FanPost

Who is Anthony Lerew?

Well, for starters, he's your Kansas City Royals starting pitcher for today against the Boston Red Sox.  Lerew is a 2001 11th rounder who was signed by J.J. Picollo while with the Atlanta Braves.  Anthony is a former Baseball America Top Prospect for the Carolina League.  In 2004 he was the #5 prospect in the Atlanta Braves pipeline.

In parts of 3 big league seasons, Lerew is 0-2 while pitching in 11 games.  Lerew has started 3 career games. Lerew finished the Naturals season strong including a complete game shutout in the first round of the Texas League Divisional Series. 

Lerew signed with the Royals after being released by the Braves.  Anthony had Tommy John surgery in 2007.  According to him, he throws a fast, change, and slider.

I saw him pitch one time this season at Springfield.  This is what I wrote.

Anthony Lerew started the game.  He is a very fast worker and sprints onto the field when it's his turn to go to the mound.  He throws a pitch about ever 8 to 10 seconds.  Very fast worker.  Lerew threw a 4-seam, 2-seam, change, and curve.  It's more of a slurve type pitch.  The 4 seam clocked in from 92-96 on the stadium gun.  (I asked some scouts how off the stadium gun was, and the consensus was 3 mph)  So Lerew was really 89-93 on the Stalker with the 4-seam.  His 2-seam had about 2-3 inches of armside run clocking in at 88-92 Stalker.  The change had minimal armside run and was a very good pitch for him when down.  The change clocked in at 80-82.  And the slurve was a good pitch as well.  It had good gloveside movement and made some guys chase.  The slurve went from 72-76.  Lerew's mechanics are slightly herky-jerky and he looked a little awkward at times with the offspeed stuff.  But he managed to stay in control and pull a W in 7.0 innings.  He is a contact guy posting only 2 Ks versus 1 BB.  Gave up 5 hits and 3 Runs/2 Earned.  Oh, he had 9 ground ball outs... so I think he's a GB type pitcher using that 2 seam to sink.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.