Tony-OH

No idea. We didn't change anything.

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They are two very, very special players for sure. It's really hard to say overall. I'd rather compare them from their first full seasons on rather than on a year by year stats since that's unfair to Gunnar. Gunnar outperformed Witt in their first full seasons with Gunnar winning the rookie of the year. Gunnar was a little older than Witt in that debut season though and had more minor league PAs. Witt is off to a white hot start this year and looks pretty amazing right now, but Gunnar is no slouch. If I was building a team from scratch and I could only take one of them, just going off of skills, not contracts or anything else, I'd probably take Gunnar. But it would be very close. Two reasons I'd take Gunnar. He bats left-handed and is going to draw more walks than Witt. Witt is going to steal more bases and while he has probably better range than Gunnar, his throwing accuracy is not as good as Gunnar's. You can't go wrong with either player. They are both among the brightest young stars in the game.

This is not an overreaction to his tough blown save last night (Hays absolutely should have called Gunnar off on that pop up), but I did not see closer stuff from Kimbrel last night. His fastball is down 2.7 MPH from last year when it was the lowest average velocity of his career up until then. He got zero whiffs on his 92.2 to 93.8 MPH fastball and batters were able to foul it off even when he was able to hit his spots. The lack of command of his knucklecurve could have been the rust of not pitching since Mar 20th in a game, but he only threw one for a strike and got one whiff on a chase by Bobby Witt on the K. Now the only good news is that I looked over his career and he traditionally throws slower in Mar/Apr and then ramps up by May, but the bad news is as far as I can see, that's the slowest average velocity that he's ever thrown in a big league game. Now let's add in the fact that he couldn't hold a runner to save his life last night allowing that bloop single to turn into a triple. As was noted in the game thread, neither could 6-foot-8 Bautista, but Bautista of course have an otherworldly strike out rate and he actually got better at holding runners through the year last year. Now maybe Kimbrel will improve, but let's be honest here, there is no way anyone is going to feel secure with him coming in and pitching in one run games for the save right now.

BTW, Loftin had 70 professional innings at 1B and that cost the Royals tonight.

The Orioles did seem to pick up Bautista which helped him see so invincible, but I think some of those blown saves was coming into the 8th in a tough jam.

Well, he is the Vulture!

Ok Westburg, you can keep your stache for now.

There's the power!!!!!!!!

No, why would Mullins run and get into scoring position?

Weird, Hays grounded out.

Not good...

You saved yourself with that second sentence. You know the difference.

Didn't miss many bats, deep counts, 92-94 velocity, and can't hold runners. Not a great combo for a closer. Unless that ticks up he won't be closing here by June.

BLOWN SAVE because he can't hold a runner. Can't be a closer if a simple single turns into a triple because you freaking can't hold a runner/

Kimbrel not missing many bats

Bloop and two stolen bases... uggh

They are not overturning that

He's safe.. Great throw, but he's safe.

Gunnar was going hard after that but Hays has to call him off loudly!

Hays has to call that....

He can do anything he likes if he gets guys out.

92-94, and hasn't thrown a breaking ball for a strike yet.

Royals Hangout has to be just trashing him right now! Probably telling him to shave his mustache!

Well, we're going to see what Kimbrel has. I'd be lying if I said that I was confident.