The Torture Never Stops. Not to Mention the Outs.

Many of us cheer for essentially hopeless sports franchises, but it’s pretty hard to top being a Royals fan in the “being constantly abused by your front office” sweepstakes.    Jeff Francoeur and Melky Cabrera? Was Jeremy Reed unavailable?   I think Darryl Motley is seriously considering coming out of retirement and showing up at Royals camp.   When your organization is unable to successfully acquire even a replacement-level corner outfielder, its chances of finding up-the-middle-talent seem pretty much non-existent.   I mean, what’s next, signing a washed-up-five-years-ago Jason Kendall to a multi-year contract when you already have two better catchers?  Oh, wait.

Compared to this, worrying about whether what figures to be the lone threat to the Yankees next year got enough of an upgrade for their money seems trivial.   On its face, signing a 29 year-old corner OF with a lifetime OPS+ of 107 to an expensive 7-year deal would seem pretty dumb.   Of course, that’s misleading because Crawford has much more defensive value than the typical LF and is the kind of player who can be expected to age well.    On the other hand, Crawford’s defense is of less value in Boston than in any other park, so…eh.  He’s certainly a major upgrade over Ellsbury, and I don’t see this contract being a disaster.   But a shift in the balance of power?    I think that will last about as long as the week or so it takes the Yankees to sign Lee.  The Yankees will start 2010 with a better offense and a better bullpen, and it’s hard to see Boston’s greater rotation depth making up for that.