KC Royals: 3 key second half questions and answers

Can pitcher Brady Singer rediscover his 2022 form for the KC Royals?

Here's wishing it were otherwise, but the most optimistic answer to this question is "It's unlikely."

Singer, remember, started slowly last season but, after a fruitful demotion to the minors, finished with a 10-5 record, a career-best 3.23 ERA, and won the club's Bruce Rice Pitcher of the Year award from the Kansas City chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

But the consistency he displayed after his visit to Triple-A Omaha last year is gone. He's had some good moments (he leads manager Matt Quatraro's staff with five wins) but his 5.80 ERA reflects his unfortunate tendency to give up far too many runs—in 18 starts, he's been battered for eight runs twice, six once, and five five times.

Much of Singer's trouble is certainly traceable to his mysterious reliance on just two pitches. That's a recipe for disaster in the big leagues unless both are consistently and simultaneously overwhelming, and it's not often that Singer's sinker and slider, his primary pitches of choice, work superbly at the same time. And he simply doesn't mix in his other two pitches: per Baseball Savant, he's throwing his changeup 5.6% of the time and his sweeper only 0.9% of the time. Predictably and wisely, major league hitters simply sit back and look for either the slider or sinker.

Singer shows no signs of changing. So it is that he probably won't enjoy a big second half to this 2023 campaign.