David Glass, Money Man

OK, now that I've read this article in the Star today, I actually have something to say about the Royals. Check out this quote from Glass:

“I have no plans to have a low payroll,” Glass said. “We could have gone after someone like (free-agent first baseman) Carlos Delgado, but that didn't fit with our (long-term) plan and wouldn't have helped us win our division.”

How does Glass expect us to take him seriously as an owner when he unleashes nonsense statements like this? Does anyone truly believe that the Royals were even remotely prepared to spend the kind of money it would take to obtain a player of the caliber of Carlos Delgado? Why does he offer the hint that it COULD happen when any reasonable fan knows that it won't? This is the owner of the team whose signature free agent signing this offseason was Jose Lima - 1 year, $2.5 million. Last year wasn't much better, and that team was expected to contend - Juan Gonzalez, 1 year, $4 million.

Of course its true that the Royals have no business signing a player like Delgado. The Royals are already jammed at 1st base, and the Royals certainly aren't one player (or five) away from contending next season anyway. But his casual assertion insults the serious fan base by hinting that the Royals "could" have signed a player like Delgado when they have no recent history of ponying up anything close to that kind of money.

Mr. Glass, your fan base will respect you more if you just tell it like it is:

"The bottom line is that we can't afford players like that. There's too much risk involved in tying up that much payroll in one player. The last time we spent that kind of money on one player - on Sweeney - we were burned and we're still paying for it now. And last year we nickled-and-dimed by adding risky, second-rate free agents for a few million bucks each and we got burned again. Fool me once...well, you know how it goes. The Royals' philosophy going forward, as long as the CBA stays the way it is, has to be that our productive, winning players must come of age in years 1 through 6 - and if they won't take much, much less money from us to stay beyond free agency, they're gone."

No amount of messaging or media savvy is going to make fans feel otherwise. So please stop trying.