There was a lot of fanfare in Asia and abroad when Trey Hillman left his post as manager of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters last season to manage the Kansas City Royals. Personally, I was very optimistic about his chances and I liked the idea of him bringing what he learned in Japan back to the states and applying it to what seemed like a good young core of players.
But Kansas City just put the finishing touches on a terrible August that saw the team win seven of 27 games, and the team now finds itself in last place in the AL Central. The mainstream Royals media, which is visible anyway thanks in large part to the popularity of columnist/blogger Joe Posnanski, is starting to grumble. Hillman also recently had a public tiff with catcher Miguel Olivo, and quite possibly one with Jose Guillen.
I have no trouble believing both Olivo and Guillen are jerks, but there have been plenty of problems on the field as well — the emphasis on fundamentals idea hasn’t quite worked out, and several young players that supposedly made up the solid, future core of the team — Alex Gordon, Billy Butler and Brian Bannister — haven’t progressed as expected. Actually Bannister has been terrible.
Peruse these striking titles:
Royals’ Hillman needs to show us something
Stats don’t lie: KC needs improvement
Things are getting bad for Hillman, folks. I’m starting to think he may not be back next year. If he is he’ll be on a short leash.
5 responses so far ↓
1 simon // Sep 2, 2008 at 11:53 am
One year seems to be an awfully short leash for someone who’s expected to be part of the franchise rebuilding process. What, the Royals fans expected the team to start winning immediately just because of Hillman? Now, that seems unreasonable. It’ll take a few seasons for any manager’s efforts to direct teams in a certain direction (including personnel), especially for a franchise lacking resources like KC.
2 Brian // Sep 2, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Ouch, that’s a tough pun.
Managing the Royals, just like managing the Pirates, seems like a perpetually lame duck position. I don’t envy anyone who takes those positions. I suppose they’re looked at as stepping-stone jobs, but I don’t know how going 62-100 will turn any heads.
3 Shinsano // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Someone leave the house without their punbrella?
Simon, I agree with you. But this kind of thing can really snowball. Once players get angry people automatically assume the manager has lost control of the team — even though I’d argue both Guillen and Olivo were bad moves by the GM Moore. I hope they keep Hillman around and they probably will. But it seems like Hillman might have to show something during Sept.
4 brent // Sep 2, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Remember, these are elite franchise players who we are talking about. How could MLB players possibly be jerks?
5 BB Wife // Sep 23, 2008 at 4:28 am
Trey Hillman is definitely not a jerk. He’s a very nice man who takes baseball very seriously. He may have little tolerance for B.S. though. Nothing wrong with that.
It’s going to take more than one season to completely turn around a team that has been crap for a long time. Give the man a break already.
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