Royals’ GM Moore has had enough

Moore still fired Ladnier. He did not talk much about the firing — he praised Ladnier and said he simply wanted to give his highly regarded right-hand man J.J. Picollo more control of the draft. But make no mistake; this gets to the heart of what Moore is thinking. He wants to break away. He wants to win now. He wants everyone to understand that the bar has been raised. He expects people to see the Royals the way he sees the Royals — as the best operation in baseball.

“I didn’t come here as a springboard,” he says. “I didn’t come here to stay three or four years and then move on to something else. I came here because I believe the Kansas City Royals are a great organization.

“It’s time for everyone — that includes the general manager, the manager and coaches, the players, everyone — to perform. We’re not making excuses for anyone now. We’re not going to say, ‘Oh, he’s just a young player, he will get better.’ We have to move forward. I know everyone is trying hard. But it’s not enough to try hard. We have to be successful. It’s time.”

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So now you ask: What does this mean in baseball terms? What kind of changes will the Royals make this off-season?

That’s a trickier question. The Royals have made a couple of coaching moves. They fired hitting coach Mike Barnett and third-base coach Luis Silverio. Barnett was easy to fire in many ways. The Royals were 12th in the league in runs scored and dead last in walks. Moore is quick to point out this wasn’t Barnett’s fault exactly — he’s a good coach and he preached plate discipline and worked tirelessly with players on their hitting — but he also didn’t fix things. This is where Moore’s hard-edged philosophy is now: You are part of the solution or you are part of the problem.

“We have to understand the importance of on-base percentage,” Moore says, and he repeats those words — “on-base percentage” — about 29 times during the interview, which is good to hear. The last five years, the Royals have finished 12th, 13th, 11th, 13th and 13th in on-base percentage, and frankly it’s really, really hard to score a lot of runs when you can’t get on base (especially when you do not have much power — and the Royals don’t. Plus they play in a big ballpark).

Clearly, though, they are not going to dramatically improve their on-base percentage by hiring a different coach. Moore says that, in some ways, things will get better naturally. Third baseman Alex Gordon, after hitting bottom in late July, had a three-hit game against Oakland and two days later walked five times against the A’s. He had a better-than-.400 on-base percentage the rest of the year, and it looked like he had a much better ability to draw walks. Billy Butler seemed to find his swing about the same time and hit .309 the rest of the year. Moore thinks rookie Mike Aviles might not hit .325 every year like he did this season, but he will draw more walks as he gets to know pitchers.

And Moore says the Royals are not going to give up on Mark Teahen despite a difficult season. Teahen hit well the last month or so.

“We still like Mark a lot,” Moore says. “I see how hard he prepares for every game. And he played better at the end of the year. We still have a lot of faith in Mark as a player.”

But, again, Moore refuses to wait around for young players to get better. He says the Royals will have to add offense, even if it means moving and shoving some current players into different positions.

To reach Joe Posnanski, call 816-234-4361 or send e-mail to jposnanski@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.

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