KC Royals’ Dayton Moore: “You can’t have too much data”

The KC Royals’ front office staff is learning plenty of lessons during what’s been one of the strangest times in baseball’s history.

Although regular season baseball hasn’t been played this season, that doesn’t mean everyone gets time off work. KC Royals General Manager Dayton Moore is well aware of that, and he’s urging everyone to learn during this time away from on-field competition.

In an MLB.com video interview, Moore talked a bit about what lessons teams can learn while working from home offices and not being able to have everyone at the ballpark. As someone who’s been in his role since 2006, Moore’s established his legacy in Kansas City and is trusted with nearly any possible decision a GM could ever make. He knows about as well as any executive when it comes to how to run a team.

“Whatever we can learn from this experience — and apply — is going to be for the betterment of the game,” Moore said. “Whatever each organization is learning from this, whether they need fewer scouts or more scouts, more data or less data or whatever the case may be… I think there’s always a healthy blend of the two. I think you need both.”

A shortened 2020 MLB Draft is going to put added pressure on Moore to do well on all five of his picks and make smart undrafted free agent signings once he’s able to. He emphasized just how important the scouting process is and how background research and data collection go hand-in-hand in making good choices as a staff:

“We need as much data and information as we possibly can. And then, of course, we need as much background from our scouts on the player. Not only their habits, their makeup, but being able to watch them progress and evaluate their aptitude from the time they were 14 or 15 years old and, again, to know all of the family dynamics and structures that are in place… you can’t get to know a player too much.”

“It’s just a healthy blend of the two that puts you in a position to make an informed decision,” he finished the interview by saying. As the KC Royals enter a new era of baseball, their general manager knows there’s still plenty left for him to learn.