The case for Allard Baird: There isn’t one

OK, let’s start at the beginning. The Kansas City Royals used to be a great team. Then, after the decline and retirement of George Brett and co., they were a classy organization that was nearly universally respected. It was only a matter of time before they bounced back and put together a contender, or so the logic went. They crested and fell as a middling team, then fell hard.

Not only does Allard Baird have an annoyingly British name, he even looks obnoxiously smarmy, doesn’t he?

Then things really turned bad: They hired Allard Baird. Yes, the man currently esconsced in the Red Sox front office was once the wunderkind who would save Kansas City. Instead, he attached the entire populace of baseball fans in the city to a rock, dragged it to the banks of Missouri River and made sure it would never come up again.

Let’s look at Baird’s tale of the tape, shall we? In five seasons, his Royals teams compiled exactly one winning record. That was turned in by the 2003 Royals, who went 83-79 after breaking out to one of the best records in baseball through April and May, setting the stage for one of the great collapses in recent history. It also set the stage for Baird to talk first baseman Mike Sweeney, at the time one of the best hitters in baseball, into staying put in Kansas City, convincing him that unlike the trades of Johnny Damon and other budding stars in the past, these Royals were going to hold on to their flush cards.

Sorry Mike, turns out Allard was just pulling your leg my man.

That’s because the two years after 2003 were unabetted disasters in the city of, uh, midwestern slaughterhouses I guess? The Royals lost more than 100 games in both 2004 (58-104) and 2005 (56-106), even cycling through three general managers in the course of the 2005 season. 2006 was even worse. In ‘04 they traded away one of the best players in the game, center fielder Carlos Beltran, for young position players, and still failed to sign any decent starting pitching.

Perhaps the 2005 run of managerial roulette came in part because Baird could hear the music. Or the bells. At the end of the 2006 season, they tolled for him.

Here’s how the Kansas City Star’s post mortem felt about Baird:

The organization’s primary failure under Baird was in its inability to draft and develop high-quality players in recent years. The current 25-man roster has only two players — outfielders David DeJesus and Shane Costa — who were drafted in Baird’s six seasons.

Further, several recent lineups mocked the very idea that the club is engaged in a rebuilding plan. The Royals started five players Tuesday against Oakland who were 30 years or older.

While Baird and his staff succeeded in uncovering some real bargains on the free-agent fringe, they proved far less successful in obtaining top value when forced by financial considerations to trade players such as Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran and Jermaine Dye.

It was the Beltran trade — on June 24, 2004 — that marked the latest full-scale effort to rebuild their roster. The Royals received catcher John Buck, third baseman Mark Teahen and pitcher Mike Wood in return.

They are also 99-206 since that point.

Yeah, not exactly a ringing endorsement, huh? Sent his walking papers, the 44 year-old Baird somehow resurfaced at the ready of Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein in the middle of last season. At the time he served as a special assistant to the General Manager, though that title quickly changed to Assistant General Manager at the end of the season. Another nice acquisition by the Sox front office, right? Well, let’s examine his influence so far.

Baird’s boy Runelvys couldn’t stick despite the incredible name AND El Guapo similarities.

Here’s the players Baird has had the biggest influence in bringing to the Red Sox: Joel Pineiro and Runelvys Hernandez. One was such an unequivocable bust, he couldn’t even stick it out with the team’s minor league arms. The other was signed explicitly to be the Boston closer, but is now toiling to find a spot that sticks in middle relief. Here’s Nick Cafardo’s story on Baird’s influence in the Pineiro chase from the Globe. I think we’re noticing a trend here, are we not?

So, the question remains: How can the Red Sox keep making a case to give Baird any power whatsoever? And why, for God’s sake, was he given any power to begin with? It’s a true mystery, and one to which we may never truly have good answers. Now Sox fans just have to hope they’re not trying to answer them another year from now.

– Cameron Smith