Bloomquist To KC

Dave · January 9, 2009 at 10:52 am · Filed Under Mariners 

And Willie officially says goodbye. He got 2 years, $3 million from the Royals. Good for him. Good for the M’s not matching.

Imagine being a Kansas City fan this winter. Your team has now spent $11.5 million of the 2009 budget to acquire Kyle Farnsworth, Mike Jacobs, Horacio Ramirez, and Willie Bloomquist. That’s a replacement level reliever, a replacement level first baseman, a replacement level reliever, and a replacement level utility player. Even if you give them extremely optimistic forecasts, you’re looking at something like +1 win over what it could have cost to grab guys for the league minimum.

The Royals have spent about $11 million on free agents, and they might not even get one win out of it. Toss in Jose Guillen’s big salary from last year to be slightly above replacement level, and the Royals are tossing about $25 million down the drain. Nice job, fellas.

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60 Responses to “Bloomquist To KC”

  1. Lifelong_Fan on January 10th, 2009 9:10 am

    The comments on some of the local news sites are hilarious with people defending Willie. The KOMO article is here for some enjoyable comment reading:

    Willie Article at KOMO

  2. G-Man on January 10th, 2009 9:50 am

    I guarantee that the M’s will be marketing that Royals series in Seattle as “your chance to see Willie Bloomquist’s return to Seattle”.

    I’m a bit surprised that Willie didn’t end up in the National League. His multipositionness has double switch written all over it.

    I am still searching for a reason that Scott Boras represents him. I suppose there are other pedestrian players in Scott’s entourage, but I sure don’t know of any.

    However, the really shocking thing to me is that the Royals will pay Horacio Ramirez $1.8 million to suck this year.

  3. the other benno on January 10th, 2009 9:59 am

    ah, for the days of Rob & Rany.

    Here’s Rany’s take.

    Rany on the Royals

  4. joser on January 10th, 2009 11:42 am

    Firstly, I’ll be surprised of the Royals don’t end up with a better record than the M’s this season.

    I don’t know about that. By Pythag the Royals overachieved last year (75 wins vs predicted 72) whereas the M’s underachieved (61 wins vs predicted 67). So far this offseason the M’s have significantly improved (one of their biggest liabilities — outfield defense) and the Royals really haven’t; meanwhile the Angels, who really beat up the M’s last season, have actually gotten weaker, while none of KC’s in-division bête noires (everybody except Detroit) have. Of course the offseason is far from finished, but as it stands at the moment I could see the M’s easily making up that 5 game difference. I’m not as enthusiastic as some people around here looking for the M’s to contend — I think .500 is a fine target to shoot for, and might actually be a stretch — but I would be surprised in 2009 if they didn’t outperform even a Williefied Royals team.

  5. JJD on January 10th, 2009 12:16 pm

    I’m a bit surprised that Willie didn’t end up in the National League. His multipositionness has double switch written all over it.

    I wonder if the Cubs put out any feelers to reunite Lou and WFB. Having said all that, a two-year deal AND an alleged chance to start would seem to good to pass up under any circumstances.

    And, GOOD for WFB. The guy never did anything off the field to bring attention to himself, and I hope he has a nice run as KC’s 2B. For all the grief he gets (and I give it, too) I hope the guy has success.

  6. Breadbaker on January 10th, 2009 2:39 pm

    Interestingly, Marcel projects Willie with four home runs in 2009. Given his career total of six home runs in 1389 PA, that’s an unexpected number (James projects 1, Chone a generous 2). They all project a guy who had exactly one XBH in 2008 to have between 11 and 14 in 2008.

    I’ll be taking the under, though as Bill Simmons might lament, you can’t find anywhere to lay a bet on things like this.

  7. ty5oke on January 10th, 2009 2:48 pm

    Why is there so much hate towards a guy who has a .327 AVG .462 OBP with 10 SB the last 2.5 months he played in last year. He doesn’t need power, if he can steal second(successful 81% in his career). If he plays everyday, I see no reason he can’t have 40 SB.

  8. Mayberry RFD on January 10th, 2009 3:33 pm

    I’m not necessarily looking forward to Willie putting together a couple flukey good months (before reverting to the mean, of course) with the local beat writers writing dozens of articles talking about how stupid we were to let him go.

  9. Johnny Slick on January 11th, 2009 8:45 pm

    Okay, far be it for me to defend Dayton Moore (although this is the official weekend wherein I defend bad GMs, apparently) but this really isn’t a big deal at all. Is Moore dumb for signing WFB and Horacio Ramirez and Kyle Farnsworth and Mike Jacobs (in the latter case, no, because if Jacobs can work the same magic with this club that he did with Mike Tyson in the 1980s, the Royals are going to KO the AL Central)? Yes, yes he is. Could they have packaged all that stupid money to get a guy who could actually help the team? Sure. Nonetheless, $11M is not a lot of money in today’s environment, even with a team with a highly limited budget like the Royals. I have friends who are Royals fans who think the team could win 80 games this year, which I guess could almost put them in playoff contention in that division, but it’s not a really great chance I don’t think.

    However, it will be nice to see WFB out of here. Of course, the Mariners will just need to bring in another backup middle infielder, who will likely be white gritty and full of clutch, and all of us will be crying from the safety of our mothers’ basements about how well-loved he is by the Seattle sports media. It’s just the way of things.

  10. BobbyAyalaFan4Life on January 12th, 2009 8:18 am

    That komo article is classic. My favorite comment so far:

    “Once again Seattle sports “experts” prove their idiocy by letting the best value player in the franchise slip away – good luck in KC Willie! Hope you get your ring as a Royal! “

    Best value player in the franchise!?!?!?! I almost sent hot chocolate flying out my nose!
    Another classic:

    “So when the Royals get him and play him on a regular basis then tell me that he is not so great and that his bat doesn’t show up because he is the real deal and if given the opportunity to be a full time player he will surprise many of you that don’t know your butt from a hot rock. And, for those that know, Willie was part of one of the greatest South Kitsap Baseball teams of all times. Do some homework before you spout off about a great player and a true sportsman from right here in Washington.”

    I didn’t realize being from Washington meant a lifetime contract with the Ms…

    Aaron M.

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