[JerryShoe]

1969-76 Kansas City Royals

With this project I will try to best the timeline it took the Kansas City Royals to appear in the playoffs for the first time, historically accomplished in 1976. My main roadblock won’t be the Minnesota Twins or especially the Oakland A’s, winners of the AL West from 1969-75, but Cedric Tallis, the first KC GM though mid-1974. He acquired Hal McRae (.300 for KC from ’74-’84), John Mayberry (3 100-RBI years), Amos Otis (5-time All-Star and Gold Glove centerfielder), Freddie Patek (top-flight shortstopping and 325 steals from 1971-78), Cookie Rojas (4 All-Star teams and mentor for Frank White) for the sum total of Jim Campanis, Lance Clemons, Joe Foy, Jackie Hernandez, Bob Johnson (after getting a 3.07 ERA year out of him ), Roger Nelson, Fred Rico, Richie Scheinblum and Jim York. Then gets fired. Go figure.
As outlined in the 1965 Yankee replay, I will play with historical injuries, 15-man reserve squad, no financials, rookies start with their original team, my players must be used for at least half their playing time or be traded or released (if I want Lindy McDaniel’s 2.86 ERA in 160 relief innings in 1973, I have to pitch him for at least 35 innings of a 5.01 ERA in ’71), and I cap my players at 10% over actual usage so I can only pitch McDaniel for 75 innings of 2.01 in’72. I do financials offline where TV contracts and ticket prices don’t matter. Team revenue comes from wins and standings, salaries from performance and longevity, so I can’t stockpile superstars unless I have the earnings to support them. Trade AI is 35/35/20/10 and the only prospective free agents in this scenario is Jim Hunter signing with the Yankees for the 1975 season IF he is with the A’s at the end or ’74 and Andy Messersmith signing with the Braves in 1976.
Of course, it starts with the expansion draft. The rules held that each team initially protected 15 players with those having (I believe) less than 2 years in pro ball or on the Military Service List (such as Bobby Murcer) exempt. The new teams selected only from within their league. There were 6 rounds, each team losing 1 player per after which they would protect an additional 3. For instance, after Seattle took Tommy Harper as the third player chosen, Cleveland added Ed Farmer, Horacio Pina and Scheinblum to their protected list.
The Pilots won the coin toss and elected to pick second and third so I had the first choice. I chose for Seattle according to their historical picks when possible and then their philosophy. I’m running the show now and not Tallis and I drafted differently. Historically, the Seattle Pilots (now the NL Milwaukee Brewers) took a win-now approach since they felt with their pre-draft signings they had a chance to compete in a perceived weak AL West (note that 1969 was the first year of division play and a team only had to be better than 5 others and not 9). Kansas City went the other way and looked to the future with younger picks. I drafted “name” players but not for the reason as Seattle. The ’61 Los Angeles Angels (before they became the California Angels, the Anaheim Angels, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and back to the Los Angeles Angels) got lucky with Dean Chance and Jim Fregosi (they chose Fregosi but got Chance in a trade with their co-expansionist Washington Senators-later Texas Rangers-forced through by AL President Joe Cronin, as back then leagues had Presidents), but most of the younger players taken by the Colt .45s (Astros), Mets and the AL entries didn’t pan out. I’m hoping for 4 division races with at least 8 teams looking to win now and auction off these players for 1 or 2 others with better potential than who I see available. In doing so, I took Tony Conigliaro and Jim Palmer and can defend their presence as not being 20/20 hindsight. Kansas City came close to drafting Conigliaro and Boston felt confident enough on his return to shop RBI leader Ken Harrelson (who replaced Tony C. in ’68) during the winter and did so 2 weeks into ’69. Questionable players chosen from Boston were Jerry Adair (a 32-year old utility-infielder coming off a .216 year) and Darrell Brandon (28 with a 81 ERA+ since his rookie year). surely Conigliaro was worth a shot more so than they. Palmer’s prospects were dimmer, but he was only 23 with an 18-11 log in the 2 years prior to his injury and was the last person to beat Sandy Koufax. His resume was better than Larry Haney (a 26-year old good-field, no-hit catcher) or John Morris (27-year old reliever with only 45 career innings pitched to his credit at this point) who were picked instead. I have less defense in the choice of Darrell Evans, but he was the last player chosen, Oakland was the only team left to pick from, and the only players left on their team were 2 corner outfielders and a pitcher. Evans was a 21-year-old third baseman who put up great numbers in the low minors before leveling off in AA. Joe Keough advanced to AA by 1968 and showed promise and only a little older than Evans, but hit only .214 in the majors in limited action. Joe Nossek hadn’t seen the majors since ’67 when he hit .205 and will turn 28. O’Riley was progressing nicely through the minors. So Evans was a numbers game choice; I only had 1 third baseman (Joe Foy, who I chose with the chance to trade to a contender) but had 7 outfielders and 16 pitchers. The 5 first-round picks are noted:

Steve Barber, ls
Tom Burgmeier, lr
Galen Cisco, rr
Moe Drabowsky, rr
Dick Drago, rs
Al Fitzmorris, rs
Mike Hedlund, rs
Lindy McDaniel, rr (4)
Roger Nelson, rs (1)
Jim Palmer, rs
Camilio Pascual, rs (5)
Orlando Pena, rs
Ron Perronoski, lr
Juan Pizarro. Ls
Jim Rooker, rs
Hoyt Wilhelm, rr

Jim Pagliaroni, c
Ellie Rodriguez, c

Dave Campbell, 1b
Darrell Evans, 3b
Ron Hansen, ss
Jackie Hernandez, ss
Joe Foy, 3b (2)
Rich Morales, 2b-ss
Bob Oliver, 1b

Tony Coniglaro, of
Tommy Davis, of (3)
Chuck Hinton, of-1b-3b
Pat Kelly, of
Andy Kosco, if-1b
Dave May, of
Russ Snyder, of

On deck, the 1969 Royals.