Kansas City Royals: Matt Strahm Solidifying The Bullpen
By Charles Lam
The Kansas City Royals have dealt with injuries throughout the 2016 season. Other guys needed to step up for the team to stay alive in the playoff hunt. Matt Strahm answered the call in the bullpen.
Matt Strahm is 24-years-old from West Fargo, North Dakota. He went to Neosho Community College in Chanute, Kansas. The young man plays professional baseball for the Kansas City Royals, just 58.1 miles northeast of his former college, according to Google Maps.
I guess the Kansas City Royals organization can call this man homegrown in many ways. It’s nice to see the team succeed on a “local” player for a change.
The Royals missed out on Albert Pujols in the 1999 draft. Pujols played for Maple Woods Community College right here in Kansas City, Missouri. Pujols looks like a surefire Hall of Fame player that the KC Royals passed on in the draft that year.
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To make things worse, cross-state rival, St. Louis Cardinals, drafted Pujols in the 13th round in the 1999 draft. He went on to dominate the KC Royals almost every time the team faced him and continues to haunt the Royals as a member of the Los Angeles Angels. Oh well, that’s over now. Back to Strahm.
Strahm looked great in his first handful of major league games for the Kansas City Royals. He’s played in five games, completing five innings of work out of the bullpen.
His numbers have been off the charts during the small sample size. He’s complied a 1.80 ERA (Earned Run Average) with 11 strikeouts and two walks during his short stint with the big league team. He’s got a 19.8 strikeout per nine ratio.
The best news is he hasn’t given up a home run in the big leagues. In fact, Strahm did a good job of keeping the ball in the ballpark in the minors as well. He’s got a 1.2 home runs per nine at Double-A Northwest Arkansas in 102 1/3 innings pitched. He allowed 14 home runs for the Naturals this season.
While in Double-A this season, Strahm put up a 3.43 ERA in 22 games (18 starts) and received a WHIP (walks hits divided by innings pitched) of 1.221. He struck out 9.4 batters per nine and walked just two per nine.
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Strahm is a two pitch pitcher. He throws an upper 90s fastball. He couples that with a devastating upper 70’s changeup to get batters off-balance for strikeouts. This works well out of the bullpen for one to two innings but it could be an issue if he were to become a starter next year.
Adding a third pitch to his arsenal will give him more of a chance of staying consistent as a starter. Not every game a pitcher has a feel for all of his pitches. Having another pitch to toss out there will give him something to use if his command is off on the fastball or changeup on an off day.
Speaking of his command, that’s one of Strahm’s strengths. Here‘s a heat map from illustrating were he likes to pitch in and out of the zone.
The heat map shows he loves to throw strikes all over the zone. He’s done a wonderful job of “painting” the edge of the strike zone as well. High heat on the black is tough for any hitter to catch up to. This guy looks like the real deal.
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What do you think of Matt Strahm? Should he stay as a relief pitcher next season or should the KC Royals try to develop him into a starting pitcher? Let me know in the comment section below.