Top 10 starting pitchers in KC Royals history

Since their formation in 1969, the KC Royals have had many quality starting pitchers don the powder blue uniforms.  We highlight the top ten to do so.

When looking at statistics for players who may have played a half-century apart it is difficult to compare.  Back in the 1970s and into the ’80s, the only time you would get a starter off the mound is with a gurney.  The KC Royals were no exception as they had hurlers throwing complete games until their arms fell off.

Another factor to consider is how Royals/Kauffman Stadium has changed over the years.  It has always played as a big ballpark that makes it harder to hit home runs but for the first two decades, it was also played on AstroTurf.  That hard surface popular in many ballparks for years could turn a hard-hit grounder into a triple as it rolled swiftly to the wall.  Now with the grass field, what was extra-base hits are now singles.

How good the team was around them should not ultimately be a deciding factor but it is easier to pick a guy who had more wins because he was around in the heyday than other pitchers who suffered through really bad teams.  Ultimately cream rises to the top but it is hard to quell the bias of a hurler who had more wins, so using advanced numbers will help even the comparisons.

Choosing and ranking the best pitchers in franchise history is subject to many traditional stats as well as mixing in the popular Sabermetrics.  The Royals have produced Cy Young Award winners, league leaders in multiple categories such as wins, games started, shutouts, ERA, ERA+, FIP, HR/9 and more.

The criteria that went into forming the list is that they had to make at least 75 starts (equivalent roughly to three full seasons) as a Royal and are only judged on their performance with Kansas City.  Some hurlers who had great success with other organizations but did not put in enough time or whose performance was not as sparkling with the KC Royals will not make the list as such.

It is hard to believe that this left-hander has played for the KC Royals nine seasons already.

While most of his career has been as a starter, Danny Duffy has also given the team some solid work out of the bullpen in 28 appearances.  The talk is that he may eventually move to the reliever role but he is still a formidable starter.

His win total is definitely hurt by being bookended by poor Royals teams.  To date, his record is 60-61 and he will need to stick around for a few more seasons for a shot at the 100 win mark.  Duffy is just 74 strikeouts from reaching 1,000 with the team and his overall ERA+ is at 108. His 7.900 K/9 ratio puts him second all-time in team history and he is also in the top ten in whiffs, games started, and strikeouts to base on balls issued.

One obstacle that Duffy has had to overcome while working his way into one of the top Royal pitchers of all-time is battling depression and anxiety. He opened about it in an interview with Sam McDowell last September:

“The biggest thing I’ve learned in therapy, and it sounds cliche, is you can’t go wrong by being yourself,” Duffy says. “It’s a deeper statement than it sounds. You never ever fail yourself if you act as who you are. We were made this way for a reason. It takes a certain level of confidence to do that. I didn’t have that confidence.” – Kansas City Star

Duffy’s postseason numbers have not been great and solely done in a relief role. He did show up big against the New York Mets though. In three games his WHIP was 0.857 and a strikeout per 9 innings ratio of 11.6. In fact, in nine total playoff appearances, his K/9 rate jumps up nearly four points above his regular season average.

With two more years of his contract to go, Duffy will likely have an opportunity to pass more milestones in overall stats for Kansas City pitchers.  It will be fun to see one of the most open, honest, and humble players in recent memory meet them.

Along with rocking a sweet mullet, this pitcher was drafted and played thirteen of his fourteen seasons with the KC Royals.

His only season outside of Kansas City consisted of two starts with the Anaheim Angels.  Essentially, Mark Gubicza was with one franchise his entire career.  Drafted out of high school in the second round of 1981, “Gubby” first arrived in the majors in 1984.

For the first six years, he produced double-digit wins including a fantastic ’88 season in which he won 20 games, was an All-Star and finished third in Cy Young voting.  After 1989, however, Gubicza only produced one more double-digit win total and even spent most of 1993 coming out of the bullpen.

Even with all the success in the beginning, his overall record with the Royals was 132-136.  His career ERA was 3.91 and he did strike out 1,371 batters while wearing powder blue.

Some advanced stats back up Gubby’s inclusion on this list.  His Royals’ career WAR was 38.0 and he led American League pitchers in that category in 1988 with 7.7.  One thing was certain for hitters; if you played on teeing off on him you were going to be disappointed.  His career HR/9 was under 1.00 and three times he led the league.

A Royals Hall-of-Famer, Gubicza definitely gave it his all every time he took the mound for the KC Royals.

Traded to the KC Royals mid-1983 and miring in the minors, the tough-luck lefty would put together six solid campaigns for the team.

After a few decent but unremarkable years with the Cincinnati Reds, Charlie Leibrandt was traded to the Royals and immediately was sent to Omaha.  However, nine starts with the big league club turned heads as he went 7-1 with a 1.24 ERA and 0.92 WHIP.  That would begin a string of consecutive winning records.

Leibrandt would end up starting 187 games for the Royals producing 76 wins, 34 complete games, and 10 shutouts.  Three times he would produce a WAR of 5.0 or more and finished fifth in Cy Young Award voting in 1985.  That accomplishment gets lost since Bret Saberhagen took much of the spotlight with his performance that year.

The ’85 season saw his ERA at 2.69 in 33 starts with three shutouts and a WHIP of 1.22.  Leibrandt was fantastic in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals even though officially he was 0-1.  His two starts combined for over eight innings per game, ten strikeouts and a minuscule WHIP of 0.857.

He did have a unique windup with you can see a snapshot of in the photo above.  He was not a strikeout pitcher or a typical shutdown pitcher.  He frequently minimized the damage of runners on base.  My childhood memory may be failing me but I recall seeing him in person and after three frames the opposition had no runs despite eight hits.  I was pulling for a 24-hit shutout.

Overall, Leibrandt places in Kansas City’s top ten in WAR, ERA, wins, win-loss %, innings, games started, complete games and shutouts.  He finished his career with the Atlanta Braves including pitching for them in two more World Series’.

An overused term seems applicable to this crafty southpaw.  He only struck out more than one hundred hitters once(!) in a season but had no problem getting them out.

Traded from the arch-nemesis New York Yankees after the 1975 season due to a falling out with manager Billy Martin, Larry Gura became a rock in the KC Royals rotation for nearly a decade.  Kansas City initially used him out of the bullpen the first two seasons, and he responded well with a .705 winning percentage and 11 saves.  He even managed to throw two complete-game shutouts in the eight times he was able to start.

During the 1978 season, Gura converted over to purely a starter and the results were immediate with 16-4 mark, a 2.72 ERA, a 1.096 WHIP and seventh-place finish in the Cy Young voting.  He had a tougher go of it in 1979 but the next two years saw sub 3.00 ERAs, an All-Star Game appearance and two more top-ten finishes in Cy Young voting.

Although that would be the end of his dominating seasons, Gura still came up with double-digit win totals for the next three years.  That included an 18-win season in 1982.  Sadly, he pitched in only three games during the World Series run of 1985 before finishing that year (and his career) with the Chicago Cubs.

Gura is a Royals Hall of Famer and finishes high on several all-time franchise lists.  This includes fifth in wins and innings pitched, third in win-loss %, and fourth in complete games and shutouts.  His presence on the team was key to the trips to the postseason in the late 70s and early 80s.

Being left-handed seems to equal having great success if you were a KC Royals pitcher during the playoff runs from 1975-1985.

Paul Splittorff spent his entire career with the Royals and spent time in the broadcast booth with the team after his playing days were over.  For many of us, he was the trusted television analyst once Kansas City games became more available during the 1990s and 2000s.

He was an original Royal as he was drafted in 1968 before the Royals had played their first game as a franchise.  It did not take “Split” long to reach the majors, first appearing in 1970 and an anchor of the rotation from 1971-1983.

One 20-win and one 19-win season were produced along with a fifth-place finish in Rookie of the Year voting and one top-ten Cy Young award finalist.  His numbers improved once the playoffs started as well.  He was 2-0 in four starts (seven appearances total) with a 2.79 ERA.

Like Leibrandt and Gura, Splittorff was not going to blow you away with his stuff but he was good at keeping runners from scoring.  He could also be counted on to eat up the innings tossing 88 complete games in his career.

Areas that he is the all-time leader in Kansas City categories are plenty.  Wins, starts by a pitcher, and innings pitched are records that will have a hard time being touched.  Splittorff is also fifth in strikeouts and second in complete games and shutouts.

It was a sad day when Split passed away, whether an older or younger fan you knew the name.  He helped build the foundation that put the Royals in position to make the playoffs for many years and ultimately win a World Series.

This player once led the league in losses but after maturing and tapping into his true potential he rebounded to win a Cy Young.

Ultimately, Zack Greinke will be remembered for his runs with other teams where he was often in the playoffs.  But it was the KC Royals who drafted him sixth overall in 2002 and helped him grow as a player and a man.

He jumped to the majors quickly and at age 20 was fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting.  What followed was a 17-loss season and bouts of depression and social anxiety.  He even walked away from baseball for a brief time.

After only three games in the majors in 2006, Greinke played a swingman the next season and blossomed.  Finally returning to the rotation full-time in 2008 he was back on track.

The 2009 season was very special despite only a 16-8 record.  He led the majors in ERA (2.16), ERA+ (205), FIP (2.33) and was the best in the American League in WHIP (1.073) and HR/9 (0.4). He tossed six complete games, almost unheard of anymore. An All-Star appearance, the Cy Young crowning, and a top-20 MVP finish rounded out the year.

The 2010 season saw a drop in performance and he was traded that off-season to the Milwaukee Brewers as he made it known he would like out of Kansas City.  Those seven years with the Royals (essentially six) he still managed to thrill the fans and find himself among team leaders in several categories.

Greinke owns a KC-best 3.35 strikeouts to base on balls ratio, third in BB/9, fourth in WAR and seventh in K’s.  Had he played during a different time period it’d easy to see him atop many statistical pitching categories.

The man with a handlebar mustache suffered a knee injury that cost him almost two full seasons.  He battled back to go on one last ride with the KC Royals.

Dennis Leonard was drafted in 1972 and had a cup of coffee with Kansas City in 1974.  He then went on a nine-year run that included no losing records and double-digit wins except for the season he was injured that left him with a 6-3 record in 1983 and robbed him of at least ten wins that year.

Despite winning 20 games three times within a four-year span, Leonard only finished as high as fourth in Cy Young voting and the top ten twice.  He took the mound early and often leading the league in games started three times and finished with 302 starts in his Royals career.

From 1975-1980, Leonard averaged almost 18 wins per season.  During that time he tossed 86 complete games and 19 shutouts.

After the aforementioned knee problem, Leonard went out in 1986 starting 30 games and tossing an additional five complete games and two shutouts.  Not bad for a 35-year old on a bad leg.

Had he not been hurt, Leonard could be first in wins instead of second.  If you had not figured it out yet, he does lead the team in complete games and shutouts.  He also is in the top ten in WAR, win-loss percentage, WHIP, innings pitched, strikeouts and games started.  A Royal his entire career, he was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 1989.

Caught in-between the teams always in the playoff hunt and the downfall of the franchise, “Ape” may be underappreciated.

Thanks to only 21 2/3 innings pitched in 1989, Kevin Appier still maintained rookie status going into 1990.  That season he started 24 games, went 12-8 with 2.76 ERA and was a top-3 finisher in Rookie of the Year voting.

Only appearing in one All-Star game, Appier was still a rock of the Royals throughout the decade. The 1993 season was his best as he posted an 18-8 record, 2.56 ERA (AL-best) and led the majors with an ERA+ of 179 and HR/9 ratio of 0.3.  A third-place finish in Cy Young voting would cap the year.

He is credited with playing thirteen season with Kansas City, however, four of those years only had fourteen combined starts due to injuries or acquired per trade (he came back to KC for 2003 and 2004).  The nine full seasons he was able to pitch were spectacular.

A herky-jerky motion often kept batters from picking up the ball quickly and that led to 115 wins and a 3.49 overall ERA in a Royals uniform.  He also struck out 1,458 hitters and produced an ERA+ of 130 throughout his time in Kansas City.

Appier has the most whiffs of any Royals pitcher, has posted the highest career WAR (47.1) and is on top in a slew of other Sabermetric measurements.  The fact his WAR is among the many great pitchers that came before him shows how valuable he was to the mediocre teams he played on.

Ape was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame back in 2011 and it was a well-deserved honor.  Whether or not another pitcher can have that much effectiveness in his time with Royals is highly suspect.

The scouting on this kid must have been way off.  After only one season in the minors though, the KC Royals brought him up to the big leagues and he took over from there.

Bret Saberhagen pitched in 38 games and started 18 of them in 1984 for the Royals. Half of those starts he completed. He threw way above expectations in the American League Championship Series against the Detroit Tigers with eight solid frames and only two earned runs allowed.  That was a sign of dominance to come.

Every Kansas City fan remembers the skinny kid who won a Cy Young at the age of 21 and led the pitching staff in the franchise’s first World Series-winning year.  He was 20-6 with a 2.87 ERA, and led the American League in WHIP (1.058), BB/9 (1.5), and K/9 (4.16).

While the Toronto Blue Jays had his number in the ALCS, Saberhagen went into video game mode against the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.  He completed both starts, only allowing one run in 18 innings, 11 hits, and one walk for a 0.667 WHIP.  He was on the mound as the Royals celebrated the Game 7 clincher.

The next year — Game 7 of the World Series — that was the most nervous I have ever been. If we win, we’re champions. If we don’t, we all go home and the Cardinals are champions. And if that happens, I feel like I let my teammates down, our fans down, the front office down.  — Bret Saberhagen on being so young starting Game 7 of World Series mlb.com

Saberhagen would go on to win a second Cy Young with Kansas City in 1989 and actually pitched even better. He was 23-6 with a 2.16 ERA, completed 12 games, and threw 262 1/3 innings, all which led the majors. He was also the best in the big leagues in ERA+ (180), WHIP (0.961) and K/BB (4.49).

In only eight seasons with the Royals, he won 110 games, struck out 1,093 batters, completed 64 games and tossed 14 shutouts.  More importantly, he won over a city with his confidence, charisma, and ability to step up in important games.

An easy choice for induction into the Royals Hall of Fame occurred in 2005.  He has the best WHIP of any other Kansas City pitcher and is in the top 5 for WAR, ERA, win-loss percentage, strikeouts, games started, complete games and shutouts. Although his career with the team was not as long as many others, Saberhagen will always be a Royal in fans’ hearts.