Kansas City Royals: Positives and negatives so far in 2019

The “Not” so positives (or negatives… whichever you prefer)

Pitching has been the biggest problem so far.

Danny Duffy is still trying to find himself after his injury and the rest of the starting staff has been inconsistent. Duffy’s most recent start on Sunday was a good one, so let’s hope it gets him on track and back to leading the rest of the staff.

Brad Keller is in his second year in the league and the rest of the league is adjusting to him, so he will need to adjust to succeed at this level. I was hoping Jakob Junis had made those adjustments, but he seems to be still struggling.

When the starters do hand over a lead, the bullpen hasn’t been great at holding it, so that’s obviously a huge problem.

The starting pitching will come around.

With so many young inexperienced arms on the team, it can be hard for them to find a rhythm that leads to consistency. Homer Bailey is looking better and has made hitters look bad when he is on. The starters all have good big league stuff and have shown they can shut down offenses at time, but they all have been having trouble making it through the third time of the lineup.

Fans were expecting the bullpen to have troubles out of spring training and have lots of turnover early in the season. Sadly, that assessment was right.

Both Brad Boxberger and Wily Peralta have been underwhelming so far and the Royals need to find at least one or two more effective arms for the bullpen.

The bottom of the batting order has been almost a dead zone.

Chris Owings and Martin Maldonado have almost been sure outs. Owings just looks lost at the plate. His days may be numbered now that Nicky Lopez is on the team.

Maldonado and Billy Hamilton at least are providing good defense, but need to get on base more. Hamilton looks like he is starting to come around, but if he does, he will probably be traded.