Something I wrote in Friday night’s recap keeps parading through my mind. This team was constructed to be a team with a high floor and enough talent to play consistently above-average, but without top-end potential outside Bobby Witt Jr. and Cole Ragans. The flaw with this build shows in road trips like the one they’re currently on. They have played 9 games, and they have gone 4-5. They could win this afternoon and have a 5-5 road trip. That would be a successful road trip for most teams, but for a team that has endured the losing the Royals have, it simply wouldn’t be enough even to begin to help them dig out of the hole they’ve fallen into.
A lot of Royals fans have expressed that this season feels worse than many of the losing seasons we have endured. Part of that is the weight of expectations. But part of it is that it’s so hard to shift your mindset from wins not mattering to individual performances mattering. If the Royals lose today but Noah Cameron throws six shutout innings, and Carter Jensen crushes a couple of extra-base hits, that’s a good day. Speaking of which.
Noah Cameron has completely turned his season around over his last four starts. Beginning with a textbook quality start in St. Louis, he has pitched 24 innings with 24 strikeouts, with only 14 hits and 3 walks, leading to 6 runs over his last 4 starts. That’s good enough for a 2.25 ERA, a 1.78 ERA, and a 2.25 FIP. That’s a 23.9% K-BB%, which would rank fifth in MLB, right behind current AL Cy Young frontrunner Cam Schlittler. Obviously, the sample size is small. But it’s growing every week, including seven one-hit innings (with the one hit being a home run), eight strikeouts, and one walk in an eventual loss to the Reds his last time out. One of the best starts of his young career.
The Twins will counter with rookie left-hander Connor Prielipp. FanGraphs ranked him ahead of the season as the Twins’ third-best prospect and said he had one of the best sliders in the sport. However, they also think he’s just a reliever long term. The 5.26 ERA through eight starts suggests they might not be far off the mark. He has never given up fewer than 2 runs in a start, and he has never gone more than 6 innings. His last 3 starts saw him allow 4, 6, and 6 runs. He has perhaps been a bit unlucky with a terrible 54.7% LOB rate – what will happen when the immovable baserunners meet the unstoppable run-giver?
He has trouble getting any of his pitches into the zone, which actually leads to him getting a decent amount of chase from hitters anxious to put their bats on the ball. He doesn’t get a lot of whiffs, though, and the contact he gives up is pretty hard. The slider, as you might imagine, is his most thrown pitch, but his most effective pitch has actually been the curveball he throws half as often. His changeup rates well, but hasn’t produced positive results as of yet. The four-seamer and sinker are both very hittable, so those are the pitches Royals hitters should be looking for.
Salvador Perez is out for the second day in a row, which should certainly raise some questions as to his availability after taking a foul ball off his hand in Friday night’s contest. If you were wondering, Elias Díaz moved on to the Rangers organization which leaves Luke Maile and Luca Tresh as the guys the Royals could consider adding to the roster if Sal needs an IL stint.
Maikel Garcia made his return to the lineup as a DH yesterday, and even though it looked like he was often swinging without his lower half, he’s in there playing the field today. Jac Caglianone left early in yesterday’s contest with shoulder soreness after crashing into a wall Friday night. He’s still out today, but against a left-handed pitcher, it’s unclear if he would have played anyway.
Honestly, both of these lineups are looking pretty thin. So expect some fireworks, I guess.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.royalsreview.com ’
