Can You Have Enough Quality Starters?

It's pretty much impossible to have too much starting pitching. The Royals problem is three-fold. First, the Royals haven't been able to develop their own starting pitching. Second, the Royals can't keep their pitchers healthy or draft risky pitchers who are injury prone (Matt Campbell and Kyle Snyder). Finally, the Royals have done a very poor job of signing free agent starters. The combination of these three factors has led to a dismal rotation over the past few years. This season is no exception.

The Royals started out with a rotation of Lima, Hernandez, Greinke, Bautista, and Anderson. Wood, Gobble, Jensen, and Howell were also after rotation spots, so the depth looked alright. Then, the rotation began its annual collapse. Bautista and Anderson are most likely done for the year with injuries. Lima has the second worst starter's ERA in the American League. Greinke, our future ace, has the fourth worst starter's ERA in the American League. Hernandez has been somewhat inconsistent, but has been a solid No. 3 starter. Carrasco has been the Royals' most consistent starter. He has a minor injury at the moment. But, relying on a newly converted starter and a starter coming off of TJ surgery is pretty risky. The Royals also rushed JP Howell to the majors to fill a spot in the imploding rotation. This seems to happen every year. What are the Royals' doing wrong?

I'm not sure why the Royals haven't been able to develop quality starting pitching. The A's are probably the best example of a small-market team that has developed their own pitching. They had the Big Three of course and also have developed another Cy Young caliber pitcher in Rich Harden and two other good young pitchers. Is the pitching coach the problem? Well, the Royals have used numerous pitching coaches and that hasn't solved the problem. Injuries have certainly prevented many Royals' pitchers with good stuff from becoming good starters (Affeldt, Snyder, Asencio) and are threatening Bautista's promising career as well. The Royals should take a hard look at their conditioning program for pitchers. The Royals failure to find good free agent starters has hurt as well. Lima, Anderson, May, Lopez were all miserable failures. Part of the problem in the case of Anderson and May was signing them off of career seasons that were basically a fluke in their inconsistent careers as 5th starters. Lima and Lopez were just flat out dumb signings. The Royals need to stay away from the below-average starters who are on the downside of their careers.

The Royals are basically in a tough spot. It'd be nice to get rid of Lima, but that isn't going to happen unless we acquire another underachieving starter in a trade for him. Assuming no one else gets hurt and Carrasco and Snyder enter the rotation within the next week, the rotation for the rest of the year would look like: Hernandez, Carrasco, Greinke, Lima, Snyder. Howell clearly needs some more time in the minors and it could really hurt his development to keep him up here for the rest of the year. If the Royals traded Lima, they'd have to get creative because there wouldn't be any starters left if someone else gets injured. The Royals could put Gobble or Wood in the rotation, but both have struggled as starters. The Royals could promote Tankersley or Bass from the minors and hope for the best. I hope the Royals don't look to A ball for a starter, even though that's where the organization's only SP prospects are.

The Royals have very poor starting pitching depth in the minors. Billy Buckner and Luis Cota are the only grade "C" or better SP prospects in the minors. This should be the Royals' number one objective in their midseason trades. You can't win with out starting pitching and you cannot have enough of it. The Royals signed their third-round pick, Chris Nicoll, a college starting pitcher. Not signing him could have really put the Royals in a bad spot, as they didn't draft many other starters.

Sorry for all of the negativity, but the starting rotation will make or break the Royals' youth movement. The Royals need to take some steps toward fixing the rotation.