KC Royals: Evaluating Division Rival Cleveland Indians
By David Hart
Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Corey Kluber (28) – Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
According to BrooksBaseball, Kluber’s four-seam fastball now has more horizontal movement at 7.06 inches and 7.06 inches in vertical movement.Also at this point in the season, he has almost thrown as many four-seam fastballs in a month in 2015 as much as he did in all of 2013-2014 (217 in 2013-2014 vs. 154 in 2015).
His two-seam fastball since just last season has almost as much horizontal movement (8.81 inches) as his slider does in the opposite direction (9.81 inches). The scary part of all of this is Kluber’s numbers aren’t significantly different than how he pitched over the course of all of 2014 in 21 innings so far in 2015.
Kluber has already faced 111 batters, so his strikeout rate has presumably stablized with 10.1 strikeouts per 9 innings, when had 10.3 strikeouts per 9 innings in his 2014 Cy Young award winning season. His WHIP will likely stabilize around August, but he is currently at 1.120, while he finished with 1.095 in 2014.
So the question is, how will the Royals deal with a starter like Kluber or Bauer, Salazar, and Carrasco?
Next: How Should the Royals Offense Combat These Starters?