Talkin Royals

The 2018 Major League Baseball Draft for the Royals was mostly about pitching. Kansas City drafted a total of 26 pitchers—14 right handers and 12 left handers. Although the team drafted several arms, only a handful of them were, and are still considered potential core pieces in the team's long term plans. The first four players selected by Kansas City in that draft were pitchers. The big four selected were Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch and Kris Bubic. Bubic and Kowar haven't exactly lived up to fans, and maybe even the team's expectations; and unfortunately, the Royals don't have a good history of developing quality starting pitchers.  Despite the team's history, I believe a few of these pitchers could turn out to be at least decent arms. Kris Bubic was one of the arms I thought would only be a solid contributor. Bubic at the beginning of his Royals’ career has struggled quite a bit, and some of that might have been due to the poor coaching s...

Kansas City heading into the season this year was and is a team full of young pitching, making the signing of Jordan Lyles really important. The Royals signed Lyles despite having underwhelming stats throughout his career. Before signing with the Royals, the righthander was an inning eater for the Rangers and the Orioles the past two seasons. According to an interview with MLB.com, Royals’ General Manager J.J Picollo explained the reasoning behind signing a pitcher with a career ERA over 5.00: "Has shown in the last two years that he can really handle a heavy workload.”  The righthander certainly isn't part of the Royals long-term plans, so his main job is mainly to take the mound every fifth day and go deep into games, taking pressure off the bullpen. A rested bullpen is great for any team, especially for a team that has a young pitching staff that hasn't shown they can go very deep into games besides Brady Singer. Kansas City unfortunately has had two pieces ...