All these stats are from the incomparable Baseball Savant.

Exit Velocity Allowed

So yeah, that’s not great. If you’re getting strikeouts, you can live with getting hit a little harder because you’re getting hit less frequently, but for guys like Skoglund and Hammel and Lively, that’s not great. It’s also not great to have two pitchers below the MLB average. If you’re looking for some optimism, well, look elsewhere.

Hard Hit %

So here’s what I’m learning. Tim Hill limits good contact pretty well. I was pretty hard on him because I just didn’t see it and a guy who isn’t good against righties should be better than he is against lefties. But he gets an awful lot of weak contact and he’s capable of getting the strikeout. Maybe I’m underestimating him. Also, Keller had a really nice season.

Barrel %

I kind of felt like Sparkman never really got squared up, even when he struggled, and he did allow the lowest percentage of barrels of anyone. It’s also no surprise that the top of the list has Adam, who I love and hope he can turn it around, but woof. Again, man, Brad Keller had a really nice season.

Launch Angle

So the biggest takeaway here is that Hill is a ground ball monster, which we knew. He’s no Scott Alexander who was at -5.8° this year, but to be negative at all is pretty impressive as he was one of just seven pitchers with 140 batted ball events or more with a negative average launch angle. And, hey, look at that. McCarthy was there too. Oh and there’s another Keller sighting on a positive leaderboard.

Whiff %

The Royals offense swings and misses too much and their pitchers don’t get enough swings and misses. You can live with some guys who get a ton of grounders like Keller, Hill and McCarthy, but there are just too many guys on this list who are either too close to or below league average. If the Royals are going to be good again, they need to get their swing and miss bullpen back first and then find a starter or two who can be above average because this just isn’t going to work in this era of baseball.

Weak Contact %

They don’t get many swings and misses and didn’t have many pitchers who elicited weak contact either. If you’re not going to do one, you need to do the other. And they didn’t in 2018. It’s probably no surprise to see Peralta at the top with his heavy fastball, but I would have thought Keller would be a little higher on this list. To see Adam near the top tells me he needs to find a middle ground more often, though him toward the top of the list says more about the Royals than him probably.

So yeah, the pitching isn’t what you’d call good. There is some hope for improvement as the team posted a 4.26 ERA from August 1^st on and struck out hitters on par with their season average, but walked fewer and gave up way fewer homers per game. And even more optimism comes from a 3.79 September ERA, though that came with a decreased strikeout total, so maybe there shouldn’t be the same optimism there. Either way, expect some new faces in that bullpen and maybe even the rotation to help turn things around in 2019, but it might be a couple years before we see a real change there.

Early on, it looked like they made a terrible mistake. Maybe moving on from Eiland wasn’t necessarily wrong, but Eldred didn’t appear to be a positive influence on the staff as they appeared unprepared for opposing offenses at times and unwilling to adjust. I know that’s an odd thing to say about a guy who never threw a pitch for the team, but I sort of felt like that was on him and I questioned his ability to do his job. Obviously the lack of talent in the bullpen was a problem, but even so, established pitchers were struggling as well, which is a bit concerning.

It was pretty much a struggle through July. The offense got more fun when Ryan O’Hearn came up and Adalberto Mondesi really got going, but it’s pretty easy to see why the team got better after July 31st. The pitching improved a great deal. After starting 33-73 with a 5.30 ERA, they went 25-31 with a 4.26 ERA the rest of the way. August wasn’t stellar, but the starters had an ERA of 4.90 while the bullpen’s was down to 4.52, their second lowest mark of the season to that point. In September, the starters really kicked it up with a 3.49 ERA and the bullpen posted a 4.39 mark, their new second best. Take a look at the starter and reliever ERAs by month here:

I guess the question is whether or not that was just noise or if there’s something to it. I think simply not having Blaine Boyer and Justin Grimm helped and limiting the innings of Jason Hammel helped quite a bit too. And overall, the numbers weren’t really that much better. There was a spike in strikeout percentage in August, but that dropped significantly in September as well as the swinging strike rate, so maybe the September numbers are a bit of a mirage. I’ll get back to that in a second on an individual basis, but here are their numbers month-by-month.

And finally, before I get into the individuals, I found it very interesting that the team ground ball percentage as a staff in the first half was 41.7 percent, which ranked fifth lowest in baseball. The fly ball percentage of 37 percent was fifth highest. In the second half, the ground ball percentage was 45.3 percent (third highest) and the fly ball percentage was 33.1 percent (fourth lowest). Here’s a look at the ground ball and fly ball numbers by month followed by the home run per nine numbers:

Now let’s talk individuals because it’s one thing to look at team numbers, but they include guys like Boyer, Grimm and Hammel and a bunch of pitchers who don’t really matter to both the future of the team and even a cursory evaluation of Eldred in his new role. The young guys are who Eldred was brought in to work with, so I actually want to see how they did throughout the season. Let’s start with the success stories and move into the…others.

Brad Keller

It’s hard to fully evaluate Keller’s season on a month-by-month basis because the first two months were mostly spent in the bullpen and then he had to evolve a bit as a pitcher, which he absolutely did. This is an Eldred success story if you pin that on a coach. He saw his strikeout percentage jump up in the last two months and his swinging strike percentage go way up in his final month with his walk rate taking a tumble. It all kind of came together for him in September as you can see his ground ball rate jumped back up to where it was early in the year as well. All in all, this is a fun one to look at.

Heath Fillmyer

Fillmyer is a massive success story even if he never becomes a solid big league pitcher. Maybe it’s just my perception because I believed he was a big nothing burger, but he just kept getting better as the season went on. When he first came up, he was a ground ball machine, as you can see below, but after settling into a starting role, he wasn’t quiet that. Still, in September, like Keller, he put together is best effort with season highs in strikeout percentage, swinging strike percentage, walk percentage (well, low there, but that’s good) and a solid enough ground ball rate. His slider is a legitimately quality big league pitch, limiting opponents to a .242 average and .318 SLG with a 35.3 percent whiff rate. The surprise is that his changeup and curve both were solid as well. He may need to pitch backward a bit, but I think there might actually be a future on a big league club for him.

Jakob Junis

It was a truly odd year for Junis, who started off looking like he was going to way outperform projections, then his season took a dark turn and then he ended up about where everyone thought he would. The key for him is keeping the ball out of the air a little better. Through June, he’d allowed 22 homers in 96.1 innings, which is decidedly not good. And he had a fly ball rate of 43.8 percent. From July through the end of the year, he allowed 10 home runs in 80.2 innings. That’s decidedly much better. And his fly ball rate then was down to 29.2 percent. His home run per fly ball wasn’t drastically different. It was good to see him continuing to keep the ball in the park even while throwing a ton of strikes. Just look at those walk rates.

Kevin McCarthy

The reason I think McCarthy was a success for the coaching staff isn’t so much the performance on the surface because he was relatively steady all year. What gets me excited about McCarthy is that he’s an extreme ground ball pitcher (64.3 percent on the year), but he started getting swings and misses in August and September. Look at those rising swinging strikes rate (11.6 percent and 12.2 percent respectively after not topping 9.6 percent in any month). If he can do that while maintaining a fantastic walk rate and his ground ball rate, he might be more than a middle reliever moving forward. It’s at least worth watching.

Danny Duffy

Duffy isn’t young, but he is a part of the future, and his season cannot be classified as anything but disappointing. Injuries played a big role here, so I don’t want to put this on Eldred, but it was a rough go. We know the baseball card numbers, but in August, his swinging strike percentage was down to just 7 percent, which is well below his average. I’m guessing this was injury, but look at this chart. He was just all over the place. I’m not sure it tells us anything, but he had a weird year. You can probably ignore September given that it’s just two-thirds of an inning and seven batters worth of work.

Brandon Maurer

Please help me. There’s something about Maurer that makes me wonder if he can be something next year. After some adjustments, his strikeout percentage jumped from 8.8 percent in July to 25 percent in August and 25.8 percent in September. He still walks too many and he’s terrible, but this is exactly the reason why he’ll get chances until he’s 112. Anyway, I just wanted to throw him in because I’m mean.

Burch Smith

He’s not good. He’s not a big leaguer. He didn’t get better. He’s just not good. But hey, he walked fewer batters in July and August. So there’s that.

I thought about throwing in Tim Hill and Jorge Lopez, but they weren’t especially interesting, though it is worth noting that Hill saw his walk rate cut in half from the first half to the second and his strikeout rate remain mostly the same. He doesn’t get a ton of swings and misses, but his ground ball rate is so good that you’re okay with that as a LOOGY. The big win for him was cutting that walk rate because he was putting way too many guys on early. Lopez is tough to gauge because the sample is tiny, but also because he was in a different role with the Royals than he had been in the big leagues before.

One other player who was of interest was Eric Skoglund. I was pretty adamant he wasn’t a big leaguer, and I might have been wrong about that. He came back in September and the back of the card numbers were very good with a 1.33 ERA and just 11 hits allowed in 20.1 innings, but the underlying numbers were not great. The sample was obviously very small, but he’s worth watching to see if that was a mirage or the improvement was for real.

In all, I really liked the trend of a fair amount of young pitchers. I’m not sure this is the best way to evaluate Eldred as a coach, but is there really a great way to evaluate coaches? It’s kind of on the players. I’d say the improvements throughout the year at least reflect well on him and seeing guys like Junis, McCarthy, Keller, Fillmyer and some others improve in various ways as the season progressed makes me hopeful for him to be able to continue to make an impact as the pitching staff theoretically skews younger over the next few seasons. I’m not sold on him, but I do feel much better about him than I did early in the season

• It’s easy to forget about Jorge Soler because he hasn’t played in the big leagues since mid-June, but if you think back to the team in May, he was probably the most exciting part of it, and with good reason. Soler is a 26-year old with plate discipline, massive power and actual athleticism, and he was somewhat making good on his promise before yet another injury derailed his season. Now, it wasn’t all perfect. He hit just .175/.238/.361 over his final 105 plate appearances of the season, but he showed that he could actually carry an offense when he got hot. But since he got hurt, the Royals have added Brett Phillips and Brian Goodwin to the outfield mix and O’Hearn has entered the fray as another offensive piece for 2019 at least, so where do the Royals go with him? Looking ahead to 2019, the roster is a little bit cramped with Alex Gordon, the aforementioned outfielders, Jorge Bonifacio and Rosell Herrera, another new addition to the big club since Soler went down. Those five along with O’Hearn, Hunter Dozier, Whit Merrifield, Adalberto Mondesi, Salvador Perez and likely Cam Gallagher as a backup catcher leave the Royals with really one roster spot open given their proclivity to carry 13 pitchers. Soler can fit there, but one of two things needs to happen for it to work. They have to believe Herrera can handle shortstop because Mondesi is not a 162-game player like Alcides Escobar has been (for better or for worse) or they’ll have to move away from Herrera’s versatility and sign a utility infielder (please not Escobar) who can handle shortstop as a backup. But if they choose to sign that utility player and keep Herrera, I don’t know where Soler fits. And while he had a nice season offensively, I can’t imagine his trade value is especially high. It’s a bit of a conundrum.
• Some notable Royals who will be out of options next season are Mondesi, Bonifacio, Goodwin (he already is), Lopez and Brian Flynn. Of course, Cheslor Cuthbert is famously out of options and has been since seemingly 2010, so the Royals will have some restrictions on their roster next year. In addition, Paulo Orlando (big time DFA candidate) and Bubba Starling (same) will be out of options as well, which should enhance their DFA likelihood. Obviously, their hope is that Mondesi and Bonifacio are good enough to stay on the roster all year, so they’re not all that important. But Goodwin, Lopez and Flynn are interesting enough. I think Goodwin has shown a great deal since coming over with a nice bat and has shown well in center field. An outfield with him in center, Phillips in right and Gordon in left is one that can be one of the better defensive outfields out there, though Goodwin and Gordon aren’t the fleetest of foot, so from a ground covering perspective, Phillips might be needed to be in the middle even though his arm plays better in right than Goodwin’s. But there are other factors, such as Nicky Lopez and his potential callup to the big leagues that might push Whit Merrifield to center field again next year. So there are a lot of questions, but Goodwin is an interesting player to watch as someone who might be auditioning more for his next team than his role on the next good Royals team.
• Even before they started winning, the Royals pitching started to look much better and in their last 21 games before last night, they’d posted a 3.53 ERA with fewer hits than innings pitched and a reasonable home run rate. Their walk rate has dropped by a decent amount as well over the last few weeks, which is really nice to see. The starters are the real bread winners here, averaging about six innings per start before last night (and that includes Duffy’s outing of less than an inning) with an ERA of 3.11, fewer hits than innings pitched and very few home runs. It’s been really encouraging to see what the young (for the most part) rotation has done. And Fillmyer, I thought, was terrific last night even though the numbers aren’t quite as good because of the eighth inning. The bullpen has been better, but not enough. They’ve given up too many home runs and they’ve been way too hittable. I will say it looks better if you take Jason Hammel out, but it’s still not where you want it. To me, I think guys like Jake Newberry, Glenn Sparkman and newly acquired Jerry Vasto are going to have their chance to join Kevin McCarthy and probably Wily Peralta in the 2019 bullpen, but I really believe there’ll be at least a couple new faces along with the potential debut of Richard Lovelady next year. There’s work to be done.
• Since the start of this 18-game stretch where they’ve gone 12-6, one thing that I’m not sure stands out, but I’ve noticed is that they’re actually walking quite a bit more.  They’ve walked 59 times now in their last 18 games. That’s a walk rate of 8.8 percent, which isn’t anything special. It would rank around 11th or 12th in baseball, though, which is considerably higher than where they are. It’s also WAY higher than the 7 percent they were walking before this stretch. A lot of it is just silly randomness, but guys like Alex Gordon, Ryan O’Hearn and even Jorge Bonifacio have done a nice job of working walks and all have a place on the 2019 Royals. We’ve mentioned the patience of some of the players in the lower levels of the system, so we can at least dream a little that this is the start of a more patient lineup for years to come. I’m not holding my breath, but you never know.

For awhile, the bullpen wasn’t so much the problem as three pitchers – Blaine Boyer, Jason Grimm and Brandon Maurer. That’s actually still true. Just look at these numbers for fun.

Whole Team

Sans MGB

Even though 13 percent of the bullpen’s innings brought the unit’s ERA up a full point, I don’t think it’s fair to say this bullpen is actually any good if you exclude those three. For one, Maurer is still on the team and he’s even thrown four straight scoreless innings somehow. Plus, the same 13 percent of innings going the other way belong to Kelvin Herrera who isn’t even on the team anymore and Brad Keller who is now in the starting rotation. So let’s just say that even though those three are a big ol’ gas can, the bullpen is still a problem. In fact, take a look at the numbers without Herrera and Keller:

So yeah, losing Keller and Herrera from the bullpen hurts quite a bit. Just for fun, here’s what the current crop of relievers have done this year:

All this makes me think back to Dayton Moore’s statements about how he’s embarrassed by this season and how they’re going to do better in 2019. The Royals are 34-78. The bullpen has been responsible for 24 losses. Some of them are not their fault, but they’ve given up leads in 12 games and lost 12 tie games. The offense shoulders some of this blame, but this isn’t about them. This is about the bullpen that is one of the worst we’ve seen in a long time in Kansas City. I’m just pulling a number out of thin air here, but even an average bullpen probably wins, let’s say, six of the games with a  blown lead. And maybe pulls out four of the 12 ties. I’m not even talking about a good bullpen, but an average one. So give the Royals 12 more wins and they’re 46-66. They’re still horrible, still picking top five or six next year, but it’s less disheartening.

Those numbers are exactly why I believe the Royals are going to do something silly and spend some money or player collateral on the bullpen. I understand to some extent. At least a portion of developing big leaguers is winning games, and this bullpen is a deterrent to winning games. And if the Royals end up trading for some long-term assets in the bullpen, I’ll be a lot more okay with that than if they try to make a free agent splash. So what could the 2019 bullpen look like?

Let’s start with the incumbents. The Royals best three relievers right now are, I hope you’re sitting, Kevin McCarthy, Brian Flynn and Wily Peralta. All have been fine, but none of those three should ever be better than maybe the fourth best reliever in a bullpen. I think they all have their place in a big league bullpen if there aren’t better options, but they need to do better. Glenn Sparkman and Jason Adam have shown flashes of being acceptable as well, though Adam obviously allows too many home runs right now and I think Sparkman falls in the same category as the first three eventually.

There are a couple minor league options. Richard Lovelady is the obvious here, and I think he’ll be up in the big leagues soon enough and it’s pretty clear he’s part of the future plans. Josh Staumont has been in the rotation and the bullpen this year, but as a reliever has excelled in many ways this year. The issue is that he’s still walking way too many with 35 in 44.2 innings out of the bullpen. Still, 65 strikeouts in that time is pretty attractive. And they also have Jorge Lopez, who they received in the Mike Moustakas deal. The Royals are figuring out his role right now, but I’ll play spoiler and tell you he ends up in the bullpen. He hasn’t been good yet and has control issues like Staumont, but a 95 MPH fastball and a plus curve could be a nice combination.

Looking to free agents, I could see the Royals signing a guy to close with the idea of maybe flipping him in July. Cody Allen is out there and maybe his struggles push him to a team like the Royals, but I still think he gets a deal with a contender. David Robertson will be a free agent, but I can’t imagine he’ll enjoy going from a team like the Yankees to the Royals unless he’s desperate to get a closer’s job and nobody else is offering one. Your better bets here are guys like John Axford, Brad Brach, Brad Ziegler or maybe someone like Justin Wilson.

And looking at some trade targets, maybe they see if they can get Ken Giles right if he doesn’t do well in Toronto. The Mariners are always a possibility to trade with and they have Alex Colome setting up for Edwin Diaz and might want some youth somewhere. I bet the Rockies would gladly move away from their Bryan Shaw deal. Or their Jake McGee deal. Or their Wade Davis deal. That’s a lot of money to absorb in any of those deals, so they’re unlikely, but you never know what can be worked out.

The point is, right or wrong, the Royals are probably going to be making some bullpen moves unless a few players step up over the last couple months of the season. I don’t think they’ll be spending huge money or anything, but it’s difficult to look at what this bullpen has done so far and how Dayton Moore feels about this season and not think there are changes coming. Is it worth it to win 71 games instead of 64? I don’t believe it is, but I have a feeling the front office disagrees and they get the final say for better or for worse.

The First base competeition: Samir Duenez vs Ryan O’Hearn

Two of the better names in this tier are first baseman, instead of giving you a profile on each I thought I would compare the the two players minor league careers to the point along with their future to decide for the longterm which will fit the K and the Royals more.

Age: Advantage Duenez – This is a huge advantage in Samir’s column as Duenez was putting up a 16 HR, 100+ RBI season this past year at 20-years old while O’Hearn was completing a sophomore campaign at Sam Houston state where he hit just one HR in 76 games at that age.

Athleticism: Slight Advantage O’Hearn – The advantage defensively belongs to O’Hearn here slightly as he shows better movement in the outfield of the two players even though I believe Duenez to be a better first base defender long-term. On the bases, Duenez is a superior player, using his knowledge and speed to swipe 26 bags in 30 tries this season. In the end, while O’Hearn shows the chops to play an outfield spot defensively in a small park, I must take that advantage away going forward as neither could play an efficient defensive outfield at the K. Duenez’s better baserunning gives him a slight advantage overall moving forward.

Power: Advantage Present O’Hearn, Advantage Future Duenez – The current advantage belongs to O’Hearn, he of the 25 home runs between regular and postseason this year. As I mentioned previously, Duenez, in terms of age and the adjustment the Royals made with his hips this past season, unlocked power that could have him bust out in the future.

Hit Tool: Advantage Duenez – Duenez has shown a knack for contact his entire career, but it’s been a struggle to turn that contact into meaningful contact. That should improve this season as he continues to add strength to his body. On the other hand, O’Hearn has struggled with strikeouts and may continue to get exposed with that as he climbs the ladder. He did have a decent hitting season in the AZL, despite sacrificing power there.

All told, the advantage in my mind lies with Duenez and I’m sure that opinion is pretty much on an island among prospect gurus, but I’m quite okay with that. At 19 heading into 20-years old last season, too many, myself included, had given up a tad quickly on him.

Photo credit: Bill Setliff, Flickr

Scott Blewett – The big New Yorker has been a slow go in the Royals system, but there is still plenty of upside in the right arm of his. He worked from mid-90s in ’15, then back to low 90s towards the end of that season, then back into the low to mid-90s this last season with his fastball. The size of the frame could lead to possibly more velocity in the future or at least a more stable mid-90s fastball to get in the 50-60 range on the pitch. The plane of the arm angle/frame leads to plenty of groundballs when he’s working at his best, along with some swing and miss when he’s overpowering hitters. This past season he highlighted both at different times and started to miss more bats during his final 10 starts, with a rate of 9.9 K per 9, which is easily the best stretch of his young career.

The curve combines nicely in plane with the fastball working from 11/5 angle that he creates groundballs and whiffs when he chooses to drive it into the ground. The offering is a solid number two pitch and has the makings of a true above average pitch as he refines the control which he showed highlights of at the end of the season. In addition to that curve, the changeup started to come forward at the end of the season. It’s in a much better place than it was at the end of ’15 when it was being used once or twice a game. It still needs to improve as a pitch, but given his age and the growth it has shown this past season, there are possibilities that it could develop into an average pitch.

The size (likely durability), age and current/possible arsenal lead to a mid to back end future starter or back end reliever. Still just 20 years old, one could dream he gets to that #3 200+ inning starting pitcher.

Corey Toups – Not many players did as much to improve their stock within the system as this middle infielder this past season. Small of stature at just 5’10”, 170 lbs. he still carries a mighty loud bat as evidenced by his 16 home runs in 135 games played between the regular and postseason this year at High-A and Double-A. In total, the now second baseman clipped out 60 extra base hits from the right side while stealing 22 in bags in 26 tries. Still refining his defensive skills at second, Toups should become an average or better defender at the keystone spot with his athleticism and grinder mentality once he becomes fully accustomed to the position.

Overlooked due to his size at the NCAA levels and in the draft, Toups uses that to motivate him and prove those wrong. A possible top of the order bat for the Royals if he can cutback on the strikeouts, use the gap to gap approach that comes with his strong hands that generates surprising strength, and a quick bat. Not bad for a 15th round pick in the 2014 draft. The Royals lost Orlando Calixte and Dusty Coleman via minor league free agency this year which could open up a spot at Triple-A Omaha for Toups.

Eric Skoglund – Plenty of hype this offseason for Eric Skoglund as he ranked in the Top 5 of Royals prospects in one publication recently. Unfortunately I can’t get on that train as the starter I saw doesn’t yield more than a backend spot for me in the future. Working in the 90-92 range in the start I saw (a one-hit gem) Skoglund pairs the fastball nicely with a couple of average to a tick below secondary offerings, but everything works from the fastball that to me is a below average major league offering. Yes, he can locate it well to defeat Double-A hitters now, but I fear what it will do as he climbs the ladder. To me he’s a fifth or fringe starter with limited upside as the fastball is built around control, working side to side but limited movement. The best future role I see for him is probably that as a LOOGY. After a successful run at Double-A in ’16 the lefty could get the challenge of pitching in the PCL for Omaha.

A.J. Puckett – The Royals had very limited resources during the draft this season, having no first round pick and the second lowest amount of money allocated to them. That meant the Royals had to stay close to the vest and draft within slot. With that strategy they went with a successful college pitcher who ran up one of the highest scoreless inning streaks in years. Once in the organization the Royals were conservative with him, limiting him to 77 or fewer pitches in all but one outing, and no more than five innings in any. That included a five inning no-hit outing where he threw just 56 pitches.

His stuff is similar to that of a few other pitchers in the organization, working in the 91-93 mph range with the fastball that shows good control on most nights. His ability to mix and match eye levels with control to both sides of the plate is what helped him excel in college and during his good outings in Low-A ball. Pairing that with a change up that is an above average pitch from the same slot and arm speed with fade which allows the pair of pitches to work well off of each other. The pitches that drag behind currently are the curve and slider, with the Royals draft crew of Lonnie Goldberg and company preferring the slider at the time of the draft. This should prove to be interesting as the development staff generally prefers to work with the curveball. One of those pitches will need to come forward for Puckett to reach his mid-rotation ceiling.

Overall the athleticism is solid, the control is there and the mentality is top notch. Now he just needs to find a breaking ball that will get him to where the Royals drafted him. Expect him to join Scott Blewett in Wilmington.

Nicky Lopez – For the most part the Royals acquire their potential shortstop talent in Latin America or via Latin American talent from other organizations (Yuniesky Betancourt, Alcides Escobar). Not to say that they don’t draft shortstops, but for the most part they haven’t been able to pop one that is good enough to stick at the position and hit enough to move up the organizational ladder without moving off the position. That might change with 2016’s fifth round pick Nicky Lopez. After being drafted out of Creighton (a home run graveyard) Lopez shined in the Appy League where he showed a competent plate approach and a little bit of pop, hitting six home runs in 62 games while reaching base at a .393 clip. Showing off a natural athleticism, Lopez was outstanding on the defensive end while also stealing 24 bags in 28 tries. I like his chances to make it further down the road than the college shortstop draftees the Royals have picked in the past. Expect him to head to Lexington or even Wilmington this season where, if the offense shines enough, he could get a quick boost to the next level.

Alfredo Escalera – A rough April put Escalera behind the eight ball on his 2016 season, but he rebounded with a strong May and June to earn a promotion to Double-A. With solid average tools across the board Escalera has a limited ceiling, but a solidly high floor that could possibly turn into a right-handed David DeJesus type career. He will enter his age 22 season at Double-A where he needs to improve his plate discipline still and provide a bit more pop in the bat. In his career to date he has shown a solid ability to hit good fastballs while adapting to a league a second time through.

Kevin McCarthy – A somewhat surprising addition to the roster last season late was McCarthy, a right-handed reliever that they took in the 16th round of the 2013 draft. The stuff with McCarthy doesn’t light up the gun like relievers in the past from the Royals org which is the reason I left him in the second tier, but prior to this season he’s been adept at pounding the strikezone with his sinking fastball (low to mid 90’s) and slider (mid to upper 80’s). Neither pitch is all that dynamic, working more as a groundball type reliever with both compared to the usual swing and miss guy the Royals generally employ from the bullpen. There is a good chance he pitches in KC at some point when considering injuries unless others pass him by prior.

Bubba Starling – What happened? After an uplifting season between High-A, Double-A and the fall league in 2015, things fell apart in ’16 for Starling. The timing at the plate was off from the start of the season in his swing and it continued for the full season. The front foot appeared to be out of whack and the pitch recognition also appeared to take a step back. At this point the dream of being a solid average player seems to have passed, while the hopes of a Drew Stubbs like career may be dimming as well.

Miguel Almonte – Like Starling, 2016 was a total disaster for Miguel Almonte as he showed little ability to control his uptick on the fastball. The righties’ raw stuff is as good as any in the org with a fastball that regularly tips the scales around 98, a change up that is still one of the better ones in the organization, and a breaking ball has come forward to the point of it being an average pitch. The problems around Almonte are an inconsistent delivery, a flat plane that is easier to square up for hitters, and poor control. There are a ton of tools to work with here, but to this point the development crew has yet to get through to Almonte.

HR Roll Call: Hunter Dozier (18), Raul Mondesi (8), Meibrys Viloris (5), David Edwards (4), Gabriel Cancel (2), Seuly Matias (5), Jose Carabello (3)

BP KC Hitter of the Day – Raul Mondesi 3-5, 2R, 2b, 3b, HR, 3 RBI, SB (20)

BP KC Pitcher of the Day – Kevin McCarthy 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 4-1 GO-FO, 29p/20k

Omaha Storm Chasers 13 Las Vegas 51s 6 

A rain delay is all the Omaha bats needed to wake up at home against Las Vegas in the second game of their four game series. Thc Chasers had scored no more than three runs in their previous three games when they erupted for a nine-run inning following more than an hour rain delay. With Omaha trailing 2-0 in the third, the skies delayed the game with rain which forced the 51s starter out of the game. With Vegas reliever Beck Wheeler on the hill, Omaha knocked six consecutive two-out hits to score nine runs in the inning. In the frame, Omaha connected on four extra base hits with two doubles from Tony Cruz, a triple by Raul Mondesi and Hunter Dozier’s first Werner Park home run.

The run explosion put starter Alec Mills in good position to earn his third Triple-A win after completing five innings with three runs allowed, and the righty showed much better feel for his secondary offerings following the delay. Mondesi would expand on the lead in the sixth inning with his seventh home run of the season, leaving him just a single shy of the cycle. With the Chasers adding another run, was scored in the seventh inning which would bring up the 20 year old Mondesi with a chance to finish the cycle. Mondesi knowing full well that he was trying to complete the cycle told me following the game that “I didn’t wait for my pitch” which caused him to strikeout swinging to miss out on a chance at completing his second cycle in the minor leagues. Despite that missed opportunity Omaha wasn’t done scoring, adding two more runs in the eighth before newly-added Edward Mujica would give up three runs in the ninth for the 13-6 final.

Boxscore Link

Hunter Dozier 1-4, 2R, HR, 2 RBI, BB, SB (2)
Balbino Fuenmayor 4-5, R, 2b, RBI
Alec Mills 5 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 4-3 GO-FO, 80p/54k

Tulsa Drillers 7 NW Arkansas Naturals 1

Jake Junis had his worst start in over a month, giving up five runs over 6.1 innings on nine hits to take his fifth loss of the season. While Junis was less than himself, the offense missed seven opportunities with runners in scoring position to drop behind the Drillers by a 1/2 game in the standings. The two teams will finish their four game set later today.

Boxscore Link

Jake Junis 6.1 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 5-6 GO-FO, 91/61k
Ryan O’Hearn 2-3, R, BB
Frank Schwindel 1-3, 2b

Lynchburg Hillcats 4 Wilmington Blue Rocks 0

The Hillcats completed the sweep of the Rocks Tuesday afternoon, completing a second consecutive shutout in the win. The loss was credited to starter Zach Lovvorn who dropped to 1-12 on the season after allowing four runs in six innings. Lovvorn allowed a run in the first before a three-run double was put on the board versus him in the fifth inning. Just four singles for the offense in this one, extending their scoreless inning streak to 19 games.

Boxscore Link

Elier Hernandez 2-3
Zach Lovvorn 6 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 4-2 GO-FO, 98p/61k
Jake Newberry 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, 2-2 GO-FO, 48p/28k

Idaho Falls 6 Missoula Osprey 5

Idaho Falls and their young and talented catcher made a come from behind win Tuesday to take over sole possession of first place in the Pioneer League. Trailing 1-0 and hitless through four innings Meibrys kickstarted the offense with a leadoff infield single, part of five singles and three runs in the in the inning. The Osprey would rebound to score four runs in the top of the next inning to regain a 5-3 lead. Unfortunately for Missoula young Viloria wasn’t finished on the night, singling in a run in the sixth inning to pull the Chukars within a run. Down one in the bottom of the eighth inning Viloria and David Edwards would knock back to back home runs to give Idaho Falls a 6-5 lead that they would eventually close out for the win in the ninth.

Boxscore Link

Meibrys Viloria 3-4, 2R, HR, 2 RBI
David Edwards 2-4, 2R, HR, RBI
Alex Luna 5.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 6-2 GO-FO, 96p/61k

Princeton Rays 12 Burlington Rays 5

It’s difficult to win a game after giving up a 12 run inning and that’s what happened to the Royals on Tuesday. Up 4-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning the Rays busted the game open with a 12 run frame that included six two-out hits against two different Burlington pitchers. The loss pushed the Royals a half of a game behind the Rays in the division race.

Boxscore Link

Nicky Lopez 1-3, R, BB, SB (16)
Jonathan McCray 2-4, R, RBI
Gabriel Cancel 1-4, HR, 2 RBI

AZL Royals 7 AZL Reds 0

The Royals used maybe Glenn Sparkman’s last rehab appearance to break their four game losing streak. The righty who is working his way back from Tommy John surgery worked five scoreless innings with five strikeouts allowed to earn the decision. Sparkman was backed by an offense that scored seven runs on eight hits and three Reds errors, three of those runs were unearned. One of the runs that wasn’t unearned was Seuly Matias fifth home run, a second inning homer that cleared the left field fence. Newly signed draftee Anthony Bender tossed the final four innings scoreless with four strikeouts and just one hit allowed to earn his first save.

Boxscore Link

Seuly Matias 1-5, HR
Anthony Bender 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 5-4 GO-FO
Khalil Lee 1-4, BB, RBI

DSL Royals 3 DSL A’s 0 

Just two hits for the Royals but that was enough to win their eighth game in a row thanks to a shutout tossed by their pitching staff. Four pitchers navigated around six hits and five walks to work through nine scoreless while Jose Carabello’s sixth inning three-run home run pushed them in position for the win.

Boxscore Link

Jose Carabello 1-3, HR, 3 RBI
Andres Martin 1-3, R
Jose Tapia 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 0-2 GO-FO

HR Roll Call Brandon Dulin (2)

BP KC Hitter of the Day Jorge Bonifacio 2-4 R, 2b, 3 RBI, BB

BP KC Pitcher of the Day Eric Skoglund 6 IP 6 H 1 ER 1 BB 5 K 9-1 GO-FO 90p/61k

Colorado Springs Sky Sox 8 Omaha Storm Chasers 5 

The Chasers came out slugging, got solid pitching early but it wasn’t enough in Colorado Springs. Royals prospects Jorge Bonifacio and Hunter Dozier helped pace the offense early as the pair combined for four hits and three runs scored. Omaha built a 5-0 lead through six innings, getting 3.2 innings scoreless from Miguel Almonte with him pitching on an abbreviated pitch count as he recovers from shoulder pain. Reliever Clayton Mortensen gave up two runs in the 7th after coming in for Almonte in the 4th inning. The Sky Sox trimmed that three run deficit to one in the 8th with a two run home run off reliever Scott Alexander. With the lead at 5-4 Alexander would retire the first hitter before an infield single and an error by shortstop Ramon Torres would put a SkySox runner in scoring position. Manager Brian Pohlberg would elect to pull Alexander and go with closer Kevin McCarthy. The righty would quickly earn a strikeout to push Omaha within an out of a victory. Following that out an infield single from Brewers uber-prospect Orlando Arcia would push the tying run to 3rd and a stolen base by Arcia would quickly add the lead runner into scoring position. Pohlberg would elect to walk Andy Wilkins to create a force at every base but that decision would quickly prove to be a poor choice as Will Middlebrooks crushed a grand slam to walk it off for a Colorado Springs win.

Springfield Cardinals 1 NW Arkansas Naturals 0

The Naturals offensive woes continued in game three of their four game series with Springfield, Collecting just two hits, a double from Cam Gallagher and a single from Ryan O’Hearn, while getting blanked for a second night in a row. The lack of offense gave Eric Skoglund a loss despite six innings of one run ball from him and three hitless innings from the bullpen. Skoglund, a 2014 3rd round pick, continues to show solid control, walking just 1.85 per 9 while putting away nearly eight per 9 (7.8) for a 4/1 K to walk ratio. A single with two on in the 2nd created the only run of the game and pushed Springfield one game closer to a four game sweep over NW Arkansas.

Boxscore Link

Evan Beal 2 IP 0 H 0 R 1 BB 2 K 3-1 GO-FO 28p/15k
Cam Gallagher 1-2 2b, SB (2)
Ryan O’Hearn 1-4 2b (19)

Game 1
Carolina Mudcats 9 Wilmington Blue Rocks 2

Rocks starter Josh Staumont got roughed up in game one before giving way to Jacob Bodner who didn’t fair much better. the two right-handed pitchers gave up nine runs on 13 hits and four walks in just 5.1 innings to push Staumont’s record to 2-7 on the season. While those two gave up plenty of hits and runs the Wilmington offense was able to muster just four hits and a pair of runs.

Boxscore Link

Humberto Arteaga 1-3 R
Austin Bailey 1-3 RBI
Josh Staumont 4.1 IP 7 H 5 R 4 ER 3 BB 3 K 7-1 88p/55k

Wilmington Blue Rocks 3 Carolina Mudcats 2

Reliever Kyle Kubat gave Wilmington four scoreless innings to start game two before giving way to Derek Gordon who hung on for the win. The Rocks used single runs in the 5th, 6th and 7th to take the win while Gordon up single runs in the 5th and 7th. An error in the 7th on a Humberto Arteaga single allowed Cody Jones to score from first to give Wilmington the eventual winning run.

Boxscore Link 

Humberto Arteaga 2-4 RBI
Josh Banuelos 1-2 R, BB
Kyle Kubat 4 IP 3 H 0 R 0 BB 1 K 7-0 47p/31k

Lexington Legends 6 Augusta GreenJackets 5

The Legends turned the tables on Augusta Saturday night, coming back from a three run deficit to win late. The game was knotted through six innings when the GreenJackets scored three runs off Legends reliever Franco Terrero in the 7th to take a 5-2 lead. Outfielder Shawon Dunston’s two run home run was the big knock in the three run inning. The Legends scored a run in he 8th draw closer before a big ninth inning. A two out rally single by Roman Collins in the 9th was the big knock, scoring Mike Hill and Marten Gasparini when the Augusta rightfielder committed an error. That error allowed Collins to move into scoring position and he quickly scored on D.J. Burt’s single right. An outfield assist at home from Collins in the bottom half of the ninth saved Lexington’s lead and the win.

Boxscore Link

Marten Gasparini 1-3 2R, BB
D.J. Burt 2-4 R, BB, RBI 2SB (17)
Roman Collins 1-5 R, 2 RBI

Idaho Falls Chukars 7 Ogden Raptors 2

The Chukars improved to 2-0 with a big offensive performance in game 2. Every hitter in the Idaho Falls lineup reached base at least once on the night while the team cracked 15 hits, walked twice and scored seven runs. First baseman Brandon Dulin got the offense rolling with a two run home run in the 1st inning while no hitter in the lineup scored more than one run during the game as they spread the wealth. Four different Chukar pitchers worked to give Idaho Falls the victory.

Boxscore Link

Igol Feliz 4.1 IP 2 H 1 Er 3 BB 3 K 6-3 75p/46k
Ricky Aracena 2-4 BB
Angelo Castellano 1-4 2b, R, 3 RBI

DSL Red Sox1 5 DSL Royals 3

Boxscore Link

Angel Medina 1-4 R
Juan Pegeuro 1-3 2b, RBI
Dennicher Carrasco 1-3