Willie Motherf---ing Bloomquist?

I've been relatively easy on Dayton Moore this offseason, preferring to patiently wait and see how most of his offseason acquisitions pan out on the field. Obviously, this is not easy with signings that reek of overpaying like Horacio Ramirez or Kyle Farnsworth and trades in which the Royals do not actually part with an irreplaceable piece but that piece nets a player that fails to address an actual need (read: the roster redundant Mike Jacobs).

In Dayton Moore's unyielding quest to acquire every former Mariner (who hadn't previously been a Royal) that hits the free agent market, our General Manager signed Willie Bloomquist. If Moore set his sights on a General Manager to emulate, he should have looked a little harder at, oh, every GM in the game not named Bill Bavasi. Now that Bavasi is gone and Moore continues to sign players who at best questionably address the roster issues at hand and at worst complicate situations that could have been solved from within, it would seem that Moore has an unquenchable yearning to grab a hold of the recently vacated title of worst General Manager in Baseball.

His bizarre obsession with a woe-begotten franchise that has plummeted rapidly from a perch as one of the model franchises in the league into a role as one of the dregs of Major League Baseball is positively inexplicable. Since the signing of Gil Meche (the one ex-Mariner who has panned out for the Royals), the Royals signed Jose Guillen and Miguel Olivo in the offseason between 2007 and 2008 and have spent this offseason attempting to acquire every other Mariners free agent Moore could get his hands on--Vance Wilson*, Horacio Ramirez, and now Willie Bloomquist. At this rate, we should be preemptively penciling in Erik Bedard into the Royals rotation for 2010 and Adrian Beltre at the hot corner, leaving Gordon and Mike Moustakas no place to play for years to come, but obviously that is not an issue for Dayton Moore.

*Well after the fact I remembered that Vance Wilson only played for the Tigers and Mets. Never the Mariners. Mi malo.

There really isn't much of a point in my dissecting Bloomquist's resume. To deserve such an exertion of energy, he would have had to have actually done something of worth. Past being a defensive super-utility player, he hasn't. If for some odd reason, Bloomquist is only used as a late-inning defensive replacement--which would make sense to every Royals fan but would show a shocking sense of insight on Trey Hillman's part and that does not seem likely--then adding him to the roster does not hurt the Royals for the 2009 season, especially if his limited at-bats mean that Tony Pena, Jr. does not set foot inside the batter's box. Unfortunately, Bloomquist will be a Royal in 2010, as well, barring a miraculous trade. His defensive flexibility may be of value but not so much that he should be on the roster for a second season.

I understand the need for depth in the Royals middle infield. I do. Aviles is universally expected to take a step back offensively this next season. There is also the concern that his superb defensive metrics this past season were aberrant. There are behavioral concerns on the Alberto Callaspo front. It is known that he does not strikeout, but the fact remains that his career-high in at-bats was last season's 213 AB, 234 PA campaign. The optimistic Royals fan wants to believe he will pan out, but that is a fairly big uncertainty. TPJ is a known quantity in the worst way and should not have lumber in his hands. We would all like to see Esteban German's bat in the lineup more, but he is not the ideal candidate for DH-ing and his glove probably should stay in the dugout. At the minor league level, there really do not seem to viable options, even for a late-inning replacement--that is unless David Matranga isn't really a 32-year-old shortstop with six career ML plate appearances or Marc Maddox really isn't a light-hitting, little-speed second baseman who hasn't yet hit above the Double-A level.

So in the sense that the Royals are not rife with options up the middle, Bloomquist addresses a need, but two years? There wasn't anyone else out there who would sign for one year at the same yearly pay rate or less? Were money better spent this offseason, perhaps a run at Orlando Hudson would have been possible. I'm guessing guys like Pablo Ozuna or Alex Cintron or Luis Rivas would have signed for one year, and there really isn't a discernable difference between them and Willie Bloomquist. Maybe someone who hasn't worn a Mariners uniform to show that Dayton Moore has scouted more than two organizations (the Braves being the other, of course)?