KC Royals: Weekly Minor League Breakdown

More than a month into the KC Royals minor league season, I take a look at how some of the teams and players have been performing down on the farm.

It was an interesting week in the KC Royals minor league system. Put that along with me getting to use Fangraphs new detailed minor league stats and you all should be getting a fine breakdown.

AAA – Omaha Storm Chasers (20-19)

The Omaha Storm Chasers got their week kicked off against the New York Mets AAA affiliate, the Las Vegas 51s. They won a game in which the fired on all cylinders, winning 8-3. Paulo Orlando collected three hits and bashed his first homer of the year. Reliever Onelki Garcia continued his scoreless streak, finishing the game out.

Omaha continued their hot streak, winning their third and fourth straight games on Saturday and Sunday. These were led by two good performances from starters Jake Junis and Luke Farrell, including Junis striking out nine. Put that with two good performances from Raul Mondesi, including a homer, and Omaha swept the four game series against the 51s.

After an off day, the Storm Chasers would back home. The received their second straight day off on Tuesday, with a rainout against the Tacoma Rainers. This led to a doubleheader on Wednesday.

Those two off days proved to ruin Omaha’s mojo. The fell in the first game of the doubleheader, by a score of 7-2. This included Yender Caramo struggling in his start and Onelki Garcia giving up his first run of the year.

Omaha got right back on track though in the second game, winning 4-2. In a shortened seven inning game, KC Royals pitching prospect Erik Skoglund tossed a complete game. He generated ten groundballs in this game to improve on his elite 47.3 GB%. This game also included Raul Mondesi hitting a home run and a double.

Thursday was a busy day for the Storm Chasers too. Scheduled to play the third and fourth games in two days, Omaha got things kicked off again in the late afternoon, playing the first game. The news in this game was KC Royals top pitching prospect Josh Staumont and his performance. It was wasn’t really considered good or bad. He struck out eight, but walked seven in six innings. He now owns the title of throwing the most balls in AAA, with 321.

The Storm Chasers won the second game, by a score of 5-0. Bubba Starling was impressive in this game, going 3 for 3. He finished off a hot week, in which he raised his batting average by more than 70 points. Frank Schwindel, playing in his first AAA game, went 1 for 3. Christian Binford tossed six scoreless and Bobby Parnell closed it out.