Conspiracy Theory?

One thing I despise is a conspiracy theorist.   A certain sports talk radio show host in KC is notoriously bead about creating his own theory and then repeating it so many times that he later passes it on as fact.    However, twisting in the abyss that is being a Royals fan I find myself formulating some of my own conspiracy theories and thought I would share them here and maybe have some fun with it as I'm sure many of you have your own to add. I have many but I'll start with a mild one jsut to break the ice.  I'm counting on my Royal fan bretheren to help me come up with more. 

1.  2006 MLB draft.    The Royals select RHP Luke Hochevar.       In the weeks leading up to the draft scouts, pundants, GMs and arm chair quarterbacks everywhere had Andrew Miller tabbed as the #1 overall pick.  It seemed KC was in a postion where they couldn't fail even if they tried since all they had to do was select the guy that everyone was pointing to.  In fact the only other name that was really even being mentioned was Tim Lincecum but his violent delivery scared many.    Then the plot thickened.  Newly hired GM Dayton Moore and the Royals brass announced that Moore would have nothing to do with our draft since he had put so much time in with Atlanta's preparation.  Huh?  As the draft neared we started to hear a new name surface.  Luke Hochevar, who had been selected in the second half of the previous draft by the Dodgers and a year removed from baseball (toiling in the Independent league), was the name trickling out of any Royals Rep's mouth.  And sure enough due to signability Miller slips, and we take Hochevar over Miller, Lincecum and local stud Max Scherzer.       So how about this for a conspiracy theory.   With all the extended failures and embarrassments the Royals had given us in their last decade or more of drafts I think it's possible they didn't want to set Dayton Moore up on the fans bad side right away when he (or any other GM for KC) would have be forced to select a signable player even if he wasn't anywhere near the best.  That way we fans don't blame Dayton Moore, he can still step in and be our savior.  We now have seen that Luke Hochevar has decent stuff witha  good mound IQ which will most likely equate to a #3 rotation guy.  WHAT!!  the #1 overall pick?.    Meanwhile Andrew Miller has already turned into Miguel Cabrera for the Tigers and Tim Lincecum may win the NL Cy Young. 

My conspiracy theory:

David Glass has outsourced our bat manufacturer...

It seems in a cost cutting move the Royals have decided to purchase bats from China.  This was a management decision based solely on revenue flow.   David Glass was quoted as saying"It's not like we use them for actual hitting anyway they are more of a decorative piece in the clubhouse".    Upon further research the only negative aspect we have discoed is that the cheap lacquer the Chinese use is being absorbed through our players hands!!  This is causing total confusion in just about every faucet of the game from fielding to just finding the ballpark.  Some players even forget what position they play.  Management is working tirelessly to remedy the problem.  Thank you for your patience.

My conspiracy theory was that they lied about Dayton being part of the draft to protect him from ridicule knowing that tthey would draft on signability and not on pure ability.   My theory wasn't about the players themselves.   And keep in mind this was a "fun thread" and in now way am I here trying to convince anyone that we actually did lie about Moore's influence on the draft.... but I think we may have nonetheless.  Who, in their right mind would take a GM job but not want to be involved in what would be his biggest draft of his career for that team? 

In regards to the players everything you said is true but it was what the Royals were feeding us.  All fo that "major leage ready" and "most polished" talks starting to come out just days before the draft.    Nationally you would be hard pressed to find many that thougt Luke was the #1 overall pick.  The vast majority pointed at Miller with some giving mention to Lincecum based on the fact he had the filthiest stuff of anyone. 

Agree totally, I think the only reason why Moore was involved with the draft with the Braves was if I am not mistaking his contract actually was set to be freed by the Braves a day after the draft. I think I read that after the draft and the Royals fed us crap about him doing the draft with Braves because of his work with the team, and some crap about how he would try to help with the Royals and whatever else was crap around that same timeframe.

My conspiracy involves what I believe was MLB's way of killing the Royals 

The background is of this we all know there was a strike in 1994, right. In 1994 the then Montreal Expos were in first place and the Kansas City Royals were 4 games out of first place with a winning record. We were in the top 5 in Salary and had several veteran players, and a solid staff that included guys like, Tom Gordon, Mark Gubiza and Kevin Appier. In 1991 we drafted Mike Sweeney. By September of 1995 Sweeney was a member of the KC Royals. Ok this gets tricky following the 1995 season this is how many games out of first the Royals were each season.

30 games 1995

24 games 1996

19 games 1997

16.5 games 1998 (<st1:street> <st1:address> 3^rd Place</st1:address> </st1:street> ) First year of realignment

32.5 games 1999

18 games 2000

26 games 2001

32.5 games 2002

7 games 2003 (year after threaten to be contracted) First winning season since 1994.

34 games 2004

43 games 2005

34 games 2006

27 games 2007

In the winter of 2002 just prior to the 2003 season, two very important things took place The Kansas City Royals and the Montreal Expos were the two teams at the top of the chopping block list. And Mike Sweeney signed his extension that put  him a KC Royal until at least the 2004 season except his contract would push him through the 2007 season, if and only if the Royals finished above .500. So low and behold the following year we finish about .500 for the first time since 1994. 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 Sweeney saw more rehab specialists than there are Simpsons Episodes. All while making more than 1/3 the total Team Salary. MLB forced to kill the Royals with the Strike when it didn't work they figured out a way to convince Sweeney to sign a contract that would put the Royals in the depths so far that they could contract us whenever they felt like it because we would be the worse team in baseball for almost 15 years.

Ok so I stretched on that one. But, I honestly believe the strike was the worse thing that could have happened to the Royals, could you have imagined what kinds of revenue would have been generated in a race to the finish or possibly a post season birth in 1994.