KC Royals: Wade Davis Could Be Hurting

Wade Davis hasn’t seemed his usual dominant self for the KC Royals so far. Could something be really wrong with the Royals’ closer.

After his third shaky outing of the young season on Tuesday night, Wade Davis talked to Rustin Dodd about his outing. He basically called his struggles in the early going the result of ‘dead arm’.

‘Dead arm’ is a very non-scientific injury, if you can even call it that, that many pitchers seem to go through from time to time. Davis said “It’s something I usually go through early in the year. It usually takes about a week to get through the dead arm phase”.

Royals’ fans likely have at least a little reason to be worried. Last August Greg Holland was given some time off with what was called a ‘cranky arm’. It was explained that he was experiencing something similar to Ryan Madson who was going through what he called ‘dead arm’.

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Those two pitchers had their seasons end differently. Holland found out he needed Tommy John surgery shortly thereafter and apparently the injury had been present all season long and even into the latter part of 2014. Madson continued to pitch, but had a knack for giving up home runs in the postseason.

If Wade Davis is right and really does go through this phase early in the year, his velocity by month over the past two seasons would seem to back that up. According to Brooks Baseball, the velocity of his fastball in April of both 2014 and 2015 sat around 95.8 mph. By September of those years he was averaging about 96.75.

So far this season, his fastball is down one mile per hour, his curve ball is down 1.25 miles per hour, and his cutter is down 1.5 miles per hour. Could those small variances in his breaking balls be the reason he’s not getting the swing and miss on balls that are out of the zone?

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It does seem like hitters are having a little easier time ‘spitting on’ that curve ball this season. If it’s not coming in as tight or with as much rotation then it could, in theory, not be as nasty as it was last season.

So far in 2016, Davis has thrown 96 pitches across four innings of work. 61.5 percent of his pitches have been for strikes but he has given up a hit, four walks, and hit a batter. 22 percent of his strikes are swinging strikes so he’s still got swing and miss stuff, it just may have to be closer to the zone. He does have six strikeouts and hasn’t allowed a run in spite of the trouble he’s been in.

In 2015, it took Davis eight outings to reach 96 pitches. He threw strikes on 63.7 percent of his pitches. He only achieved swing and miss strikes 18.5 percent of the time. He also had eight strikeouts, gave up one hit and one walk in that time.

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Maybe it’s something. Maybe it’s nothing more than what he thinks it is. Hopefully, the ‘dead arm’ will subside and the velocity will start to pick up. Otherwise, it could be a season full of shaky outings and Houdini-like escapes for the enigmatic closer.

What do you think KC Royals’ fans? Is it too soon to say Wade Davis could be in trouble? Does Greg Holland’s start last season give you any fear about Davis? Will he regain his untouchable status in the near future? Let me know your thoughts in the comments’ section below.