Royals Authority

The Royals made several cuts on Sunday, shipping nine players to the minor leagues. Among those was one of the heroes of last October, Brandon Finnegan.

This is very good news.

You recall the Royals had been weighing keeping Finnegan in the majors as a reliever, or farming him out to be a starter. Would they go for the short-term option and bring him north with the team as a piece of the bullpen? Or would they keep an eye on the long-term and send him to the minors in order to get work as a starter? Finnegan’s struggles this spring made it all but impossible for the Royals to break camp with him on the roster.

Finnegan made four appearances this spring, throwing 6.1 innings and allowing nine hits, four walks and four strikeouts. Among those hits were two home runs. And it’s not like he was getting crushed by major league hitters. Sure, there were some players in the mix that he faced, but according to Baseball Reference, his quality of opposing hitters faced graded out at a 7.7. An eight is considered Triple-A talent.

Between Finnegan’s final collegiate season, his start in the minor leagues after being the Royals first-round draft pick, and his final September and October turn in the Royals bullpen, he logged over 145 innings. Quite the workload for someone of his age and experience. Although it was an amazingly successful year for Finnegan, no matter where he was pitching, he wasn’t able to replicate that high level of output this spring.

Baseball Prospectus had this scouting report on Finnegan from early in the spring:

While the TCU product is coming off an impressive inaugural campaign, there are notable transformations in his frame and pitching approach. Finnegan looks to have put on weight, with some thickness noticeable in the mid-portion of his body. The extra bulk on the frame isn’t necessarily a red flag, but could potentially push him towards a bullpen role sooner rather than later. Finnegan is showing more exertion in his delivery this spring, with a mild arm drag. He still has the big drive and hides the ball out of his hand due to a slight rotational delivery. The fastball was 91-93 mph and lacked the same big plane and explosiveness from last season, which led to a first-pitch homer to Kyle Kubitza on a grooved fastball down the middle. The slider was sharp and displayed hard bite while entering the zone, flashing plus.

I was wondering about Finnegan’s weight (yes, I know) as he looked a little puffier in interviews he conducted in Surprise, although I was wanting to actually see him pitch before I made a comment. Finnegan carries a little weight at 5’11” and 185 pounds and his frame seems like the kind that would gain a few if he wasn’t devoted to winter conditioning. It’s only speculation on my part, but maybe he didn’t take the best care of himself this winter (gasp!) and maybe he wasn’t in the best shape of his life. He wouldn’t be the first prospect to fall into that trap. Everything was spectacular for him last year, so maybe he didn’t think about, or didn’t understand, the required work he needed to put in in order to remain a major leaguer.

So maybe this is a win-win. The Royals win because they get to try to develop one of the better arms in their system as a starter. Finnegan gets an early career wake-up call that hard work is required to play in the bigs. As I wrote earlier, Finnegan’s future is in the Royals rotation. I still believe that despite the above scouting report. Even if he washes out as a starter, at least the Royals will have tried and they can fall back to Plan B. However, the Royals will have at least one spot open in the rotation in 2016. It would be nice to have him compete - and win - a key role on this team going forward.

For now, Finnegan is going to the minors to pitch out of the rotation. He will build stamina and work on refining his change-up. If he can do those two things, there’s no reason to think he couldn’t contribute in Kansas City next season. Barring another late-season call-up for an October run.

Kansas City shook off the winter doldrums to embrace their AL Champion Royals as the annual FanFest descended upon downtown. With pitchers and catchers due to report in two weeks, there was plenty of news.

— Ned Yost developed an interactive baseball app.

What? I would have bet the house I would type “Royals re-sign James Shields” before I ever wrote anything about Yost and an “interactive baseball app.”

I downloaded the app and gave it a spin. My impressions are less than favorable at this point. It’s too easy to accidentally sign yourself out. The point, as far as I can tell, is you pick a defensive position and the game gives you a situation. Your goal is to throw to the proper base. At least, that’s what I think is happening. There aren’t any instructions.

At the end of the drill, you get a screen that gives you a score based on “accuracy,” “average response,” and “correct percentage.” I have no idea what accuracy is all about. You’re tapping a screen in the general area where you are making the throw. Then the correct percentage thing is confounding. I was dinged for a wrong answer because with a runner on second and one out, as a first baseman I was supposed to throw to… second?

Good thing this app is free. I’d hate to think anyone would pay money for this.

— The season hasn’t even started and we already have a new Twitter hashtag: #TGM.

That stands for “Total Gordon Move,” which is what happens when Alex Gordon slams into the wall (or the ground) and slowly gets up. With the ball in his glove.

And that’s why they have FanFest.

— Speaking of Gordon, he’s recovering well from wrist surgery. He missed two weeks of workouts (which is probably the equivalent to a year of workouts for us mortals) and says he’s been lifting weights and pretty much doing his normal winter prep ever since.

Gordon played most of the second half with the injury, which happened while sliding. He had a scorching hot August, but wore down in September, had a good ALDS and ALCS, but stumbled in the World Series. Injuries (and surgeries) to the wrist are worrying. It’s to his right wrist which means it’s his lower hand when he swings the bat. Hopefully, this won’t be something that saps his strength or slows down his snap.

The cast comes off at the start of next week.

#royals alex gordon tells us he should only miss one week of spring training. Cast comes off in 9 days

— Jeffrey Flanagan (@jflanagankc) January 31, 2015

— I enjoyed this Tweet:

#royals‘ sal perez tells us he didnt feel like he wore down at the end of last season. Hmmm — Jeffrey Flanagan (@jflanagankc) January 30, 2015

Sometimes players aren’t the best judge of things. No matter how close they reside to the dirt. I’ll just leave this here:

Sal Perez 1st half - .283/.329/.437 with a .337 wOBA and 117 wRC+
Sal Perez 2nd half - .229/.236/.360 with a .259 wOBA and 61 wRC+

Ned Yost abused the hell out of Perez. Fact. Those numbers don’t lie. Although it should be noted that his 1st half numbers look good due to a June where he hit everything. (.347/.383/.535 with a .403 wOBA and 162 wRC+) His April and May weren’t special, but they weren’t as bad as any month in the second half. His grip-and-rip approach caught up to him, but I would submit his workload crushed his numbers even more in the second half. It will be very interesting to see how Perez bounces back.

Perez wants to play everyday. Yost wants his best players on the field. I get that. But at some point, common sense should prevail.

Yost floated the idea of tying Erik Kratz to a pitcher as a personal catcher. That would force Yost to give Perez a day off at least once a week. Whatever works.

— Brandon Finnegan figures to be one of 10 starting pitchers the Royals will use in spring training. The problem for Finnegan is all five spots in the regular season are already taken. So even if he has some sort of lights out spring - and remember it will be his first spring training - it’s pretty much going to take an injury to one of the starting five to have the Royals take him north in the rotation.

What will likely happen is at some point, the Royals will have to make a decision. Do they send him to the minors to start, or do they keep him in Kansas City in the bullpen. (This is assuming he has a productive spring.) It sounds as if there’s a vocal camp within the organization that Finnegan should return to his normal role as a starter. Whew. It would be a colossal mistake to keep him on the big league team as a reliever. Finnegan is a starter. That’s his future. We hope. As such, he should be given every opportunity to hone his craft in the minors with an eye on a spot in the rotation in 2016. Realize last season was the perfect way for the Royals to handle their first round draft pick. He had accumulated some mileage on his arm, pitching his team to the College World Series. The Royals needed (and could add once the rosters expanded) some bullpen depth. He acquitted himself enough in September, the Royals gave him a spot on their postseason rosters. Everyone’s happy.

Just because it was a success in the short-term, doesn’t mean the Royals should use him as a reliever in the long-term. He can provide much more value to the team in the rotation.

— Eric Hosmer felt third base coach Mike Jirschele made the right call in holding Gordon at third in Game Seven. I’m probably the lone Royals fan who feels this way, but I enjoy that we’re still talking about this. It would have been much worse if the team had lost 11-0. Much worse. For the record, I don’t think there’s any way you could have sent him. Still, that’s a moment I’ll never forget. It stinks that the team came up 90 feet short, but I had a blast.

— Luke Hochevar is throwing pitches off the mound - around 30 at a time - as he continues his recovery from Tommy John surgery.

Whichever admitted it was difficult watching his teammates in October. I can’t even imagine what that would be like. To play next to those guys through five years of mediocrity and bad baseball, only to miss the action when the team finally reaches the pinnacle? Oof. It sounds like Hochevar embraced his October role as cheerleader. Good for him.

He didn’t say he had other offers, but he did say he wanted badly to remain a Royal. Hopefully, he can slot into the bullpen to give Yost yet another weapon he can lean on next season.

— Denny Matthews signed a four-year contract extension to continue as the radio voice of the Royals. By the end of this deal, he will have been with the team for 50 seasons. Hell of an accomplishment.

I’m glad he’s going to be around. I enjoy his regular season broadcasts. Postseason? Not so much.

I’m not going to get into the criticisms from October here because we’ve heard them a thousand times. If there was one thing I wish Denny would change about his regular season work it would be having someone he could interact with and talk baseball during the broadcasts. He’s a great storyteller, but with The Steves alongside, he just doesn’t seem interested enough to bother. Maybe at some point in the next four years they will find a competent partner for him.

— Apparently, winning brings out the fans. Last year’s FanFest sold 11,000 tickets. This year? 20,000. No word if Royals officials were surprised.