The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

[royals19]

"AND THAT'S IT FOLKS, THE CUBS WIN THE WORLD SERIES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 107 YEARS!!!"


George McGovern clicked off his TV and took a long puff on his cigar.

"The Cubs win the World Series... The f'n CUBS for crying out loud!"

As McGovern sat in complete darkness in his living room he thought back to the Royals past season; the collapse, the Dutton piece, Joe Maddon retiring, the firing of Andrew Friedman. The public speculation would fly until the Royals won another title. McGovern had no choice but to let it. The press and the population couldn't handle the truth; they couldn't handle the corruption facing them.

They can never know that it was The Trust that prompted the collapse, that Joe Maddon retired because he was too embarrassed to show his face in baseball again and that it was Andrew Friedman who held that gun to his face at Frank White's house.

Then he thought back to his promises, the promise he made to Austin Meadows at the All Star Game, the promise he made to Joe Maddon and the promises he made to the fans...

All lies...

McGovern chuckled as he thought of how shady and convoluted it all was. The Trust had come within inches of ruining him but he somehow held on. Now it was his turn, it was McGovern's turn to get his revenge. McGovern was going to bring the heat and he was going to show these country club cadets who the boss was.

He turned back on the television and watched as the Cubs were presented the World Series trophy. Next year it would be his team holding up the trophy, with not a damn thing anyone could do about it...

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

Letter from the Editor

Before we kick this chindig off, I would like to announce that this is likely the final adventure that George McGovern will be undertaking. It's certainly been a fun ride with McGovern manning the Padres and Royals front offices. I decided that it was time to hang up the Colonel Sanders doppelganger due to the fact that I was running out of storylines for the old man and his knack for messing up baseball teams was starting to grind my gears as well as others.

I've also decided that this will likely be my last season with the Royals. If you get too deep into Franchise mode then the teams start to get real strange and messed up. I've found through rolling with the Padres and Royals that I don't exactly have the patience to roll through 6 or 7 seasons to complete a rebuild (nor do I have the patience to develop a storyline for said franchise). In turn, that has been reflected in massive trade acquisitions and big free agent signings. I haven't had a real opportunity to build through my Farm System nor have I had a real opportunity to let my players develop themselves at the major league level.

With all that being said, I've also found that I prefer National League baseball compared to American League baseball so the next franchise I do will be with a National League team (which I have already decided upon). The next Franchise will follow the journey of the young Willie Singleton as he rises through the ranks of a Baseball Operations department. As an aside, there will be no crazy McGovern style rebuilds and the team will be fed by it's Farm System rather than through the trade market and free agency. The team I open with should change very little over the course of the franchise.

Hopefully everyone who still follows this will follow me as I make the switch at the end of this season.

-Regards

royals19

[ML]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

You get knocked out by the Mariners and the Cubs win the fall classic, proof is in the pudding that this season was a fluke!!!

On the other hand I'm real excited about Starling, he better not disappoint

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

You get knocked out by the Mariners and the Cubs win the fall classic, proof is in the pudding that this season was a fluke!!!

On the other hand I'm real excited about Starling, he better not disappoint

Last season was just awful all around, Jon Lester sucked, James Shields sucked... most of the hitters sucked. I figured we had it coming when we lost to the Mariners but when the Cubs won the World Series; that's when I flipped my boat. They finish under .500 every season then they win 93 games en route to a World Series win? I don't think so.

About Starling, I'm ready to finally give the hometown hero a shot. I've been waiting quite a while for this.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

THE OFFSEASON

Heading into the offseason, we had plenty of clear cut needs that we needed to sort through.

• Find a reliable starting pitcher.
• Find protection for Eric Hosmer
• Bring in a manager
• Bring in 3 other new coaches
• Scour the market for a DH

Finding coaches was no problem,



We were looking for a 3rd base coach, 1st base coach, pitching coach and of course, a new manager. Here's the Cliff Notes version of our Coaching Staff hirees.



1st Base- Larry Rothschild- The long time Yankee who got his *** handed to him by Pedro Martinez will join the staff as the first base coach on a 3 year deal.

3rd Base- John Farrell- After enjoying limited success as Manager of the Red Sox, Farrell will join the Royals as third base coach with the potential to eventually manage in KC.

Pitching Coach- Derek Lilliquist- The long time Cardinal pitching coach will join the Royals after the firing of Dave Eiland. As a student of the great Dave Duncan, Lilliquest will hopefully be able to get the Royals pitching staff back on track.

Manager- Jim Hickey




Jim Hickey joins the Royals after 2 seasons as the Astros hitting coach. Hickey was part of Joe Maddon's staff in Tampa as his pitching coach. With pitching being a big part of our game here in KC, we figured that it would be in our best interest to bring in someone very familiar with that part of the game.


Huh... that was easy... On to the Free Agents!

When George McGovern arrived in Orlando for the Winter Baseball meetings, this is what he was met with:


A stellar free agent class led by the best hitter on the planet. With Miguel Cabrera demanding 30 million annually, there was zero chance that we could sign him.

A little further down the list, actually just under Miguel Cabrera was the 5 tool star fresh out of Atlanta, Justin Upton. McGovern recognized that there was a prime opportunity here, while everyone was distracted with Miguel Cabrera, McGovern could real in a cost effective talent on the right side of 30... It was almost too easy.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

Left Field

Nearly as soon as Free Agency began, McGovern resigned Alex Gordon to a 3 year deal locking down left field.


What he meant to our organization and his irreplaceable defense made this a no brainier. Had his defense not been in decline, we would have looked at a 5 year deal but at this point with prospects readily available and Gordon and the decline, we figured that 3 more years of plus production was probably the most we were going to get out of Gordon.

Center Field

Later on in the offseason, we dealt Lorenzo Cain to Texas for Luis Sardinas (this years projected shortstop) in order to open up a roster spot for the one and only Bubba Starling.



Essentially from day one, it was a given that Bubba Starling was going to be rocking Carlos Beltran's old number 15 out in Center Field. The debut of Bubba Starling might be the most anticipated debut since Bo Jackson's, the kid hasn't even played an inning of big league ball so its unfair to compare him to Bo right now but at this point, one can't help but make those comparisons...

Right Field

Alright, here's where it gets juicy. After Colby Rasmus hit .215 with 28 homeruns, there was no way we were going to be able to put up with another season of that. One can only take so many strikeouts and so many roll over groundballs.

By letting the lefthanded Rasmus walk, we opened up right field to bring in someone who could protect Eric Hosmer. And as noted above, Justin Upton was our first choice. McGovern submitted an offer 4 years 23 million and sat back and waited...

We practically had Upton in the bag... or so we thought.

Then one day we decided to check and found that Upton was getting a 103 million dollar deal from the Blue Jays. !?!?!?

Then McGovern expanded his offer to 5 years 38 million which was the best we could do with so many players hitting arbitration. We got the vibe that he probably wasn't going to accept our low ball offer so we went to plan B and threw some quarters at Shane Victorino.



So we finally had right field locked down with Victorino. He wouldn't protect Hosmer much but still could upgrade the position defensively at a cheap cost.

So we were prepared to move on when we got a phone call from J-Up's agent.



He accepted our offer... ****

So that leaves us with the following bunch at the big league level

Alex Gordon
Bubba Starling
Domonic Brown
Shane Victorino
Justin Upton

As for what the Blue Jays did with the money, they threw it into a 9 year deal for Johnny Venters... just because they could.

Heck, looks like we're gonna have 5 outfielders on the roster this year. Crap.

[KBLover]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

Wow...he turned down 100 mil for $38 M?

Guess Venters should send J-Up a thank you card.

[AC]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

Wow...he turned down 100 mil for $38 M?

How long was the offer for, though? If it was super long term I kind of get it, Upton's only 28.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

The Upton signing couldn't have come at a better time. Three days later, Miguel Cabrera stunned the baseball world and headed to Philly on their lowball offer. For Philly, this is conceivably the last chance they have to bring a trophy to Philly for quite a while. Ryan Howard is getting old, Carlos Ruiz is getting old; everyone important on their team is getting old. This year, Philly is going all in.

******

So while Philly does their thing, we were going about finding another starting pitcher. We already have Shields, Lester, Lamb and groves of internal candidates. Had Shields and Lester been effective last year, we probably wouldn't be in the market for a starter. But unfortunately here we are.

Originally, we were gunning after Clay Buchholz but unfortunately, he accepted Milwaukee's own lowball offer over ours.

McGovern was demoralized and defeated until he scrolled down a little further and found a familiar face who was itching to get back on a playoff team...

That's right folks, I'm talking about:


Ervin f'n Santana. A couple years in San Fran and a year in Colorado defined Santana's tenure around the league after his departure from the Royals. Now he's back, presumably to take over as the number 2 starter.

It's great to have this kid back again.

******

For those keeping score, here's who we lost at the end of the day:

Nate Adcock
Brad Boxberger
Lorenzo Cain
Colby Rasmus
Alcides Escobar

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

Wow...he turned down 100 mil for $38 M?

Guess Venters should send J-Up a thank you card.

How long was the offer for, though? If it was super long term I kind of get it, Upton's only 28.

Yeah I'm trying to figure out why all these star players were taking low ball offers; it seems highly suspect.

The Jays were trying to give him 103 million over 7 years. But I'm not sure why he would decline that offer, the Blue Jays went to the World Series last year...

[KHarmo88]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

Did the Bucco's sign Price?

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

Did the Bucco's sign Price?

Unfortunately no, the Cubs swooped in and game him some big money to help them defend the title. If it makes you feel better, they did sign Chris Davis and Andrew Cashner.

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

So before we get to the regular season, we gotta deal with all this Spring Training stuff, this who makes the cut and who's mothballed nonsense starts to ware on you after a while.

Beginning with the rotation:

It's always the rotation that gives us fits, this who stays and who goes nonsense gets on my last nerve. Every year it seems like we got a million guys to choose from.

And McGovern was right. Tyler Matzek, by far our most advanced pitching prospect, finally gets a crack in the big league rotation. In turn, we were forced to option the struggling Yordano Ventura and lefties John Lamb and Chris Dwyer. Had we had the roster spots, Lamb more than likely would've been our long relief guy but unfortunately that just isn't how things go.

It's all about the options, if you have 'em left then you go down, if you don't, well you've just punched a ticket to the big leagues.

Coming in to camp, perhaps the biggest surprise was our third rounder from last year's draft.



Kenny Friedman came in and started blowing guys away with 100 MPH heat. Very rarely does a guy from last year's draft get a crack at the big leagues right away. He's got a massive, 6'4, 235 pound frame which further adds to his ability.

Unfortunately, Friedman didn't make the roster this year because we had other guys we couldn't afford to lose to waivers.

Back to the rotation,



Coming into camp, we weren't sure of what to expect from Ervin Santana, we weren't sure if he could repeat 2013 or if he was going to be a lost cause destined for the back of the rotation. As Spring Training went along though, it was evident that Santana had front of the rotation stuff.

We'll go ahead and slot Santana in as our #1 starter so that James Shields can start opening day and so that we can take some of the pressure off of him.

Hopefully this won't blow up in our faces.

And lastly, we had to address shortstop.



We came into shortstop with Luis Sardinas penciled in but after 3 or 4 starts it became apparent he wasn't ready. Rather than find another shortstop on the trade market, we're gonna go with the Journeyman Irving Falu to open the season.

As of now, we're hoping that we can find a viable shortstop option through waivers at the end of camp.

Spring Training Cliff Notes:

• Rookies Bubba Starling and Sam Selman will be the only 2 rookies featured on the Opening Day roster. Starling played all of last season in AAA and Selman played most of last season in Double with a small stint in A ball.
• Shane Victorino will be featured as the fourth outfielder. Domonic Brown will DH.
• Eric Hosmer will be protected by Justin Upton and Mike Moustakas this season.

[KHarmo88]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

Unfortunately no, the Cubs swooped in and game him some big money to help them defend the title. If it makes you feel better, they did sign Chris Davis and Andrew Cashner.

Are they actually playing well or deteriorating bums?

[royals19]

Re: The McGovern Manifesto- The Last Ride

To kick off the season, we flew up to Boston to partake in their Opening Day festivities. The more I play in this stadium, the more I like it. It's always been high on my list but now it's probably my favorite place to play other than Kauffman.



We were already to rock and roll and to get this season underway. It was Ervin Santana vs. Felix Dubront; a matchup we fully expected to win.

But dang it, the umpires would have it differently, strike calls were absurd, players were being called out when they were remarkably safe on stolen bases...

The crown jewel though was when Trevor Story got in a rundown between 1st and 2nd.



It looked as though Trevor Story was going to be safe, then Dustin Pedroia got in the baseline and obstructed Story. Ray Nieto threw to Xander and they tagged him out, crushing our rally.

Luckily, there was the debut of Bubba Starling to offset the poor officiating.



In his first AB, he grounded out to second but in his second AB, he managed to triple into the right field corner and received a good 'ol fashioned Fenway booing. We could've started Elliot Johnson this series so Bubba wouldn't have to face the Red Sox at Fenway in his debut.

The opportunity to debut in such a special place was too hard to pass up though and the kid handled it with relative ease.



The Sox got to Santana early but they were no match for their own errors. Eric Hosmer doubled and tied up the game and we were attempting to bunt him over with Salvy, Red Sox fielded the ball and threw it into the stand giving us the go ahead run.

Heck of a way to win but we'll take it.