I want to like Hochevar. I want him to succeed because somewhere, deep inside, he has talent. We’ve all seen it with his 80-some pitch CG and his 3-hitter the other day. But you can’t put six or seven bad games in between a couple of brilliant games. Unless you’re Bloomquist.

if he can put up a good first half in the pen, move him back to the rotation. or, just leave him there. Get him down to 2-3 pitches, focus on throwing strikes, and I bet he could be a really good reliever. Does it suck if our #1 draft pick tops out as a good reliever? Yeah, but at this point he’s a 6.20 ERA disaster, and he’s not getting any younger. Either way, I think you have to move either Davies or Hochevar to the pen, or maybe both and sign somebody in the offseason to fill out the rotation. It would be one thing if Hoch was having merely an average year, but when the ERA is above 6 and you’re over 100IP, you’re just in Jose Lima territory. At this point I think it is becoming fairly obviously the whole starting rotation thing is not working out for him, and it would probably be wise to make some sort of change. AAA didn’t do anything, so we’re running low on options.

i think it’s at least a season to early to be able to say anything definitive about what Hochevar might become. Maybe two seasons. Pitchers develop at their own rates. What we know about Luke is that he has shown flashes of brilliance and that he works his ass off. What we also know is that he’s prone to the blow-up. Often that has to do with temperament. He cares too much and loses it and makes small problems big problems. Also he’s pitching in front of a terrible defense. Both of those issues can be helped. Many pitchers take a couple of years to learn how to control themselves on the mound. Can “slow things down” and learn how not to get overwhelmed in pressure situations. If he improves that and the Royals get a better defense then there’s no reason he can’t be a very good SP before he becomes a FA.

Also, because of the nature of his struggles, it seems to me that inserting him into high leverage situations is perhaps the worst way to foster him.

Another good night from Maier.

OBP up to 339 for the season, and somewhere in the upper 300s since the AS break.

Small sample size caveats aside – I’m beginning to think Mitch could become a 350 OBP guy playing full time. Sure, his slugging will most likely never exceed much more than 400 – but combined with his affordable salary status, his above avg defense, and decent baserunning skills, he should definitely be considered a potential solution to one of the starting OF holes going forward. Excellent stopgap candidate – will be cheap for 3 or 4 more years, and he is just now 27, so we won’t really want him after the 3 or 4 cheap years.

Wonder how Moore will botch this decision?

To Tampa Bay. Like that other guy said.