Deep breath. We have two more games until the break. We can do this!
Noah Cameron was a huge delight for Royals fans last year. He got off to a pretty rocky start this year, had about a month where he looked like he might be even better than last season, but has now had five straight starts where he’s fought his command. In all but the last one, that also caused him to give up a bunch of runs. Funnily enough, for the season, he actually has a better K-BB% than last season – generally a better predictive measure for success than something like ERA. He may have run into a bit of bad luck with his strand rate, which was rather high last year, but is rather low this year. He’s striking out nearly a batter per inning more than last season, which is generally a good sign, but the results just haven’t been there, and, as I said earlier, the walks have been a huge problem the last several times out. Still, there remains hope he can get back on the right path and be as good or better than he was last season. Maybe that can start today!
The Orioles will counter with Kyle Bradish. In a lot of ways, Bradish has been the best pitcher for the Orioles this season, but that’s somewhat damning with faint praise as his 3.75 ERA is hardly ace-worthy. FanGraphs would probably argue for Shane Baz or Trevor Rogers, who both have better FIPs but much higher ERAs thanks to deflated LOB numbers. Anyone could argue for Brandon Young, who handled the Royals quite well last night, though he hasn’t taken as many turns as Bradish.
Bradish has a four-pitch mix: a sinker, curveball, slider, and four-seam fastball. The slider is absolutely devastating this year with a 120 tjStats+ rating and a 76 grade on the 20-80 scale with results to match. The curveball is very effective if you can’t lay off of it out of the zone, but can be punished when he leaves it hittable. The fastballs are mostly unremarkable. The goal is clear: try to force him to throw fastballs in the zone and wait for the hanging breakers. The rest of them are going to be unhittable and balls. Easy to say, but quite difficult to do, I imagine.
The Royals finally have Vinnie Pasquantino back in the lineup. And just as I think we all hoped, he’s batting fifth with Jac Caglianone remaining in the three spot. Salvador Perez bats sixth as the designated hitter. Leaving Starling Marte, Josh Rojas, and Tyler Tolbert as options on the bench who likely would hit better, and Luke Maile as someone who at least hasn’t yet proven to be worse. But Salvy’s the captain, so start he shall.
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