DUGOUT: Royals plagued with bad luck

The Kansas City Royals have long been the doormat of professional baseball.

Opposing teams love road trips through Kansas City because of the great attractions in the town, as well as the easy competition on the baseball diamond. It was almost considered a vacation from their regular schedule.

The Royals have lost 669 games since 2002, not including this year. Compared to the Los Angeles Angels, who have lost just 488, the Royals are considered by many as a “Quadruple A” team — too good for minor league competition but not up to par against other major league teams.

In 2007, the Royals finished dead last in their division, a place they have become very familiar with in the past few years. General manager Dayton Moore was relatively new on the job, but was fortunate to have the massive $55 million contract of Mike Sweeney leaving town at the end of the season. With a large chunk of change to work with, Moore set out to make the Royals better and hopefully competitive in the AL Central.

The first thing the Royals did was spend $12 million on outfielder Jose Guillen, who they hoped would provide a powerful bat in the middle of the Royal’s lineup. Moore then traded for a promising young second baseman in Alberto Callaspo, whose incredible bat control impressed the Royals even if he wasn’t the greatest hitter. After a $2 million signing of catcher Miguel Olivo, the Royals seemed ready to take on the world — especially if prized minor league prospect Alex Gordon could fulfill those “next George Brett” expectations.

They had acquired three of the best players available at their respective positions. Other teams have access to a much larger checkbook, but the Royals managed to drastically improve their team, at least on paper, for a mere $15 million.

Somehow, the Royals managed to score 15 less runs than the year before. They managed to win six more games, but were still one game away from the basement of their division.

How was that possible? The Royals spent $15 million that year on talent, yet couldn’t even match their 2007 run total. They had been the beneficiaries of a superb season from rookie Mike Aviles, who finished fourth in Rookie-of-the-Year voting.

Disappointed but not defeated, Moore set out once again to make his team better. They first worked out a trade with the Boston Red Sox to get Coco Crisp, who would be their leadoff hitter and hopefully provide a steadying veteran presence. Moore also managed to acquire first baseman Mike Jacobs and utility-man Willie Bloomquist for relatively inexpensive prices. The Royals also fired their hitting coach in favor of a new one.

When the 2009 season started, Jacobs was such a poor defensive first-baseman that he was moved to the designated hitter position. He wasn’t much better offensively. The Royals can’t afford to eat his contract by cutting him, so however poorly he plays this season, he will still find himself in the lineup nearly every night.

Through June of this year, the Royals were on pace to score 34 fewer runs than 2008, which is a total of 49 runs less than 2007. So even with star pitcher Zack Greinke making a push for the Cy Young award, Kansas City has been unable to generate enough runs to remain competitive on those four games between Greinke starts.

What was going on with this team’s offense? Players were going down with injuries left and right — especially Gordon. Crisp and Aviles both need surgery and may miss the rest of the season.

All-Star closer Joakim Soria is still struggling with an on-going arm injury and is one setback away from the disabled list.

As for the guys who are healthy, let’s just say they’re not holding up their end of the bargain. In addition, there isn’t a worse baserunning team in baseball.

It seemed that every move the Royals made ended in disaster. It appears that only Bloomquist’s acquisition has paid off for the Royals. Like many teams in Major League Baseball, the Royals are forced to survive off a minimal payroll and find they pass on the big-name talent while going after young, unproven players such as Callaspo.

Moore has done a lot to make this team better, taking many risks. He is handcuffed, however, when it comes to injuries and poor management, which many Royal’s fans complain about. Considering that nearly every acquisition Moore made ended with unexpected results, it seems the Royals are simply doomed to another decade at the bottom of the AL Central.

Though he has struck out twice, and the 2009 season appears to be no different, Moore has done an outstanding job of bringing in the best available players within his limited budget.

Although the results haven’t been the best, there is no doubt that Moore will try once again to field the best team possible. Whether it works out or not doesn’t appear to be up to him.

While the Kansas City Royals have been among the most inept franchises in professional sports this past decade, the team’s fans are lucky to have the best sports columnist in the business covering them. Go to www.kansascitystar.com to read Joe Posnanski’s columns if you want a wonderful, in-depth look at the Royals’ struggles — or if you just appreciate top-notch writing. More of Posnanski’s work can be found at joeposnanski.com. I can’t recommend his work highly enough.

Andrew Kneeland will be a junior at the Arizona Virtual Academy. He is an intern at the Green Valley News.