Hillman Out! Yost In!

I feel bad for Trey Hillman. You manage a game. You win the game. And then you get fired. That sucks. That is like you making a great presentation and then getting fired. The problem is that you didn't get fired based on that one presentation and he didn't get fired based on that one game. Trey Hillman didn't win. Plain and simple.

Trey came in after Buddy Bell stepped down and he was going to bring some fresh air to the club. A young coach with energy that would put a spark in the clubhouse and get these young guys going. It didn't happen. There were signs that it could happen. A great start to the 2009 season that had Royals fans wondering if this would be the year that they become a .500 team and try to contended in the AL Central Division. But then the Royals became the Royals of the last two decades and went back to the bottom of the division. The Royals showed signs last year with a pitcher that was able to overcome being on a bad team to be awarded the American League Cy Young Award. It's a great building block for this season, but on May 13th, the day that Trey gets fired, Greinke finally picks up his first win of the season.

Trey Hillman seems like a really nice guy. Dayton Moore obviously really likes Trey. That was evident when he broke down crying at the press conference to announce the firing of the manager. If you're a nice guy the loses baseball games, you're still losing baseball games. You're not winning. You're not contending and you're not putting butts in the seats.

What do the Royals need to get out of the basement in the division and be talked about with respect? I don't know. But, they need to go talk to the Rays because they've done it.

Big 10?

There's been a lot of discussion about the conference re-alignment and the changes that will be coming to the college football and college sports landscape. And yesterday came the report from WHB in Kansas City that the Big 10 has made 'initial offers' to Notre Dame, Rutgers, Missouri and NEBRASKA. Is this a good thing? I say yes.

There are more positives to moving to the Big 10 than there are positives of staying the Big 12. By the looks of it, the Big 12 could be a picking ground for the other conferences. The Pac 10 wants to expand and the SEC wants to expand and the Big 10 wants to expand. Who is NOT looking at expansion? . . . the Big 12. If anything, the Big 12 is looking at schools that they will need to replace leaving schools. Why not get ahead of the changes and do whatever you can to move to a conference where you know they will have quality opponents? Why not do everything you can to go to a conference that has their own TV network?

Beat the rush and lock yourself into a good conference rather sit on your hands and get stuck in a mediocre to bad conference.