[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Lathum

just wait until all their good young players becme free agents and the Yankees, Mets, Angels, Rangers, Red Sox, St. Louis and the Cubs steal them.

That is assuming they aren't traded for more prospects in their walk year and the whole process begins again.

The system in baseball is so fucked.

{bitter}Yes, but many fans of those teams think it is their god-given right to succeed because, of course, they are better at business than the other teams and deserve to succeed, never mind being in markets 2x-5x the size of some other teams.

But don't worry, little small market teams, you can compete. Just look at Oakland and Minnesota. That's the only verse of that song we know, but we like to rant it over and over. We just like to gloss over the part where our teams can be run pretty mediocre and play even with excellently managed clubs.{/bitter}

Oh, hey, the Royals have won 2 in a row. Two straight starts of 7 innings, the second by Gil Meche. I'm really liking the giant chip he seems to have on his shoulder when he pitches, almost a quiet "I don't care if everyone else doesn't think I'm not worth that kind of money" pissed off where he goes out and retires 16 Angels between hits by Vlad.

He definitely has been an ace here, but the standards are pretty low. Still, I think most clubs would take 7 starts where all were 6 innings or more and only 1 had more than 3 earned runs given up for an ERA in the low 2's.

SI