Kansas City Royals: Six Years After Trading Zack Greinke

The 2009 Kansas City Royals Meltdown

Coco Crisp got hurt and ended up playing only 49 games due to a series of nagging injuries. Crisp later proved to be a useful cog in a number of solid Oakland A’s teams of the early 2010’s. The Royals discovered that Juan Cruz wanted to collect a paycheck rather than help the team win. American League pitchers learned to exploit the holes in Mike Jacobs’ swing. 2008 free-agent signee Jose Guillen tore up his knee while putting on a shin guard and only played in 81 games.

The Gil Meche Disaster

Then idiot manager Trey Hillman destroyed Gil Meche’s arm by allowing him to throw 132 pitches while winning a complete game on June 16. Meche had an impressive 3.31 ERA on that day. His next two starts, he complained of a sore arm and gave up 13 runs in 8.1 innings pitched. Hillman then let Meche throw 121 and 114 pitches in his next two starts.

Gil Meche, whom Moore had signed to the biggest contract in KC Royals history in 2007, was never again the same.

What had begun as a season of hope, crashed and burned into a 65-win disaster. The Royals then followed up their 2009 debacle with a 67-win sequel in 2010. That season saw Moore fire the incompetent Trey Hillman and hire Ned Yost as manager.