It’s Halloween, not April Fools’ Day

Let’s take a break from the political humor I’ve been posting and focus on another kind of humor: the Royals. This has got to be some sick joke.

Yeah, it’s Halloween all right, and the Royals are scaring me as much as ever.

Just when I thought the team was back on track, this happened. The Royals just traded a valuable relief pitcher for a bad first baseman.

Mike Jacobs is the Royals new 1B. The 28-year old had the worst on-base percentage of any regular 1B last year. OBP is the single most important stat in scoring runs. And Jacobs is a terrible defensive player.

And the Royals have better in-house 1B/DH options. Billy Butler is 22 years old and is a future star. Ryan Shealy and Kila Ka’aihue are ready to fight for a job.

Ka’aihue’s major league equivalents suggest he could put up an OBP of .390 if given the chance. Last year, Mike Jacobs put up an OBP of .299. In other words, if Ka’aihue disappointed and dropped fifty points off that number, his .340 would still be better than Jacobs’ full-season career high of .325. Yikes.

I thought the Royals should have platooned Ka’aihue and Shealy, as Shealy is right-handed and Ka’aihue is left-handed. That’s out the window unless Butler gets traded. And if the Royals trade Butler, I might just boycott. That would be a case of management looking at him and saying “he’s fat and he can’t run,” instead of looking at him and saying “he has great hand-eye coordination, crushed the ball down the stretch, takes more batting practice than anyone else on the team, is 22 years old, and projects to be a star.”

Also, Jacobs is the expected to get $3 million this year, meaning he’ll cost more than the other three players I mentioned combined.

As for the player we gave up to get Jacobs, Leo Nunez may be small and frail, but he’s lights out when he does pitch and probably has more trade value than for one of the worst first basemen in baseball. Nunez might have been expendable, but that doesn’t mean the Royals had to give him away.

The good news is I’ve figured out General Manager Dayton Moore’s Halloween costume. He’s going as Herk Robinson.