Bloomquist to the Royals

by ~ January 9th, 2009 at 11:09 am

The Royals have agreed to a 2-year deal with Willie Bloomquist worth $3 million. It looks like he got his wish and will get a chance to compete for a spot to play every day, potentially at 2nd base alongside Mike Aviles. The Royals front office had plenty of nice things to say about Willie, mostly quoting all those buzz words we’ve heard about him in Seattle for so long – “hustle,” “leadership,” and “plays hard.”

Maybe what they should have thought about was that Willie Bloomquist just isn’t very good. Or even good. The Royals remain one of the worst-run organizations in baseball, and this is proof. There is no reason to give essentially a replacement-level ball player anything but a 25th man roster spot, let alone a 2-year and a starting job.  As for Willie, we’ll miss your…versatility…and that’s about it. Willie Bloomquist has always come off as good guy who plays the game hard, albiet with little skill, and we here at BBT wish the best of luck to him in the future.

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  • GTownHoyas

    I’m so glad we got rid of him.

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Jon Shields

    The defensive versatility was nice, but it was so frustrating to watch him struggle to hit the ball past the pitcher. He had an ISO of .006. Ha!

    Bill Bavasi would have matched that offer. Jack Zduriencik picks up a similar player for free in the Rule 5 draft. I like our chances.

    Now wouldn’t it be nice if the Royals had some money to play with? Then we could have a ‘blockbuster’ deal in which we send them Betancourt, Johjima and Washburn for Billy Butler, Kila Kai’ahue, Luke Hochevar and Mike Moustakas!

  • section331

    Y’know, it’s kinda funny – all this time I’ve always thought nice things about him, for the most part, until just now I realized that his bat was atrocious! All the times I’ve ever thought “Willie Bloomquist”, all I ever remember is his fielding, which I was ok with; I completely forgot about that whole hitting/running/scoring thing…. oops.

    This is totally off-topic, but are you flooded out at all? I know a lot of people are having issues with being under water at the moment…

  • ernier

    I’m happy for Willie that he got this deal.

    Again it shows why so many players are with Scott Boras. To be able to get him that kind of deal in today’s market is very impressive.

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Jon Shields

    This is totally off-topic, but are you flooded out at all? I know a lot of people are having issues with being under water at the moment…

    I’m fine where I’m at. No problems at all. Some places in Portland are flooded I believe, and I about half an hour/an hour north of me I think the I-5 is flooded. Vancouver is pretty dry.

  • Brandon

    I’m interested to see what he does with potential every day AB’s. I wonder if his bat truly is that pathetic or if he might improve slightly with a lot more chances. The fact that the royals picked him up makes it seem very unlikely that we could trade betancourt to them doesn’t it?

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Scott Weber

    I think Mike Aviles really shuts the door on Yuni to KC.

  • SABR Matt

    Wow did they overpay…LOL

    I’m gonna enjoy watching them try to make him a starting second baseman.

    Good for Willie..he’s a great guy…but wow.

  • Mr.Benton

    This offseason is a success! Boom Boom is gone!

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Jon Shields

    I dunno that Willie gets the starting gig, but it’s pretty sad if they’re really choosing between Bloomquist, Callaspo, Pena and German.

    Hopefully Johnny Giavotella can get MLB ready sooner than later, for their sake.

  • GTownHoyas

    Willie is one my least-liked athletes along with Ryan Appleby, Tyler Hansborough, and Barry Bonds.

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com/ Rob T.

    Dayton Moore is becoming the new Bill Bavasi. I feel bad for Royal fans. There going to be bad for a long time.

  • section331

    Jon:

    Well, that’s good. Seattle is fine, but everything around us is pretty much hosed. Literally. I knew you were by Portland-ish, but not quite where, and it looks like everything south of Oly is pretty much under water, so I was just wondering if you might be writing from a boat! :/

    To stay on topic, the little time I did get to have online so far today, it looks like Royals fans are NOT pleased with this little development. I can empathize, but I’m glad it’s not us…

  • SABR Matt

    As a meteorologist…I’d just like to say…I had a feeling this was going to happen back when Seattle was getting buried in snow. That’s almost always a bad sign. When it snows in Seattle, it’s going to end badly because there’s nowhere for the water to go when it all melts.

  • section331

    Matt; yep, which means Spokane is going to be FUBAR here when the weather warms up… :/

  • SABR Matt

    Indeed..although at least by that time the heavy rains will have slowed down…that made it a lot worse in Seattle…plus low elevations near the sound and the Columbia river basin. Spokanne being higher up will flash flood but it shouldn’t stick around too long.

  • Brandon

    I don’t live here, but I hear the northwest corner of WA (lynden area) is getting hammered by floods. I’ve seen pictures and such. One of my cousins literally had to canoe to work yesterday. I’m fortunate to live in the yakima valley where, unless you’re right by the rivers, you’re in good shape :)