@mellinger RT @royalspostgame: #Royals pitcher Luke Hochevar has now been told by 6 clubs that he has been tipping off pitches.

... that would explain things.

Good for Butler. He needs to keep working through the off season.

That's huge. No question.

But it doesn't matter much in the long run, with his middling stuff.

I almost puked listening to Fever talk about the Tigers' success with drafting pitchers.

How ****ing sad is it that he heard from other teams, and not from his own teammates?

Me too.

I think his stuff is much better than "middling," personally.

:eek:

Me no likey sinkerballers who lack an out pitch. Hated the selection at the time and continue to hate it today.

He's been better with the breaking ball this year, but it's far from being a consistent and effective part of his array, and he's past the point of talking of his development.

Real kick in the crotch.

I doubt we would have had the foresight and intelligence to pull off the Miller trade (and I want no talk about not having the resources, since we all know that this complete and total bullshit--this comment not aimed at any of the regulars in this thread), but the Porcello bit really stung.

I don't think Hochevar's problem is that his stuff isn't any good. His stuff is great, he has tremendous movement on his pitches. He just has never figured it out. Nobody with average stuff could strike out 12 or 13 or whatever it was earlier this year. Of course the last guy we had like that was Jorge De La Rosa, and he never did figure it out. At least until he went somewhere else.

How sad is it that he had to hear it from SIX teams? One, ok, maybe they're ****ing with you. Two? Time to be concerned. THREE? Abort mission.

Really glad I have Soria this week in the playoffs. 3 days, 3 saves.

There are a shitload of incompetent teams when it comes to that. The Cardinals caught it right away with Smoltz, and the mighty Red Sox missed it for over a dozen rehab and regular season starts

He has really good movement on his 2-seamer. He has ok movement on his breaking pitches, but they aren't plus pitches even if you excuse his lack of control. He doesn't even have a K/9 of 6 despite spending several years in the minors as an advanced arm.

He'd be a really good #3-decent #2 with a guy like Dave Duncan teaching him, but he'd never be the K machine that even De La Rosa is.

I really don't think his K/9 completely reflects his stuff though. Doesn't mean he'll ever reach the level of performance he should, but it's in there somewhere. I was referring to that stretch he had earlier where he was striking people out and pitching really well... he finally showed flashes of it. His fastball and sinker have more than enough movement to eliminate hitters.

The Dave Duncan thing is probably right on... maybe he wouldn't be a K machine, but he's exactly the type of guy Duncan would go for and turn into something really good.