Kansas City Royals: Where in the World is Greg Holland?

Last night, Greg Holland picked up the save for the Kansas City Royals. It was a nice clean inning, one where he needed only ten pitches to preserve the Royals 4-2 victory. This was the type of performance that the Royals had been hoping for from their closer, as they look for Holland to re-establish his dominance prior to the postseason.

Normally, Holland coming in to get a save would not be noteworthy. After all, he is the closer, and that outing marked his 30th save on the year. However, that outing was his first in the month of September, and only his fourth appearance since the 19th of August. In fact, it had been ten days since the last time that Holland had stepped on the mound.

Yes, Holland earned a save in three of those four outings. And yes, his other appearance was when he allowed two runs in preserving the Royals 5-3 victory over the Orioles on August 27th. However, during that time frame, Wade Davis has made four appearances, earning four saves of his own.

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This pattern of usage for Greg Holland is certainly interesting. There have been opportunities to use the Kansas City Royals closer, yet Ned Yost has elected to go elsewhere. Davis having more saves over that stretch of time may not mean anything normally, but it is definitely an interesting footnote to the past four weeks of inaction for Holland.

When one factors in how Holland has not looked right for most of the season, and has had a few stretches where he missed time due to injury already, it may be that the Royals have more injury concerns for their closer. That ten day stretch, coinciding with the expansion of the major league roster, may have afforded the Royals enough time where they could let Holland rest while keeping him off the disabled list.

Back when I was in junior high, the Carmen San Diego series of computer games were at the peak of their popularity. They were a great way to learn about geography and other areas of the country and the world. These games also had the fun question of where, exactly, the criminal mastermind was. Well, the same question could be applied to the Royals closer. Where in the world is Greg Holland?

Last night, the Kansas City Royals had their closer on the mound to finish off the Minnesota Twins. Hopefully, Greg Holland has finally been located, and will be ready to go during the Royals push to the postseason.

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