Kansas City Royals: How to avoid the same mistakes in 2020

The young guns are just not ready.

For fans of the Kansas City Royals, the most exciting development since we won the World Series in 2015 was the draft of 2018. I genuinely believe that was an impressive draft. If anything, I believe the national media may underrate the 2018 draft thus far. (It is worth noting that I also thought John Lamb would pitch for 15 years in the big leagues.)

Anyone who spends too much time following the Royals online already knows many of these names by heart. Singer, Kowar, Lynch, Bubic, Bowlan. They already have a cool group nickname – The Fab Five. They have done nothing but impress, to this point.

Incredibly there is even a second group of pitchers with names like Cox, Haake, Heasley. All in the same draft. It is thrilling. Looking forward to the day some of these blossoming stars pitch in Kauffman with rapt anticipation is just good fun.

Using our minor league talent as a reason not to improve our pitching staff significantly in 2020 is absolute nonsense. Any contribution these young arms make next year should be considered a bonus. Any of them. And we need better pitching tomorrow. Now.

The rotation we started this season with is not a long-term one. And a third triple-digit loss season without significant attempts to improve the pitching product on the field is also unacceptable. If we really want to help these up and coming pitchers have a smooth transition to the big leagues, do it by having a good team when they get here. A billion-dollar franchise deserves a real pitching staff.