Quote:
Originally Posted by gblowfish
This morning driving in 610 was playing one of the Royals commercials trying to get everybody jazzed up about the All Star Game. They had Sweeney doing the commercial. He said his time in KC was "A Magical Time" and that he was thrilled to be an all star, yap yap yap.
A Magical Time.
Yeah Mike. I'm sure it was magic for you.
I know a lot of Royals fans just love Mike Sweeney. Yeah, he's a super nice guy. Great person, big smile, friendly, yep yep yep. He's also the biggest white elephant investment the Royals ever made. I was also there during those times. Not so magical.
In Sweeney's 12 years with the Royals they had a winning record once, in 2003. The Royals paid Sweeney over $71 million in his Royals career, they chose him out of that group of young players to be the main man, and had to let Damon, Dye and Beltran go (for lack of funds), in good part to Sweeney's bloated $11 mill per year five year salary, which they paid out from 2003 to 2007. In 2006, Sweeney was on the DL so much, they ended up paying him over $183,000 per game. He was the offensive power they were counting on for serious offensive production during four 100 (or more) loss seasons. In return for $71 million, Sweeney was "a five time all star," mostly because MLB rules say every team has to be represented by one player. Some years he was deserving, especially early before he got the big bucks. Most of the time, he was simply a hood ornament.
Sucks to be the Royals, I suppose. But there's 71 million great reasons to be Mike Sweeney.
I guess the least he can do for the team is cut a radio spot for them. That's a pretty expensive voice talent for $71 million.
Today, Beltran has been in the heart of the Cards lineup, and of course Damon just got picked up by Cleveland. Sweeney is doing commentary on the MLB cable network. Why do the Royals always give the big money to the wrong guy?
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The problem wasn't Mike Sweeney. The problem is that this was the *only* player whom Glass paid. If he signed Sweeney, Damon, and Beltran, now how do things look?
It wouldn't have mattered which guy was signed, the club was still going to be shit if only one decent guy was in the order. It's ironic that the person who generally shoulders the blame is usually the most talented player on the team. We see that now with the best hitter on the Royals, Billy Butler.
How many people bitched about him last year? Not "clutch"! Too many DP! Not enough power!!
Butler, just like Sweeney before him, isn't the problem. Not even close.