The McGovern Manifesto- Restoration, Reformation and Retaliation

[royals19]

Howdy everyone... It's good to be back. We had to take a little break to get that sour taste of the 2013 ALDS out of our mouths and get ready for the draft. So we grabbed an ice cream, went fishing, played a little b-ball on an 8ft hoop... you know, the whole 9 yards.... But today, we're back to kick this thing off on this this off in accordance with the 2013 MLB Draft.

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In case you don't want to sift through 20ish pages of action, I highly recommend you brief yourself with the following synopsis or you probably "haven't the foggiest" of what we're about to do here in the 2014 installment of the McGovern Manifesto.

2013

Fresh out of the navy following World War 2, George McGovern moved back to his native Georgia and proceeded to construct a massive 5 and dime empire... Things seemed to be going well for McGovern until he got a call from an old navy buddy by the name of Ewing Kauffman who persuaded McGovern to help him with his pharmacy business in exchange for a great reward.

For roughly the next decade, McGovern assisted Kauffman at the expense of his 5 and dime empire until 1994 when Mr. Kauffman passed away. In his will, he had left McGovern the Kansas City Royals. Despite the fact that McGovern had lost most of his empire to the villainous Sam Walton, things began to look up until Walton's favorite henchman David Glass stole the Kansas City Royals from George McGovern, casting him into financial ruin...

Fastforward a decade later and George McGovern lives in Georgia running his 5 and dime store while also working as a "secret scout" of of sorts for Dayton Moore. Close to homelessness, McGovern gambled his remaining money to purchase the Kansas City Royals placing it in the hands of a Mr. Bo Jackson.

On the field, the Royals would start out slow this season but everything would eventually click and the Royals made the playoffs as a Wild Card team behind the bats of Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer. However their Cinderella run in the postseason would be short lived as they made an exit from the ALDS in an epic 16 inning Game 5...


Despite everything flying south, George McGovern would become President of the Kansas City Royals Baseball Organization under the new owner, Bo Jackson...

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And that my friends, it where we shall begin chapter 2.

[royals19]

The offseason

Quote: Originally Posted by Dayton Moore

Ummm.... George, I just got a call from Jay-Z asking us where we got 250 million dollars to give to Cano.... Do you know anything about that?

Quote: Originally Posted by George McGovern

Well, ESPN said he was the #1 Free Agent... Isn't' that who we're supposed to be after?

Quote: Originally Posted by Dayton Moore

George, we can't just throw max money at everyone. We're a small market ball club... And besides, I know you're a good scout but when was the last time you actually watched a Major League game?

Quote: Originally Posted by McGovern

When did Carl Yaztremski debut?

Quote: Originally Posted by Dayton Moore

****....

It's been 53 years since McGovern has seen a ball game and he's being tasked with one of our most important offseasons to date.... I suppose it's a good thing that we rehired John Schuerholtz as our President of the Baseball Ops department.

However, we need another middle guy to bridge McGovern and Dayton. Schuerholtz was a close friend to McGovern and Mr. Kauffman, responsible for our winning winning teams in the 80s and he's connected to Dayton Moore as well; responsible for teaching him everything he knows. And of course, it's hard to forget that he built Atlanta's winning teams of the 90s and early 2000s.

OK, He's pretty smart... but we need another smart guy, one who's unorthofox in their approach to winning...Ahh...yes... Andrew Friedman.

Quote: Originally Posted by McGovern

Well I don't trust the Harvards! Never have, never will!

Haha... OK Lyndon B... simmer down...

But what's this?

"You need permission to interview him"- screw that. A 15 million dollar check in the mail and a first class train ticket to KC should suffice.

Freidman's a brainy guy. He's noted for his ability to translate Wall Street methods to the baseball diamond in order to produce a winning team. He use his smarts down in Tampa with pretty good success, making them perhaps the best small market team in baseball. Hopefully he replicates that success here...

So, Ladies and Gents- our new VP of Baseball Operations for the Kansas City Royals...

Andrew Freidman

[lastlastlast]

Oh yeah Royals is back in business! Following for sure!

[KHarmo88]

Ahh glad you're back!!

[Bluejaysfan65]

Excited for another season of this! Interesting decision with Freidman...

[royals19]

Thanks everybody, I appreciate it! I'm definitely ready to get this turned back up.



MLB.com

Quote:

Changing of the Guard Royals fire Ned Yost in unexpected move and tab former Rays Manager Joe Maddon as his successor. Dick Kaegel/MLB.com/11-15-13/1:30 PM ET Surprise, Surprise.... In a shocking move, the Royals have fired Ned Yost and replaced him with former Rays manager Joe Maddon. The Royals hired Ned Yost as a Special Advisor to Dayton Moore in 2010, and promoted him to manager on May 13th 2010, replacing Trey Hillman. It was definitely a startling move as Yost seemed to gel with the team and responsible for their first winning season in over a decade....

Quote: Originally Posted by Ned Yost

Look Goerge, I led this team through hell and back and this is how you thank me?

Quote: Originally Posted by George McGovern

We gave you the assets to win, and you used them incorrectly.... someone has to be held accountable here, and Ned... this is all you my friend.

Quote: Originally Posted by Yost

It's one way to let me go in person but to hear about it on the internet is another! You have never been anything but a scout and now that you've become President of the organization you think you can walk over people who have given their soul for this? Without me here, this whole thing is going to fall apart!

Quote: Originally Posted by McGovern

You get the hell out of my office....

Quote: Originally Posted by Yost

..... I see how it is George... This isn't over yet! Hear me?! It isn't over yet!

Yost flipped over his chair and slammed the door shut causing both of McGovern's glass memorabilia cases to topple over.

Quote: Originally Posted by McGovern

You're right Ned, this isn't over yet....

[royals19]

So for our first offseason, we'll go ahead and head off to the Winter Meetings for our first offseason in the Manifesto. We were pretty pumped, I mean, there could be so many potentially good names available and we expect to be on top of at least one of them.




Alright, this class sucks... it was a major let down. I mean Cory Hart the top Free Agent in the class? Please... I mean sure there's talent like Brian McCann, Granderson, Brian Wilson, K-Rod... (there are two names missing and we'll get to that eventually). We figured Robbie Cano was going to hit the market but after getting 180 over 6 from the Yankees, there was no way he was hitting the market.

Before we get to our offseason, let's take a look and see what how the rest of the league fared this offseason.

Rays Load UP

Quote:

Tampa stunned everybody and walked away with Brian McCann and Cory Hart. That makes the AL East that much more interesting for the next 4 or 5 years. Tampa fully commits to winning now by having those guys as well as David Price still in the fold. No one expected Tampa to spend big here so this should be an interesting situation to monitor. The real test of their money will be whether they can keep David Price long term after this upcoming season.

Toronto Blows More Money

Quote:

It seems as though when Toronto sees an opportunity, they try to exploit it as much as possible... With everyone preoccupied at the top with the free agents; and towards the end when no one had any money left, the Jays swooped in and added Shin-Soo-Choo, Ben Zobrist and Joe Saunders. The Choo signing didn't make any sense but then they exacerbated their situation and went out and signed Zobrist and Saunders... It'll be interesting to see if they take this approach in future offseasons.

As give Hanrahan big cash

Quote:

One of the aforementioned, missing players from the top bunch, the As pounced on Joel Hanrahan and gave him a 6 year 60 million dollar deal... because spending big on a closer is how they roll... This one doesn't make any sense... I mean Hanrahan wanted 7 from us but to over pay and give him that type of money? I'm left scratching my head.

New York.... Go home.

Quote:

With plenty of extra money left over after the Cano signing, the Yankees loaded up the Brinx truck and payed Frenchy a visit giving him a 7 year 70 million dollar deal. HWHAT!? I mean, New York has done some stupid things, i.e. the A-Rod deal but giving Frenchy that kind of dough? You can't be serious... So because Frenchy leaves KC, we get another draft pick... not bad, not bad at all. But still it's unrealistic as heck.

Na-Na-Napa Know How

Quote:

To be honest, this one has me in full head scratching mode. Why would the rebuilding Huston Astros give 25 million to Mike Napoli for 3 years? I just don't get it.... And why would Napoli take that deal? Boston darn near made the playoffs last season so I don't see why he would leave that. If they think this will save their team, they're outta their dang minds.

[royals19]

So now, after we've given you the low down on the league, we've got to show you the big highlight that we came up with this offseason.

There was absolutely no way that we were going to let Shields walk. After giving us 200 innings, we're going to expect him to do that again... and post and ERA under 4.... and strikeout 200... But anyway, we were anticipating to pay him 10 or 15 million dollars annually, instead, we're skating away having to pay him little more than 7 annually.

That gave us some money left over to persue an arm or maybe a bat to stick on the bench or in the outfield. We offered an extension to Eric Hosmer for 6 years which we didn't accept but was worth a shot.

Our savings would however come to fruition early on as we jumped into the market for a good lefthanded pitcher. That's right folks, I'm talking about the second missing name Jon Lester. We started him out at about 4 annually for 4 years but once teams like Philly and Atlanta hoped in we upped the offer to 6 years 30 million. And behold, Jon Lester would be donning a Royals uniform for the next 6 years.

Unfortunately, our pursuit of Lester side tracked us from signing any more free agents but... at least we've got the rest of the team in the fold...

Any way, back to Lester.

When you look for the model lefthander, you don't think of someone with an awkward delivery like Cliff Lee or a young gun like Clayton Kershaw. You look for a guy like Jon Lester who is the perfect model of what it's like to be a tall projectable lefthanded pitcher with plus stuff. He's an incredible story as well, defeating cancer and not only coming back to pitch but coming back and being a success.



He's been impressive throughout his career, posting solid numbers for the most part. He's got a proven track record and to be honest, he's a much better number 2 option than the fluky Jeremy Guthrie. We're excited to have him in the fold, because it's not very often that this type of arm comes along in the free agent class. I feel we really got a bargain here....