Splash hits: It's baseball time!
It's go time on a new season with new rules and, for the Royals, a new manager. And Brad Keller has a new curveball! It must be Opening Day in the Cactus League!
Winter officially ends on Friday, at 2:05 Central Time.
That’s when Daniel Lynch will deliver the opening salvo of the Cactus League season and we’re off and running. Baseball, baseball, baseball. Stretching from now until October 1. And for some teams, beyond that.
Congratulations! If you’re reading this, you survived the winter. Baseball is back.
Following Lynch on Friday will be José Cuas and Josh Staumont, among others.
Say! Why don’t you prepare for the upcoming season by getting in the best shape of your life by subscribing to this newsletter? Readership could improve your health.*
*No doctor will endorse this. I’m just assuming that if you’re reading this, you aren’t currently participating in other vices.
It would seem that Brad Keller will be incorporating a curve and a sweeper into his repertoire this year.
Anne Rogers reports (and as you can see from the above Tweet), Keller spent some time at Driveline over the winter and used their technology on hand to work on those new breaking pitches.
I’ve seen enough of Keller over the years to remain skeptical. I’ve often said that if he’s in the rotation on a good Royals team, he would be the fifth starter. Besides, pitchers visiting Driveline adding pitches over the offseason is the new “best shape of his life” kind of story. Yes, it looks good, but show me the results. However, I’m going to give him all the credit in the world for deciding that things weren’t working and that he needed to do something. Even if this doesn’t work, it was worth a shot. If both those breaking pitches truly evolve into plus offerings…
In the past, Keller’s bread and butter has been his slider. Normally, that is. Last year, that pitch was generally poor for him. It had less spin, according to Baseball Savant, and was a flatter pitch. Opponents jumped on it, hitting .265 with a .430 slugging percentage, the worst marks of his career. So while adding a curve and a sweeper especially will help play off the slider, he needs to rediscover some of that spin to get that break back. I would speculate that tinkering with the sweeper will help. We’ll see.
While he’s added a couple of ticks to his four-seamer, Keller has never been a hard thrower, he doesn’t miss a lot of bats and doesn’t have much separation between the hard stuff and the breaking and offspeed offerings. So if that curveball sticks at the Driveline projection of around 83 MPH in games, that’s something that could really jack with a hitter’s timing. From that video in the Tweet, it looks like a nice 12-to-6 breaker that could get some swing-and-miss from lefties.
Something definitely worth watching in these spring games.
Of course, I need to insert the now-obligatory “what exactly have the Royals been doing with their pitchers the last several years?” comment. This passage with a quote from pitching coach Brian Sweeney really caught my attention.
“As a group, we talked about what it would look like if he got something in the low 80s paired with his mid-90s fastball and everything in between,” Sweeney said. “So that was a focus of this offseason, find some sort of spin that would help with speed differential. He came in with some really impressive pitches.”
Sweeney gave Keller some ideas on pitch curveball grips, and Keller threw two bullpens at Driveline’s Arizona location. He went back to Florida with a ton of information.
Grips…technology…information…Again, this is all why I’m so excited to see what the Royals’ pitchers have to offer this season.
I haven’t written much about the new rules this season like the pitch clock, the larger bases and the elimination of the extreme shift, mainly because I have no idea how this will impact the game. My gut says all these rules will be a net positive. As a fan of general chaos, I’m looking forward to some insane moments this spring.
I have nothing more to add at this time. I’m merely noting these rule changes as a reminder that when you tune into the game on Friday or watch it on Saturday, it’s going to be a bit of a different experience.
If my memory is correct, the last manager would roll out a lineup for the spring opener that was pretty much what we would expect to see on Opening Day. I have no clue how Matt Quatraro will roll for Friday’s game. He approaches the game differently, and that’s a good thing.
Having said that, here’s a lineup that would be fun to see.
Melendez - LF
Witt - SS
Perez - C
Pasquantino - 1B
Reyes - DH
Olivares - RF
Massey - 2B
Dozier - 3B
Isbel - CF
Maybe fun isn’t the right word. Filling out my virtual lineup card, it’s obvious to me the Royals lack a true leadoff hitter. It would also be nice to get some left-handed thump to fill out the middle of the order. Melendez is my leadoff guy by default for now; he did it last season. That’s not a ringing endorsement. I’d like to hit Pasquantino third, or even second, but that creates an issue in the middle of the order where you could have three right-handed hitters stacked together in Perez, Reyes and Olivares.
I was toying around with dropping Nicky Lopez at third base and having him hit ninth, but that creates a similar imbalance at the bottom of the order (and when it flips back to the top) with a slew of left-handed bats, with potential limited productivity. And, much like last year, the bottom third of the lineup feels extremely thin.
Jeez. I am not sold on this exercise at all. There is a bunch of different ways to approach this. I’m glad that’s Q’s problem and not mine.
Quatraro was asked about what he expected from his first game as a major league manager.
“My expectations are just to see the guys give a good effort. And for myself, personally, it’s just to try to figure out what my routine is going to be. How I’m going to see the game differently (as a manager) and what I’m going to pay attention to. I expect it to be kind of chaotic in my mind, with the (pitch) clock and just trying to get all that stuff…to just get comfortable with it.”
New rules, new responsibilities…Q delivers a helpful reminder that the game does in fact move quickly.
I’m excited to see how he operates as the man in charge. And I’m excited that winter is now officially over and baseball is here.
Let’s go!
It's been a long winter & I'm excited to see what the early returns are with the new guys in charge. I share your skepticism on Keller, but the fact that this is even a topic is just a glaring indictment of Eldred and the previous regime. I don't know if the new guys can fix Keller or any of the other pitchers, but I'm at least encouraged by the fact that they seem to actually be trying.
As for your lineup? I make no judgements. I think they have a lot of interesting pieces, but I'm glad it's not my job to put them all together. Of course, if they wanted to bring me on staff and pay me a big league salary, I'd be more than willing to give it a shot. But they're probably better off with him in charge. Let's hope so anyway!
Nice work, as always, Craig. A couple of paragraphs there at the end jumped out at me for some reason. You mention leadoff hitters, righty-lefty balance and such. Maybe a column idea -- the last few years there has been some alternative thinking and even experimenting with such things (akin to the idea of an opener). Why worry about putting someone with "leadoff skills" at the lineup's top when he might lead off an inning only once? Why not the very best hitter, to get him the most at-bats? Many teams have also talked about and penciled lineups with a "secondary" leadoff hitter in the 8 or 9 slot. As for righty-lefty, I'd be interested in seeing some expansion on that as to how often/whether that seems to have value. Where does the rule requiring relievers to face three batters figure in to that? I dunno, just ruminating over here....