royalsandcelebs

I was going to do a post on the Worst Royals Relievers of the Last 15 Years, but after trying to compile a list, this has proven to be easily the most difficult list to compile.  Even though the game has changed so much in terms of the value we now show to relief pitchers, the truth is that NO PITCHER IS DEVELOPED TO BE A MIDDLE RELIEVER.  None.  It goes 1)top of the rotation starter, 2) middle of the rotation guy, 3) 4 or 5 pitcher, 4) closer, and 5) he’s out of options, and we don’t want to risk another team picking him up on waivers–let’s make him a reliever.  The pitcher usually never recovers from that.

What I want to do instead of compile a list of “worst relievers” is just throw a bunch of names at you.  I also don’t want to give a rundown of all of their failings, because, quite frankly, there are too many names.  You don’t want to read their wikipedia history; I don’t want to write their wikipedia history.  The point I want to make is that the list is long.  Other teams may have a long list, too, but as is often the case with the KC Royals, the list of shortcomings always seems to be at least a little bit longer than, say, the Indians, or the Diamondback, or the Blue Springs Wildcat JV squad.  And, also, to prove my point, I will not look up anyone on the Internet, solely using my memory of pitchers we had who once started (and who we highly touted) who ended up mopping up 9-2 games in the 6th inning. 

Everybody take a deep breath.  Here we goooooooooooo:

Mark Gardner, Chris Haney, Dan Reichert, Jeff Granger, Mark Gubicza (yeah, it happened), Jimmy Gobble, Zack Greinke (thank goodness he came out of it), Jose Rosado (Tony Muser–the early years), Jay Witasick, DJ Carrasco (bounced in and out), Leo Nunez (bounced as well), Mike MacDougal (a lot of bouncing), Jeremy Affeldt (bouncing poster boy), Brett Tomko, Dennis Tankersley, Dennis Rasmussen (my head really hurts now), Jeff D’Amico (Appier trade A), Blake Stein (Appier trade B), Mike Wood (Beltran trade throw-in), Kyle Snyder, Kyle Davies (coming soon–you heard it here first), Bobby Keppel (maybe–I’m just speculating now), Hipolito Pichardo (his name was awesome), Jeff Suppan (yeah, we did that with him, too), Miguel Ascencio, and so on, and so forth.

That’s a lot.  The thing is, I know I’m leaving a lot of crappy Royals out whose names I can’t remember, and, after spending so much time on baseball-reference, don’t wish to look up.  We shouldn’t have so much traffic in and out of the rotation.  It’s gotten a lot better lately (have to say that a lot with this overall topic of our last 15 years), but for a while, we didn’t seem to have boundaries.  There were very few starters.  Most other teams have at least 3 guys they’re more than comfortable touting as, at least, a starting pitcher.  There were years we only had, maybe, one.  Oh, and when Jose Rosado went into the Bermuda Triangle?  We didn’t have any.

Now, that year was the rotation of the damned, and that’s just isolating this list down to one season, not 15 incredible years of borderline negligence.  Here are the guys with the five most starts that season: Jeff Suppan, Mac Suzuki, Blake Stein, Chad Durbin, Jay Witasick.

That’s not a rotation–that’s a practical joke.  Are you kidding me?  Suppan’s the only one who should be starting a baseball game.  I know I criticize this team a lot for things in the past, but you have to do a lot of things wrong in order to get that rotation.  Oh, and all those pitchers from 2000?  They’ve all been in the bullpen.  Shouldn’t be that big of a surprise.

My point has drifted somewhat, if there was ever a point grander than our handling of the bullpen has been a joke.  I suppose it’s tough to put together a decent group of former starting pitchers when your rotation is littered with guys who should be former starting pitchers.  Remembering players like Brad Rigby, Brett Laxton, and Jay Witasick are the reasons I get giddy about the return of Leo Nunez and John Bale.  Dayton seems to be designating roles for his pitchers, and not just thinking that if they bomb out completely as a starter, we should automatically throw them in the pen.  Instead, we’ll automatically throw them in the dumpster.  The bullpen is no longer seen as some type of contract extension.  Now, they try to put people down there who can actually pitch.

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