An Underrated Part of the Royal Winning Streak: The Starting Pitching

However, as Royals fans, we’ve seen bad rotations, and we’ve seen what just a single nightmare start can do to a pitching staff for the next three or four days. So far, we’ve avoided nightmares.

By laboring through some crummy starts, but at least eating some innings, the SP’s really have given us a chance to win.

The first half belongs to the starter. It’s his job to pitch 5-6 innings and keep us within 2 or 3 runs. With this staff, it may not be too realistic to expect more than that. If someone has a better start than that, it’s just gravy.

The second half is where it actually becomes fun to watch, and the ball is turned over to the bullpen. These kids are good now and will get better as the season progresses. All of them have the perfect mentality for bullpen work. They’re not afraid of anybody, they pound the strike zone, and they’re already forming an identity. I’m not going to chalk this up to the beard/fauhawk combo, but it seems like all the guys out there already have a strong bond with one another. And how huge a confidence booster has this start been for them and the rest of the team? There are FOUR rookies in the pen right now, and rookies are notorious for falling prey to mental lapses and emotion. If the relievers had gone out there and gotten lit up the first few games, we’d have no wins and no hope.

Maybe I’ll start turning the game on an hour after it starts so I can just see the good part where our bullpen looks unstoppable and we come back and win…

Plainly a holding action. They’re performing well, considering. We’ll probably get at least 2 solid starters from our system in the near future, and Luke will probably be OK as a mid-rotation starter for the next 5 years. We’ll need to bring in starting pitching from outside, but the pen will probably come mostly from within. I think Butler and Soria should bring something good in trade next year.

I’m happier with this team than I have been since ’07 opening day.

I always thought that Hochevar was a guy that really beat himself up and once he realized that if 1 run came in it wasn’t the end of the world, just keep slogging and get 5-7 IP for the game, then he would really come alive

I thought this was Greinke’s thing too…and look what he did…so we know for sure that Hochevar has some serious MLB level talent, I think it is just learning the mental toughness to realize that no game is won in the first inning…this is a big step for him…them coached better pound this start over his head

Greinke starts excepted. The most obvious difference is that the bullpen seemed far more unreliable then (especially in the summer of 2009, which must have been the nadir of relief pitching in Kansas City).

despite the high ERAs of Chen, Mazzaro, and possibly Davies, I think we’ll see Montgomery and Duffy, as well as Moose.

That being said, I think there is a very small chance of that happening, though this hot start has already increased their projected wins by a couple. Maybe they do get to 70 wins this year. They’d only have to play .420 baseball the rest of the way, and Jeremy Jeffress is all about that!

Also, Alex Gordon has .3 batting WAR already. At this pace, Alex Gordon is a 9 WAR hitter (fielding isn’t included at FG yet). Somehow I doubt that keeps up, and I love Gordon.

And just imagine, had Gordon’s home run ball gone fair, the Royals would be 5-0 with 5 last at bat victories. 4 in a row is pretty ridiculous, 5 would be insane.

3B Aviles
CF Melky
LF Gordon
DH Butler
1B Kila
RF Frenchy
SS Escobar
C Pena
2B Getz

P Francis

He’s on my fantasy team, so I’m taking the position that he will sustain this.

Just a good start from a guy who is capable of pitching that well now and then, and has done it in the past