Royals Four Year Strikeout Rate Increasers

A few days ago, Dave Cameron at Fangraphs wanted me to look for pitchers that have increased their strikeout rate (K/9) for at least 4 years in a row over the past 20 years for his article on Doug Fister. Since I had the data, I decided to look at the previous and current Royals on the list. No real conclusions can be taken from the data, but it is a little interesting.

Zack Greinke - A nice increase in values until to his Cy Young year in 2009

Tom "Flash" Gordon - Only in 1995 year he was with K.C. Most of his increase in values was because of his move to reliever.

Luis Mendoza - I love how Mendoza made the list. A total of just 18 IP piched for the first 3 seasons.

Ricky Bottalico - What a horrible signing. He was second on the team in 2000 with 9 wins. IIRC, they were almost all from his own blow saves (Note: I was wrong, only 3 were from his own blown Saves, but all 3 accured on or before May 7th that season).

J.P. Howell - Dayton's first horrible trade. At least the Royals got someone who could jump over a car because there are so many cars driving around in the OF.

Chad Durbin - The main reason why Tony Muser will always be the worst Royals manager, IMO, is the way he handled Durbin. I can't believe he blew out Chad's arm. Somehow, Chad was able to make the list twice.