J.P. and Dayton

What follows was written in Baseball America a few weeks ago about a MLB GM.  Reading it caused me to immediately formulate a connection between that GM and Royals’ GM Dayton Moore.

"He created a paranoia that included having aides lobby newspaper publishers to fire writers who questioned his decision-making ability.  “In the last few years he became extremely thin-skinned,” [Blank] said.  “At first, he met expectation, got the team by with limited payroll.  As the payroll went up … he didn’t do any better with more money, than he did with less.”"

The above was written by Tracy Ringolsby about former Toronto GM, J.P. Riccardi.  The source of the quotes was Paul Godfrey who was the president of the Blue Jays at the time that J.P. was hired.

What struck me about the above, is that it could have just as easily been Royals GM Dayton Moore, and not Riccardi, who was the subject.  From the poor trades, bad contracts, thin skin, and sheer arrogance we see the Dayton has a lot in common with the Jays former GM.

The separating factor between the two, outside of the actual payrolls of their teams, is that Riccardi took over a team who was traditionally strong in the June draft and ran that tradition into the ground.  Moore took over an organization who was traditionally weak in the June draft and appears to have improved things a bit.

Dayton isn’t as far gone as J.P., but he is following the same path, and that worries me more than anything about this team.

Pardon the brevity of my post tonight.  I just got done watching Alabama absolutely thump the Gators.  I am now settled in with my friends, in front of the big screen, to take in the Nebraska-Texas game.   Some beverages will be consumed, many already have been, and a good time will be had by all.  Since I don’t have a dog in the fight, with a die-hard Husker fan and a die-hard Longhorn fan, this will be a win win for me.  Of course I wouldn’t mind watching Colt McCoy cry after a loss, just like Tim Tebow.  That was a thing of beauty.