to be 13M + or we could invest that money into Alex Gordon and others. Billy Butler is big here but he's replaceable... designated hitters come a dime a dozen. Outfielders like Alex Gordon though, they just don't grow on trees.

So theoretically, we could trade Billy Butler and some others for another impact player that's more controllable and is at a premium position.



On top of that, we'd also like to part with Bonifacio and Cashner, each making 2 million. Cashner is probably worth that 2 million but Bonifacio... no freakin way. If we can trade them and free up that money then we could put it towards a player we get in a trade.

We'd ideally like to add a pitcher to go with Shields and Lester to give us something of a Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz of our own because of our inability to get any production from our 3-5 starters, of which we have seen 7 different pitchers start in that roll according to my notes.

Maybe we go after David Price since Tampa's out of it by a long shot or... Maybe we go after reigning Cy Young Tommy Milone since he's having a down to earth year. I don't really know at this point but we're willing to go big or go home this deadline with 1 move.

[Bluejaysfan65]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

Nice to see you back Royals! An interesting start. It'd be so sick to have a rotation of Price, Shields and Lester.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

I like Price and Milone in theory, but if you are dumping salary (Butler), you can kiss that idea goodbye.

However, you could probably use Cashner to get Milone.

If you want Country Breakfast to be the main course in your deal, you'd want to look at some high rolling [AL] teams who are competing, but maybe have a need at DH and an intriguing pitcher (or 3) on the outside of the 5-man rotation looking in. Ahem...Baltimore Orioles...ahem.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

Nice to see you back Royals! An interesting start. It'd be so sick to have a rotation of Price, Shields and Lester.

Yeah that would give me a clear edge against Detroit but trying to find the money to pay for Price is another thing. I've got to trade Billy Butler if I want to make that happen. I'm not sure if trading a .300 hitter with 30+ homeruns for David Price is really an upgrade though.

I like Price and Milone in theory, but if you are dumping salary (Butler), you can kiss that idea goodbye.

However, you could probably use Cashner to get Milone.

If you want Country Breakfast to be the main course in your deal, you'd want to look at some high rolling [AL] teams who are competing, but maybe have a need at DH and an intriguing pitcher (or 3) on the outside of the 5-man rotation looking in. Ahem...Baltimore Orioles...ahem.

I like the idea. Oakland could capitalize on Milone's value and get Cashner back.

As for trading Butler, I like that as well. But wait, what team am I supposed to look at again? :wink:

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

THE BILLY BUTLER DEBACLE pt. 1

Alright... My bad folks for leavin' you hanging like that... I should've known better. If you've ever played any of the "Uncharted" games then you'll understand why I was away for so long. That's probably the second best game on PS3 (aside from the Show)...

But enough of my treasure hunting escapades, let's head on out to BP and listen in on a conversation between Billy Butler and George Brett.

What the hell Billy? You couldn't even get the ball outta the infield.

Don't push me George... I'm sick of this crap...

What crap?

This... Billy beckons to the stadium... What are we really trying to do here? I think Dayton and McGovern are lying through their teeth. We can't win with these fools... they've got no talent... heck just about everybody's been in AAA at some point this season. What are they even doing here?

Why are they here? Why are they here!? You look at each and everyone of them... They understand they can't get by talent alone! They're here because they're on their grind everyday. Every. Single. Day. Moose showed up to the ball park today at 7 ready to get his work in at the cage. I saw Escobar here at 4 A.M. on the field taking groundballs. Hell, I even saw the bullpen guys hitting the weights before I left last night at 2 A.M. They're here because they want this bad and will buy into what we're doing here.

Look, I'm sick of this... we're 5 games back in the Wild Card. 9.5 in the division. With this rag tag band of "ball players" we're kidding ourselves if we think we can make the playoffs. Especially with teams like Detroit and Cleveland in the division.

... If Bo Jackson was here, he'd be ashamed that you've ever put on the number 16.

Man whatever, man... I'm out.

Butler stormed off the field and down the dugout stairs towards the clubhouse. George was angry... no... he was p*****. Billy Butler was the original Royal, a legit MVP threat and now he had officially worn out his welcome with the Royals.

George Brett stood at the back of the cage and watched Chris Denorfia get his hacks in. However, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. An elderly gentleman wearing a white suit sat in the seats behind the Royals dugout. When George looked back no more than 30 seconds later, he was gone...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

THE BILLY BUTLER DEBACLE pt. 2

George McGovern sat in the Manager's office with Joe Maddon, Dayton Moore and Andrew Friedman. They were all going over what to do at this year's deadline. Detroit was nearly untouchable at this point... The Wild Card was however, within reach

We can't just sit here and do nothing guys... We've got to make a move.

I agree... I need arms bad. Shieldsy and big Jon have been my only legit rotation guys this year.

... Let's trade for Stanton!

Umm.... How about no. Before we get stupid crazy with the trades, Joe you said you need arms. I think we could get a front of the rotation type arm for either Billy Butler or Alex Gordon.

So we're at a cross roads... aren't we? There's only room for one face of the franchise. I figured this day would come.

Exactly... but here's the thing. We're in a double bind. We trade Butler, we lose his bat which will be hard to replace at this stage of the season. We trade Gordo then we run the risk of losing both players, you know with Butler leaving at the end of the season.

If we stand pat, then it doesn't look good going into the rest of the season.

Drew, if I may add. I would rather you trade Billy Butler instead of Gordo. Butler is becoming a pain in the *** down here. Just today I had to break up a fight between him and Tim Collins. He isn't a ball player, he's just a talented guy.

You know baseball players are gritty, play hard and make things happen. Look at what Boston did in 2012, they tore down their ball club and got guys the will compete and live for this... That's what we need.

In my own opinion, Gordon is the model Royals player. He's smart, he plays hard, works hard... he's a grinder and that's what we need. We need guys that'll grind and Billy Butler, despite his talent simply refuses to grind.

I agree. Billy is becoming extremely expensive and our projections have him at like 15 million annually... we don't have that type of cash. Gordon is under contract for one more year and guys like him don't just come along every draft...

What do you think Mr. McGovern?

McGovern sat in his chair. This was the biggest move of his Presidential career... he was going to alter the course of this franchise for potentially years... This crossroads will easily define the franchise for the next 5 years.

Make it happen...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

THE BILLY BUTLER DEBACLE pt. 3

After Billy Butler decided that he didn't want to play for the Royals any more and after the Front Office decided that they weren't gonna put up with Billy's crap any more, it was safe to say that Billy's time in the Royal Blue was limited.

We didn't want it to go down like this. Dayton didn't want a repeat of the Greinke situation a few years back, Friedman didn't want to have to clean up McGovern mess and McGovern didn't want Butler to do something stupid and bring the national spotlight upon him.

******

The Royals were playing at Oakland on July 30th, the day before the deadline. The game was scheduled the start at 6:10 and everybody, except Billy Butler, were holding their breath waiting for the moment when he'd get the call and be on his way.

However, 6:10 came and went and Billy Butler found himself in the starting lineup... for hopefully the last time. All night, Joe Maddon stood close to the phone, visibly impatient. Butler sat at the far end of the dugout, by himself, ready to get the heck out of Dodge.

In the 8th inning, thoughts were swirling around Joe Maddon's head. "Maybe they won't find a deal tonight..." ".... I hope they find one before tomorrow..." Finally the phone began to ring and everybody stopped what they were doing and looked at Joe. Joe in turn looked at George Brett and it seemed as though time had stopped. Finally came back to reality and picked up the phone.

Hello?

Hey Billy said he wanted to be traded to a contender right? A sure fire contender?

Yes sir.

Good, pull him out of the game and tell him to get to the airport. His chauffeur will hand him his train ticket.

Well where's he going?

McGovern sat in his suit enjoying a nice basket of chicken tenders... watching Baseball Tonight and tried his best to hold back a smile.

Well, he'll just have to find out when he gets there.

******

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

McGovern sat in his suit enjoying a nice basket of chicken tenders... watching Baseball Tonight and tried his best to hold back a smile.

Maybe washing that down with a nice adult beverage?

Man, Seattle can't get enough DH's on their team, haha.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

Maybe washing that down with a nice adult beverage?

Man, Seattle can't get enough DH's on their team, haha.

Haha... Maybe! McGovern loves his ice tea though... can't get enough of that.

Well Seattle had sent Kendrys Morales to the White Sox to replace Paul Konerko who signed with Milwaukee in the offseason. But that still doesn't change the fact that they're loaded down with bat first guys.

******

So we sent Billy Butler to Seattle... haha... serves him right. If McGovern had his way he'd be off to Siberia but it's not a very sound business decision to dump 9.2 million into the steppes of Russia. Any way, Billy Butler shouldn't have bad mouthed his way outta here. Maybe he could've been sitting in Baltimore or Boston in the thick of a pennett race. Instead, he's now in Seattle where it rains all day, (no offense ) and not in a good way.

Regardless... we needed to get something. Something big preferably... Billy Butler is a legit player... arguably the best DH in the American League. We ain't giving him up for a bag of peanuts or a cookie. This isn't A-Rod... this is Billy freakin' Butler.

But don't worry, we didn't get cheated... no, no far from it. We got something. Somewhere on a beach in Jacksonville, Florida somebody's being informed that they've been traded to the Royals...


This isn't one of those "fake" guys we're gonna try to pass through as a legit ball player. This is a legit talent... this kid is gonna be good. He's like a young Doc Gooden without the baggage. He's got the potential to be one of the best pitchers to ever play the game of baseball. Equipped with a blazing fastball, hammer curve and a dominating mound presence, this dude is gonna be a huge cog here in KC for years to come...

I said many a time how we've wanted to create our own Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz trio. We've got our Maddux in Shields, our Glavine in Lester and now, we've got that missing piece...

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you:


I'm tellin' you... we got max value for Billy Butler here. We're not gonna just rush this kid to the big leagues. We'll ship him to Omaha so we can get a feel for what type of pitcher he is. It's not that often that you have the unique opportunity to acquire potentially baseball's best pitching prospect realistically. In Taijuan, we're getting an electric arm that will have front end potential but is going to be our #3 guy. Looking at what our rotation could be down the stretch, it's easily one of baseball's most electric staffs.

1. James Shields
2. Jon Lester
3. Yordano Ventura
4. Andrew Cashner
5. Taijuan Walker

Everyone has the potential to touch the mid to high 90s with a wicked secondary pitch.

Taijuan's career route has also been very reminiscent of Smoltz's. Smoltz's career stalled with Detroit and he was traded to the Braves. Taijuan was in AAA just prior to today and his career with Seattle was stalled. The skill sets are similar at this stage in the game maybe with Taijuan a little more confident in his ability.

Oh yeah, and with every Batman you get, there's gotta be a Robin... so we got Victor Sanchez, a 19 year old arm who's struggling in AAA with the walks... big time. 35 walks compared to 34 strikeouts. At 19, we don't have to rush him and it takes some of the pressure off of us to get an impact arm in our AAA rotation that we'll have there for the foreseeable future.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

So after the Billy Butler trade, we get to wrap up our series with Oakland. To keep it short and sweet, love the ball club, hate the stadium... I'm sorry but it's just not a place I'd like to spend 81 days of my life in... no sir.

For whatever reason, Oakland decided they were gonna Johnny whole staff it today and started Jerry Blevins...



With Jon Lester on the bump today... it was virtual checkmate. Come to think of it, I can't think of any game where Lester hasn't gone out to the mound and we feel overmatched. Sure, a 6 year 30 million dollar contract wasn't our best idea... but hey, we've got no regrets this far. We're short on lefthanded pitching in our system. Most of it is stashed either in the bullpen or the lower minors with the exception of John Lamb and Chris Dwyer neither of which have Lester's potential.

Any way, Jon Lester came outta the gates firing and was racking up the strikeouts and getting quick outs. All of our pitchers work by the "On or out in 3" philosophy and it's paid dividends thus far. Last season, I figured we were trying to hard to set hitters up and this time around we're going right after them and everybody is dealing.



Don't get me wrong, just because Oakland's pitching sucks doesn't mean they're hitters aren't any good. They're a real good on base team and Lester was able to keep them off the base paths for the most part by just attacking hitters.

At this point, the James Shields-Jon Lester 1-2 punch might be the best in all of baseball... I know it's a stretch but not many teams can hit you with a tough righty and then come right back with a tough lefty.

But here's the real kicker from today's game:



The Royals WENT OFF tonight... it wasn't even close. I was secretly hoping we'd get a blow out tonight because we needed to show baseball that we could live without Billy Butler and this proved it. I think that with Domonic Brown coming back, the emergence of David Lough combined with what we're getting from guys off the bench. We might be able to make a serious run at the playoffs this season.

We're 8 or 9 games behind Detroit in the division and 5 out of the wild card. Our next 3 series are as follows:

Detroit @ KC-4 Games
KC @ Texas-3 Games
KC @ Detroit-3 Games

It's hard to whittle a 162 game season down to a win or lose it all situation but if there ever was one, this is it...

[AC]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

Great to see you make that Butler trade, and that's an epic Walker graphic. Great series of posts all around.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2

Great to see you make that Butler trade, and that's an epic Walker graphic. Great series of posts all around.

Thanks dude, I don't really remember how I made that first one. I think that it was more of an accident than anything. I was trying to throw a bunch of effects together to get some special together for the trade. Also appreciated the help dude, thanks.

It's been too long... too long my friends. I can't just leave you guys on the edge of your seat right before we head into the "Ride or Die" stage of the season... My most sincerest apologies. ..

I'll be honest, that graphic above looks like "Pirates of the Caribbean-End of the World" with that Green haze hanging over the K. It's menacing... and rightfully so, our entire season rides on these next 3 series.

We've got Detroit in town for 4 games and we need to annihilate them. They come in with a 9.5 game lead over us in the division but we play 7 games against them in the next two weeks so gaining ground in the division isn't too terribly unrealistic.



Detroit has arguably the best pitching staff in the American League... I'm not going to sit here and BS you about how James Shields, Jon Lester and a bunch of rag tag rookies and vets is better than a premium rotation of Verlander, Scherzer, Fister, Scott Baker and Rick Porcello.

We can hold our own, we're steady... heck you could call our rotation " 'Ol Reliable" because they usually get the job done.

So despite Detroit having the rock star rotation, luck would be on our side tonight as Wade Davis makes his return to the rotation after a bullpen stint.

Oh yeah, and he had help from another key cog making his big return...



Domonic F'n Brown The Total Package!!! He's back! Tonight, he emerged from the cornfields of Omaha, Nebraska to stick it to Detroit with 2 homeruns... One hit INTO the Rival's sport's bar in right field and another into the fountains there in right field. We've got Domonic Brown DHing for us for the forseeable future with David Lough manning down a solid right field.

Now that we have Bo Jackson... err Domonic Brown back in the lineup, things are looking up. We have all of our key guys back and this is the team that we'll win or lose with.



Boom, Wade Davis gives us 7 strong, Tim Collins throws a scoreless 8th and 9th and before you know it, we're celebrating with a tall glass of ice tea.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation- Part 2



Haha... It doesn't get much better than this ladies and gents. Playing arguably your most bitter rival in the postseason stretch. Nothing beats it. The Twins have all the trouble makers and the only dude missing is A-Rod... hey, there's an idea.

But before I dive off the deep end and start with the wacky "send A-Rod to Minnesota to fuel the rivalry" type trades... we'd better get to the game.

Prior to the game we lost Bonifacio until the end of the year so we recalled Trevor Story to get some ABs and more big league experience. He's one of our most advanced top prospects so it'll do him good to get more ABs up here. We gave Esky the night off and started Story in his place... I mean, why not? He needs to get a little taste of the rivalry!



And that he did... See earlier in the game, Moose hit a shot off Pelfry that went into the upperdeck just below that Twin's sign out there. It might've been the bat flip... it might have been how he admired it. I don't know; but what I do know is that Pelfry didn't like it and tried to take it out on Story.

The poor kid was visbly stirred but he got back in there and drew a walk... he'll probably get nightmares... but that might not be a bad thing.



We OBLITERATED the Twins... it wasn't even close, Rookie Chris Dwyer threw one of his best games yet and Jed Lowrie hit 2 homeruns in route to our blow out win over Minnesota.

You'll notice the Lowrie bat flip but for the record Minnesota didn't retaliate because it's hard to have that leverage when you're getting the crap kicked out of you...