The moribund Royals fired GM Allard Baird this morning, according to the Kansas City Star. It's a long overdue move seeing as how the owner David Glass announced there would be major changes some time ago and also because, well, Baird wasn't that good at his job.
Baird oversaw trades that cost the Royals players like Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran and Jermaine Dye while returning very little in the way of useful baseball commodities. Obviously the penny-pinching management style of Glass played a role in the Royals inability to sign and keep players, Baird consistently made the wrong choices when it came to roster assembly. He never signed any of the big-talent players to long-term deals early enough to buy out arbitration years and forestall free agency, except in the case of Mike Sweeney, a good-hitting DH/1B to be sure but not so unique a talent as Damon or Beltran. And when he did spend for free agents it was almost always unwisely (see Gonzalez, Juan) including this year's veteran spree on mediocre veterans like Mark Grudzielanek, Doug Mientkiewicz and Scott Elarton.
The new GM will be Atlanta assistant Dayton Moore, a protege of long-time Atlanta GM John Schuerholz who was with the Royals when they were a competitive team. Moore will likely oversee a fire sale of those ill-advised signings and may as well just put out an "Everything Must Go" sign that's likely familiar to Glass, formerly the CEO of Wal-Mart.
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