Kansas City Royals: The Emergence of Brooks Pounders
By Charles Lam
Starting pitching is a major concern for the Kansas City Royals. The consistency isn’t there this season. It’s time to take a chance on Brooks Pounders.
Brooks Pounders pitches for the Kansas City Royals triple A affiliate Omaha Storm Chasers. He’s dominated this season for the Chasers. Pounders has a 2.80 ERA in 64 1/3 innings pitched. He’s got a 2.79 strikeout to walk ratio, striking out 10.9 batters per nine innings.
He’s allowed 0.7 home runs per nine innings, giving up five home runs on the year. He’s walked 3.9 batters per nine while carrying a 1.228 WHIP.
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Pounders leaves guys on base as well. His left on base percentage this season is 81.8, according to Fangraphs. That tells me he doesn’t let guys getting on base bother him mentally. In fact, he settles in even more and gets the job done. That’s a great sign of the Kansas City Royals.
The Kansas City Royals acquired the 25-year-old right-handed pitcher via a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates back in December of 2011.
The Royals gave up infielder Yamaico Navarro for Brooks Pounders and infielder Diego Goris. Navarro is playing professional baseball in Japan this season. He played for the Pirates in 2012 then got shipped off to Baltimore for one season and hasn’t played in the majors since 2013. The Royals won the trade.
Pounders is a strike thrower. His strikeout percentage is 28.4 for Omaha this season. He’s doing some special things for the Storm Chasers.
Here’s some awesome stats Pounders put up over the weekend and before.
Brooks Pounders K's 2 in a 1-2-3 7th inning. He now has 28 Ks in his last 13.2 innings. Total dominance. #Royals
— Donny Baarns (@DonnyBaarns) July 4, 2016
That kind of strikeout rate is simply insane and probably inhuman. The Royals might want to try to insert this guy into the starting rotation this season. Pounders has started seven games for the Storm Chasers in 2016.
Pounders pitched a no-hitter for the AA Northwest Naturals in late June of 2013.
Pounders can’t be any worse than current fifth starter Chris Young. I hate being the a realist all the time but Young isn’t good at all as a starter. In fact, he’s absolutely terrible.
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Young has an atrocious 6.24 ERA through 57 2/3 innings. He’s given up a team high 22 home runs and has allowed 3.4 home runs per nine innings. Yet the Royals continue to start the guy. His next start comes on the road against the Toronto Blue Jays tonight. Oh yeah don’t forget he’s also given up 4.5 walks per nine adding to the horrible stat line.
Chris Young needs to go back to the bullpen. He’s a wonderful asset out of the pen. His size and velocity on his pitches messes up the hitters timing. This only works if he comes out of the pen because the hitter would not prepare for him adding to the deception factor.
Also coming out of the pen limits the times the opposing hitters see Young on the hill making him more effective. He’s pitched two games as a reliever for the Royals this season. He gave up 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out six in four innings pitched. Most importantly, he allowed zero home runs and zero runs scored as a reliever this season.
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The Kansas City Royals need a new starting pitcher. The time to move on from Chris Young as a starting pitcher should have come a long time ago but hind sight is 20/20. Brooks Pounders looks major league ready. He needs to get called up soon. He will help the Royals win.