Also when it comes to the draft I think organizations should always draft the best talent regardless of system depth or positional need. Along those lines, picking between Aaron Crow and Grant Green, Crow was the right pick at the time.

But I have the same fears – it doesn’t look good for Gordon right now.

As for Aviles, the reason I see him as more of a placeholder is he was never much more than organizational depth until he came out of nowhere in 2008. He just turned 29 and only has one full season in the majors. Thirty isn’t far behind, and his skills aren’t going to get any better from that point. Defensively, he rated well in 2008, but it was unexpected based on his minor league numbers. He’s also coming back from major elbow surgery.

That being said, I’m rooting for him. I think he’s an exciting player and very likable from a fan’s perspective. And if he shows he can stay healthy all year and hit at that .270/12/65 range and play average or better defense, by all means, I’d like to see him here for a few more years. But best case for the Royals to contend is, let’s say, 2012 (and that’s probably very optimistic I hate to think). Aviles would probably be an important piece to that puzzle, but he’ll be surrounded by a bunch of 24-26 year-olds still figuring out how to play at the Major League level and by the time it comes together, his skills may have deteriorated with age. Similar to how Texas developed Elvis Andrus while they still had Michael Young, the Royals could use a skilled prospect who can come up and supplant the older starter. Jeff Bianchi may be the early choice for that role, but his injury history has to make the Royals concerned that he can even get to the big leagues in the first place.

So basically, yes, Aviles hitting at a league-average or better level, with any kind of decent defense should earn a long-term look, but I’m just not sure that he’ll be the best fit when the High-A/AA prospects start coming into town. A strong rebound in 2010 would convince me.

Man, I think Alex Gordon is all hype, and I REALLY hope I eat crow on this, but just look at his stats.
http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=460086
The guy can’t stay healthy, seems to make bone-headed errors (this is just my opinion, not sure there’s a sabermetric for “boneheaded” yet), and being the pitcher on Jon’s slow pitch team he mentioned in his bio, i’m pretty sure that if I sent him one that ended up low and away he’d still swing and miss. slow pitch softball. yea, I said it.

I’m new to the site and have barged right in with a few comments before reading through the history, so maybe there are some good arguments already on here that can convince me that Gordon has been more than just a bundle of hype living off of flashes of production in the midst of lots of mediocre play. But at this point I think he’s a huge disappointment and I don’t have much confidence he’s going to prove me wrong. Again, would love to eat crow on this, but I’d bet money he’s hurt again this season and continues to swing and wiff at every breaking ball away, and every too-high fast ball, that comes his way.

It would be AWESOME to see our lineup shake out with him as a solid contributor, I just don’t see anything yet to make me feel that’s likely to happen.

Separate note, I have this feeling of dread that the Royals will gamble with putting him in too early and he re-injures his elbow. That just sounds like something that would happen to this team. I sure hope I’m wrong.