ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. | We&#8217;ll start in 1999. Things looked good for the Kansas City Royals in 1999. They had already made the trade with Atlanta for a young outfielder named Jermaine Dye. They decided to make catcher Mike Sweeney a first baseman so they could get his bat in the lineup. They had one established outfielder, Johnny Damon, who seemed to be emerging. They had another, a 22-year-old rookie center fielder named Carlos Beltran, who seemed to have unlimited talent.</p><p>And what did they have in Tampa Bay? Not much. The Devil Rays, as they were known then, were in only their second year and already in a hole roughly the depth of Snake River Canyon. They had little money. They had a pretty disinterested fan base. They played in a charmless dome. And they were in the same division as the Yankees, who looked invincible then, and the Red Sox.</p><p>Put it this way: The youngest everyday player on those Devil Rays was a 23-year-old outfielder named Jos&#233; Guillen. Tampa released him two years later.</p><p>Look at it now. The Rays, no longer Devilish, are in the World Series. The Royals&#8217; most expensive and publicized player, meanwhile, was that outfielder named Jos&#233; Guillen. What happened? How did it happen? Let&#8217;s see:</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">1999</span></strong></p><p>This was the year for the Royals to secure their future. They had four of the first 43 picks in the amateur draft. The thing about the baseball draft is that if you even get one good everyday player or one good starting pitcher or dominant closer, you call it a good year.</p><p>The Royals took college pitcher Kyle Snyder with their first pick. Two picks after that, college pitchers Barry Zito and Ben Sheets went back-to-back. Zito would win a Cy Young. Sheets is a three-time All Star.</p><p>The Royals took pitcher Mike MacDougal with their second pick. He was the closer and a key figure in the Royals&#8217; surprising 2003 season. But he flamed out quickly.</p><p>The Royals took Jay Gehrke and Jimmy Gobble with their other two picks. Gehrke never made it to the majors; Gobble holds on to a shaky job as a lefty specialist.</p><p>So, really, the Royals did not get a single everyday player or pitcher in the draft. Tampa, meanwhile, took two-time All-Star and four-time stolen base champ Carl Crawford in the second round. That was the first piece for this championship team.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">2000</span></strong></p><p>One of the other things that helps in the baseball draft is, occasionally, getting lucky with a late-round pick. The Royals, for years, refused to pay later picks more than a nominal signing bonus. And because of that, it has been many years since they have found a helpful player after the first few rounds of the draft.</p><p>Royals general manager Dayton Moore says this is changing and the Royals need to draft aggressively all the way through. A good example: This year, the Rays hit the jackpot in the 16th round, when they took pitcher James Shields out of Hart High School. Shields was probably the Rays&#8217; best pitcher this season (14-8, 3.56 ERA, 215 innings pitched).</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">2001</span></strong></p><p>This was a disastrous year for the Royals. First, they had their famously catastrophic draft this year. They took Colt Griffin with their first-round pick because he had thrown 100 mph in a high school game. They took outfielder Roscoe Crosby with their second-round pick because he looked like Ken Griffey Jr. when he played. Griffin couldn&#8217;t throw strikes, Crosby didn&#8217;t seem especially interested in playing baseball, and the Royals did not get a single major-league player out of this draft.</p><p>They also traded away two of their young star players. First, in January, they dealt Johnny Damon (and second baseman Mark Ellis, who has become an everyday player) to Oakland in a three-way deal that brought back shortstop Angel Berroa and closer Roberto Hernandez. Berroa was the key, and in 2003 he was the AL Rookie of the Year. But, like MacDougal, he deteriorated quickly. The Royals simply did not get enough for one of their most valuable assets.