DoolittleBrothers

As I mentioned in this post I made after seeing Dayton Moore at a local function, I’ve been a propopent of breaking in Luke Hochevar as a reliever, Earl Weaver-style. When I interviewed Moore for my epic-length Q&A back in ‘06, Moore had this to say on the topic:

Q: Earl Weaver used to transition his young starting pitchers into the big leagues by using them as middle relievers and the Twins have had a lot of success doing the same thing with Francisco Liriano and Johan Santana. It’s not something the Royals have really tried in recent years.

A: I think it works. It can work. It depends on the individual. For some guys, it makes more sense to be in AAA pitching. Take Kyle Davies. We had this debate. Bobby (Cox) thought, ‘Well, transition him in. I’ll get him some work.’ But we felt (we should) send him to Richmond to pitch every fifth day. Two reasons. We thought it was best for his arm. And you’re always going to need another starter. If he’s pitching out of the bullpen and something happens, he’s not going to be stretched out so he can be a starter. Take Juan Bong. He was a two-pitch pitcher, a left-handed pitcher who Bobby could get regular work and Bobby was committed to using as a long man. He was put onto that team with that in mind. I’m very open to that. I think it’s smart. I think it makes sense. It just depends on the pitcher. Take Denny Bautista. It doesn’t do any good to use him in that role. He needs those side sessions.

According to Dick Kaegel of mlb.com, the Royals are at least open to the possibility of taking this approach this spring with Hochevar:

“There are a lot of organizations that break their guys in out of the ‘pen to get them acclimated to the speed of it and the hitters,” pitching coach Bob McClure said. “It never hurt, it’s only a plus doing that. I’m not saying we’re doing that, but it’s a possibility.”

We all know that as a No. 1 overall pick, the Royals need Hochevar to become a frontline starter. But if they are truly, open to using him as a reliever, this could be a great first step towards making that happen.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 17th, 2008 at 11:36 am and is filed under Blogroll, Royals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.