Moore discusses philosophy; Teahen his injury

It's hard to believe with all the ice and snow that baseball season is right around the corner.

In less than a month the first players will start to find their way to spring training -- which for the Royals means a trip to Surprise, Ariz.

I had a chance to visit with Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore and former Nevada Griffon and reigning Royals team MVP Mark Teahen when they were in Fort Scott recently, and it got me excited about the upcoming season.

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking the same old Royals will be taking the field, fresh off three consecutive 100-loss seasons.

That's why I asked Moore what he could possibly have been thinking, taking the Royals job last June with the recent history of losing and the infamous frugality of the Glass family being what it is.

"I started thinking about the opportunity to do something special," Moore said. "The challenge of this was very appealing."

Sounds like a man with a pretty good ego.

You've got to think fairly highly of yourself and your abilities if you think you can turn around this club. And make no mistake, one visit with Moore was enough to show me this man wasn't lacking self confidence.

But Moore has a reason to be a little cocky. He comes from the Atlanta Braves organization. The same organization that won 14 consecutive division titles. And Moore has brought the same philosophy the Braves used to be so good for so long, and implemented it in the bowels of Kauffman Stadium.

"We're going to try to develop the very best scouting and player development that we can," Moore said. It's the right answer when your team isn't from New York, L.A., Boston or Texas. You don't get to make the big splashes in the free agent market when you are working in one of the smallest markets in Major League Baseball.

Moore's philosophy is that the Royals should be able to develop 2-3 players from their own farm system each season.

He also knows pitching is the way to go. Kansas City had a decent offensive club last season. Their .271 batting average wasn't great but it wasn't atrocious either. The problem was their pitching staff was the worst in the majors, sporting a 5.65 team ERA.

By contrast, the AL champion Detroit Tigers only had three pitchers with an ERA over 5.00 on the entire roster, and those three combined for only 30 appearances all season.

"Pitching is the area we will begin to focus on," Moore said.

Pitching was the foundation of the Braves' divisional title run with the big three of John Smoltz, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine leading the way.

While pitching will be Moore's focus as he builds the Royals for the future, their biggest star in 2006 was Teahen, the starting third baseman. Teahen had a breakout season in his second year in the bigs. The 2000 Griffon who actually started playing third base in Nevada, hit .290 with 18 home runs and 69 RBIs in only 109 games before ending the year early to have surgery to repair his right shoulder.

The right-handed Teahen said his rehab has been coming along well.

"It's a slow process, but I'm right on schedule," Teahen said.

Teahen had actually played with the injury from the end of the 2005 season, through most of the 2006 campaign.

He said the injury to his rotator cuff wasn't as serious as originally feared, and that even though it was the first time he had ever had surgery, he is scheduled to be ready to go when spring training begins.

"I'm out to 25-feet throwing now," Teahen said on Jan. 4.

Teahen talked about being part of a young nucleus that could help return the Royals to respectability.

"I'm definitely excited," he said. "The past couple of seasons we've shown some streaks. As long as we can continue to add quality players every year, those short streaks will stretch out."

Teahen is joined by first baseman Ryan Shealy and center fielder David DeJesus as players with big league experience that the club is counting on to be its core. That trio should be joined soon by outfielder Billy Butler and third baseman Alex Gordon, who both tore up Double-A pitching last season and could be with the Royals by the end of this summer.

The addition of Gordon could mean a shift of Teahen to the outfield, something he said he wouldn't be opposed to.

"Whatever I can do to help the team, that's what I'll do," Teahen said.