I find myself feeling more optimistic lately about Jonathan Heasley than about any of the other starters that KC drafted ahead of him. Singer in particular strikes me as being more high-strung and mercurial (and maybe hyper-sensitive?) than the others. To a lesser degree this might also be true of Lynch. Heasley, OTOH, seems much more down-to-earth or level-headed or well-grounded or something along those lines.
I wonder if Singer isn't maybe responding poorly to the (real or perceived) pressure of the expectations from being such a high draft pick. He has 45 career starts under his belt now. That hardly makes him a grizzled veteran but he should be well past the "wide-eyed rookie" stage of his career, and I'm not certain that he really is. 18ER in his last 26IP has done nothing to dispel that doubt.
Soon we'll need to stop calling them our "young starters." Singer, Kowar, Bubic, Heasley and Lynch currently average 25 years and 5 months of age. Singer is just 2 months away from his 26th birthday. They really aren't all that young for MLB players anymore.
Saberhagen was just 21 when he won his World Series MVP. Now THAT is a "young starter." (Reliable workhorse Mark Gubicza was 23 at the time. Equally reliable Danny Jackson was one month younger than Singer is now.)
Referring to those five pitchers from the 2018 draft, Royals Review declared on 7/1/19 that "We've got a Fab Five." They really should have known better. Especially in reference to an organization that has been so inept in developing pitchers for three full decades now. It's easy to think of the three exceptions to that - Greinke, Duffy (sort of) and Ventura - precisely because they've been so rare and unusual around here.
I can't stop watching the O'Hearn pinch-hit double GIF. He got 84 mph middle-middle, and hit a chopping grounder that fortunately got over the 1st-base bag. Kind of sums up the year on offense.
Dayton Moore with a very troubling admission today. But first let's review just a bit of history.... Luke Hochevar was a 1-1 draft pick who gave the team two very good years out of the bullpen and nothing else. Kyle Zimmer was a top-5 pick who gave them a couple of decent months out of the bullpen and nothing else.
And today DM admitted that top-5 pick Asa Lacy might end up being "a power lefty out of the bullpen."
Pitchers taken in the top five need to be long-term top-of-the-rotation starters, not bullpen pieces that last a couple of months or a couple of years. And you definitely CANNOT blow three such draft choices in a row. (I could have made it sound even worse by adding Mike Montgomery to the list, but as a #12 pick that error was perhaps not quite as egregious. Perhaps.)
Now the next question is: will Frank Mozzicato ever solve the mystery of the strike zone? Or is this history of failed top-5 picks among pitchers going to grow even longer?
I find myself feeling more optimistic lately about Jonathan Heasley than about any of the other starters that KC drafted ahead of him. Singer in particular strikes me as being more high-strung and mercurial (and maybe hyper-sensitive?) than the others. To a lesser degree this might also be true of Lynch. Heasley, OTOH, seems much more down-to-earth or level-headed or well-grounded or something along those lines.
I wonder if Singer isn't maybe responding poorly to the (real or perceived) pressure of the expectations from being such a high draft pick. He has 45 career starts under his belt now. That hardly makes him a grizzled veteran but he should be well past the "wide-eyed rookie" stage of his career, and I'm not certain that he really is. 18ER in his last 26IP has done nothing to dispel that doubt.
Soon we'll need to stop calling them our "young starters." Singer, Kowar, Bubic, Heasley and Lynch currently average 25 years and 5 months of age. Singer is just 2 months away from his 26th birthday. They really aren't all that young for MLB players anymore.
Saberhagen was just 21 when he won his World Series MVP. Now THAT is a "young starter." (Reliable workhorse Mark Gubicza was 23 at the time. Equally reliable Danny Jackson was one month younger than Singer is now.)
Referring to those five pitchers from the 2018 draft, Royals Review declared on 7/1/19 that "We've got a Fab Five." They really should have known better. Especially in reference to an organization that has been so inept in developing pitchers for three full decades now. It's easy to think of the three exceptions to that - Greinke, Duffy (sort of) and Ventura - precisely because they've been so rare and unusual around here.
I can't stop watching the O'Hearn pinch-hit double GIF. He got 84 mph middle-middle, and hit a chopping grounder that fortunately got over the 1st-base bag. Kind of sums up the year on offense.
Dayton Moore with a very troubling admission today. But first let's review just a bit of history.... Luke Hochevar was a 1-1 draft pick who gave the team two very good years out of the bullpen and nothing else. Kyle Zimmer was a top-5 pick who gave them a couple of decent months out of the bullpen and nothing else.
And today DM admitted that top-5 pick Asa Lacy might end up being "a power lefty out of the bullpen."
Pitchers taken in the top five need to be long-term top-of-the-rotation starters, not bullpen pieces that last a couple of months or a couple of years. And you definitely CANNOT blow three such draft choices in a row. (I could have made it sound even worse by adding Mike Montgomery to the list, but as a #12 pick that error was perhaps not quite as egregious. Perhaps.)
Now the next question is: will Frank Mozzicato ever solve the mystery of the strike zone? Or is this history of failed top-5 picks among pitchers going to grow even longer?