KC Royals: John Lamb Is Back On The Radar

Former KC Royals top prospect John Lamb is finally recovered from this Tommy John surgery in 2011. Forget about his demotion to AAA on Friday. The lefty is now lighting up radar guns at 93.74 miles per hour this spring, according to Brooks Baseball.

That’s a long way from the mid-80’s fastball he had been reduced to in 2013, a year in which high A hitters battered him for a 5.63 ERA in 92.2 innings pitched with a mere 76 strikeouts.

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Lamb had become a shell of the pitcher who had dominated high A Wilmington as a 19-year-old in 2010. The following winter, Kansas City Royals lefty John Lamb became one of the most highly-touted prospects in baseball.

Baseball Prospectus writer Kevin Goldstein listed John Lamb as the 11th best prospect in all of baseball in 2011, while Baseball America put him at no. 18 (ahead of such pitchers as Chris Sale, Jarrod Parker, Chris Archer, and Dellin Betances).

It was a heady time for a guy that was still just 20 years old.

John Lamb advanced to AA Northwest Arkansas in 2011. A call-up to the KC Royals looked to be just around the corner, but Lamb tore his ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow after making only eight starts. Tommy John surgery followed soon afterward.

Lamb, however, struggled to come back. Two-years after the surgery his fastball couldn’t break the mid-80’s and the high A hitters he’d once dominated crushed his pitches like kids at a birthday party smash a pinata.

Lamb admitted he had a poor approach to rehab after elbow surgery in 2011. He told MLB.com’s Dick Kaegel during spring training in 2014:

"“And I finally got hurt after a long 2010 season. I didn’t do anything that winter. I literally came home and did nothing. And that was the same thing I did the winter before and I went out and had a really successful 2010 season. And that’s when ‘they’ — baseball world or whatever — started hyping up about me. I was kind of just going with the flow at that point, just kind of riding out whatever I was successful with.”"

John Lamb fell off of the prospect lists. Pretty much everyone doubted he would ever play in the major leagues, much less ever realize the top-of-the-rotation potential scouts projected before the 2011 season.

Then John Lamb’s arm strength improved a bit in 2014. His fastball started sitting around 90 mph and touching 92. In AAA Omaha, Lamb struck out 131 hitters in 138.1 innings pitched for an ERA of 3.97 in 26 starts.

Scouts began to think Lamb might fill a back-end of the rotation spot with the KC Royals.

Now, Lamb is back to the guy who has a fastball that touches 95 mph. While the sample is small, Lamb pairs his renewed fastball with a change-up that sits at 78.23 mph and a slow curve at 72.48 mph. That’s a good 15 mph difference between John Lamb’s fastball and change, and 21 mph between his fastball and curve.

To be back to the guy that was a top prospect, Lamb needs to show the KC Royals improved command over last season where he had 4.4 walks per nine innings (BB/9) at AAA Omaha.

If John Lamb can recapture the command he had in the lower minors, he will be all the way back.

Next: KC Royals Spring Depth Chart: Position Players

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