On the verge of another C-note

With 5 games left on the sked, the Royals are virtually ensured a 100-loss season.....again. They seemed to have a decent shot at avoiding that fate but the last couple weeks haven't gone well. I don't see them taking 2 in the Metrodome and then sweeping the Tigers -- the Motor City Kitties are playing for a division title and not the wild card. Without the emergence of Mark Teahen and Ryan Shealy and the steady play of Grudz, this season would have been even more dismal than it has been. At least with this 100-loss year Baird is not involved and a pinpoint of light is at the end of what has been a long damn tunnel. The only drawback is signs are pointing to Buddy Bell being back as skipper in '07. That bums me out. Why not have DM take a run at somebody he has in mind and flush all the old detritus out of the system? Clean house. Dump some of the deadwood payroll if you can and get it over with. And for God's sake, bring in a shortstop who can field AND hit, at least average on both sides. Berroa is a waste of space on the field and Blanco won't hit at the MLB level. I'd love to see DM also trade Sweeney for whatever he can get, altho I'm sure the market is hot for a 30-something no-defense, back-injury-prone DH type, especially coming off a .240/.339/.739, 56-game season! Catcher can also likely be upgraded from John Buck, whose defense is nice but he can't hit his way out of a wet paper bag more than three games a month. Of course, a rundown of the team's potential upgraded areas could take a while, so I'll leave it at that.

I guess if you're gonna have to swallow yet another 100-loss season, this has gone as well as you could expect one to go. May this be the last.