Singer's Second Verse Way Too Similar to the First

Another day of struggles for the Royals righty with pretty much no difference from earlier this season.

When Brady Singer went on the IL last month, he probably did have some shoulder fatigue. I think most pitchers probably do, especially after a short season like the one everyone had in 2020. But more importantly, the Royals wanted to limit some innings for their young pitchers. Guys like Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic and Carlos Hernandez have had their innings limited already with time off the big league roster, but Singer hadn’t had that opportunity, so he had some time off.

And when he went to a rehab assignment in Omaha, it was a chance to reset a little and get ready to get back to the big leagues and throw enough pitches to get through four or five innings. But it was also to work on adding that third pitch. Right now, they’re working on a changeup with him. Of course, they’ve been working on that changeup with him for the better part of three years since he was drafted, but they still are. And in his last start in Omaha, he threw 10 of them. Considering the fact that he’d thrown 104 in his big league career prior to yesterday, 10 in one game is a lot.

In the big leagues, he’s thrown his changeup more than 10 percent of the time just twice in a game - August 9 of last year and April 4 of this year (his first start). He threw it 17.5 percent of the time in that start. The message seemed to be getting to him. You might recall me expressing some big-time frustration with him over his resistance to even being questioned about it, so I was actually excited to see what he could do with that pitch against a Yankees lineup that featured six lefties in it.

He walked the first batter, though he did suffer from a bad call on ball four. He threw four sinkers and one slider. He then struck out the next hitter with four sinkers and one slider. Then it was a single from Aaron Judge on a first pitch sinker. He walked Joey Gallo and threw his first changeup. It wasn’t a great one and Gallo took it, but it was good for a hitter to see it. Of course, the bases were loaded and a Luke Voit single on a sinker drove in two. Then a Rougned Odor single on a sinker drove in another and then he got the last batter on a first pitch slider.

So that’s his first inning. That’s 16 sinkers, five sliders and one changeup. On the plus side, he didn’t leave anything especially hittable, but he also wasn’t close enough to the zone to get chases on pitches just off the plate like Singer needs with his current repertoire. I am probably a little harsh on Singer because he's irked me with the attitude I perceive during his press conferences post-pitching, so I think it’s probably fair to say that he might have been a bit rusty. He also gave up seven runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings in two starts in Omaha, so maybe I’m being perfectly fair.

I thought his second was much better, which might lend some credence to knocking off the rust in the first inning. He gave up two hits, but worked his way through it and only ended up throwing 14 pitches.

I thought this looked better, but even still, no changeups. But again, he was much closer to the plate and he stayed out of the middle of the plate for the most part. It really feels like that third pitch could help here, but I’m no pitching coach. And he was really solid in the third inning too. I think he actually threw a changeup in that inning, but it was captured as a four-seam fastball. His changeup does come out harder than most and it should mimic the look of a fastball, so I will buy that he threw a second one in the third inning.

And then the fourth happened. He left a slider down the middle to Tyler Wade, who hit it down the line in right. It wasn’t hard hit, but the slider just hung. It would have been a really nice spot for a changeup. He got Rob Brantly to fly out on a fantastic play by Whit Merrifield.

And then the lineup turned over for a third time. That third time through is such a great time to introduce a pitch the opponent hadn’t seen much of. So he threw two straight sliders to DJ LeMahieu. The second was hit for a single. He threw a sinker to Brett Gardner. He got a hit. Then he threw a slider and two sinkers to Aaron Judge. Judge got a hit too. And that was it for him. To be fair to Singer, it was only six pitches, but there didn’t appear to even be a thought to try a different pitch, and that is just so frustrating to me. Richard Lovelady came in and got Gallo to fly out to preserve the game somewhat, but the final line was really, really ugly:

He didn’t have command of his sinker often as it tailed arm side quite a bit. His slider wasn’t fooling anyone with just one swing and miss on it. And he threw two changeups (yeah, I’m counting that fastball as one). I know that I’m hard on Singer, and maybe it’s unfair, but this is just another in a long line of Singer starts that leaves you wondering if he’ll ever figure things out. At least there are other young starters making strides.

I don’t know what the answer with Singer is. As the broadcast was starting yesterday, Rex Hudler was about as critical as you’ll hear him be and he was talking about how a two-pitch pitcher likely can’t be a starter. But my issue with Singer in the bullpen is that I don’t think his command is good enough to get by unless his hard stuff velocity kicks up more than the typical increase. He leaves his slider in a hittable spot way too often and he loses the ability to put the sinker where he wants way too often. Maybe he can be a middle reliever, but it’d be hard to count on him late in games. It’s not that there isn’t value in that, but you at least would hope a guy like him can be more than that.

If you’re wondering about big league starters who only throw two pitches 10 percent or more of the time, the list is pretty short, but does include some big names. Here they are with their third most used pitch and the percent usage of that third pitch (and additional pitches if they use them).

• Logan Gilbert - Changeup, 7.8%; Curve, 6.8%

• Robbie Ray - Curve, 7.9%; Changeup, 4.7%

• Jacob deGrom - Changeup, 8.9%

• Antonio Senzatela - Changeup, 7.7%; Curve, 5.4%

• Kevin Gausman - Slider, 6.4%; Changeup, 6.3%

• Jon Gray - Changeup, 9.6%; Curve, 5.5%

• Rich Hill - Slider, 5.0%; Cutter, 4.0%; Sinker, 3.3%; Changeup, 2.5%

• Brady Singer - Changeup, 3.4%; Four-Seam Fastball, 2.1%

• Zach Davies - Curve, 7.9%; Cutter, 6.5%

And that’s it. These are percentages heading into play yesterday, so there might be some slight changes, but the point remains that nobody throws their third pitch less often than Singer.

History is littered with pitchers who have struggled and found their groove. There is no reason with his talent that Singer can’t be one of those. But he’s going to have to be willing to make a change. Maybe failure is the best way to get that process started. Adding pitches in-season can be difficult and Singer hadn’t really failed before this year, so I think it’s fair to give him an offseason before we completely write him off, but he better do something or else his career is not going to be long.

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Crown Jewel

Relievers Stepping Up

The big positive from yesterday’s game was the bullpen really did some serious work for the second game in a row. Coming in with a runner on and two out, Richard Lovelady was able to get out of the fourth and pitch a clean fifth. Then Domingo Tapia had some trouble with the zone, but he pitched a scoreless sixth. Jake Brentz was pretty dominant in his seventh inning, which was great to see after he’s struggled some lately. And then Greg Holland and Ervin Santana closed it out with scoreless innings. In all, they went 5.1 innings with two hits allowed while striking out five and walking just one. On Tuesday night, Tapia stranded both runners he inherited and while he gave up a run in the sixth inning, the bullpen threw 4.1 innings with one run on one hit allowed with eight strikeouts and two walks. That’s a pretty good two-day stretch.

It sort of feels like the Royals have plenty of options, and good ones, moving forward. I wrote yesterday about how good Staumont has looked lately. We know that Scott Barlow is a legitimately good reliever. Brentz has shown that he can be dominant. Kyle Zimmer, who started a rehab assignment last night, may or may not be good without the sticky stuff, but he’s shown quite a bit. Then you add in guys like Lovelady and Tapia and some of the young arms in the minors and it really feels like the Royals could use someone they can absolutely count on to slot every one of these relievers back an inning or two. I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve sort of changed my tune on paying for relievers if you can pay for the right one. I don’t know if that guy is available this winter so someone might have to step up, but I really do think they would be wise to get an anchor for the bullpen at some point.