Has Hochevar Turned The Corner?

Former 39th round pick and twice a first round pick (2005, 2006) Luke Hochevar came to the Royals organization with very high expectations. After some shady contract deliberations through his lawyer, Scott Boras, Hochevar ended up turning down every Dodger offer and spent the 2005 season pitching in the Independent League. However, the two sides never came to a deal. Therefore, the University of Tennessee grad fell into Kansas City's lap with the first overall pick in the 2006 draft. The ballyhooed pick signed for $5.3 million in guaranteed money that could reach as much as $7 million throughout the life of the contract. His previous contract troubles, being the #1 overall pick and such a big contract all combined to put very high expectations on Hochevar. Would he come through for the struggling Kansas City franchise?

Whether or not the Hochevar investment pays off in the long run remains to be seen. What we have seen is a dominant minor league pitcher. Through the 2008 season, the 25 year old righty has a career 1.13 ERA. That is flat out getting the job done. The problem is, these results have not fully transferred to the majors. In fact, Hochevar's results are rather pedestrian and have disappointed many a KC fan so far. For his career in the bigs, Luke is a paltry 9-16 with a 5.15 ERA. Not exactly the type of returns the Royals hoped to get. Then, to top it all off, Luke starts of the 2009 campaign just about as bad as fellow AL righty Chien Min-Wang. Luke starts off 0-3 with a 18.00 ERA and the boo birds followed him right off the field during his early game exits. Kansas City fans clamored that Hochevar had to go. He can not get it done they said, and who could blame them? Former Rays first round pick David Price is pitching in the 2008 World Series and former Royals first round pick Luke Hochevar can't get out of the 4th inning in May. Is he just a AAAA player? Too good for the minors, but can't cut it in the majors? What was the problem?

While it was rough sailing early in the year, Luke seems to have things turned around. Tonight, Hochevar threw 7 scoreless innings of 2 hit baseball against the Twins. And if you don't know how well the Twins hit check out the most recent Sports Illustrated. Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and company can flat out rake. More importantly, Hochevar battled through early control problems and overcame them to pitch a gem of a game. He controlled the game. He did not let the walks turn into big innings and crooked numbers and led the Royals to their second straight win. The win Monday evening marks Hochevar's 4th "quality start" in his 5 appearances since being recalled from Triple-A Omaha.

The win brings Hochevar's ERA to the lowest its been in his MLB career. It gives him something to build on. It gives him confidence in his stuff and tells him he can get the job done even with out his best stuff. By no means is the turn around complete. The control problems remain: 17 walks vs. 18 strikeouts. But Hochevar's recent successes at least alleviate the bad taste left in Royals fans' mouths after his horrendous start to the '09 campaign. Here's to Luke turning it around and taking his spot in the #3 spot in the Royals rotation. Meche, Greinke, and a strong Hochevar is a pretty formidable group of righties filling out the front end of the rotation. The pitching has been the strong point for the Royals, look for it to steadily improve with Hochevar's improvement.