00:00We need to ask JJ Piccolo, and let's talk about one of the few bright spots
00:05and what gives me some hope about what the Royals might end up being later down the road.
00:09Stephen Kolick had an absolutely stunning performance for the Royals over the weekend.
00:13A complete game, which you do not see very...
00:15First one since Brad Keller.
00:16Yeah, Brad Keller.
00:17That would not have been my prediction of who was the last guy to do it.
00:20He's had a nice reliever career now for a couple of other teams in baseball.
00:24I saw there was an article over the weekend on Foster Griffin, I think.
00:27Wow, that's a name.
00:28Well, he went to Japan to pitch and now is pitching for the Pirates or something.
00:32I can't remember who.
00:33He's in the majors.
00:34He's been an okay reliever in the majors after years and years.
00:38This is not like a Royals problem.
00:40In the article, it was an admitted head case, I think, in a lot of cases.
00:43But Stephen Kolick, he has made nine starts for the Royals
00:49since being traded over here in the Freddie for Mean deal
00:53and has been awesome, not just in the one game,
00:56but has been awesome as a member of the Royals.
00:59He's made nine starts.
01:00He's got like a two-point earned run average, even with one random one.
01:04He's been like maybe the single biggest bright spot of the Royals season.
01:08Is that fair to say?
01:09I think he's the biggest positive of the season.
01:10And I get it.
01:11It's a year in which they are 10 games under .500.
01:14But if you were saying, hey, looking ahead to the future,
01:19what positive can you take out of so far what you've seen
01:22almost a third of the way through the season?
01:23Stephen Kolick's the biggest positive.
01:25Biggest positive.
01:26It's not even close.
01:27Honestly, it's not close.
01:28Tell me another player.
01:30Tell me another player.
01:31I'm not saying some guys haven't done anything positive.
01:33Other than Bobby Witt.
01:34But he's expected to be an MVP candidate at this point in time in his career.
01:39He's sensational.
01:40We expect that I think Stephen Kolick's the biggest positive player
01:45performance-wise of the entire season so far.
01:47You know, it's hard because the other guys are proven guys.
01:49It would be like Walker or Bobby Witt Jr.
01:53And Walker's underrated.
01:53We know that.
01:54We've talked a ton about him.
01:55He's sensational.
01:56And we'll see ultimately what his future is in Kansas City.
02:00Genuinely, the only people who are even in a competition for this conversation
02:02are Nick Lofton, who's been better than expected,
02:05or Daniel Lynch, who's been better than expected.
02:07But not to the degree that they've got his team.
02:09Daniel Lynch.
02:09I'll inch to Daniel Lynch a little bit.
02:10The problem is he's a bullpen guy, and he's not a closer.
02:13So it's hard to say that that's more of a positive when he's just a late inning guy.
02:17Yeah, I think your point's fair, which is like,
02:19those are the only guys I can even bring up.
02:21I'm not saying they're winning the category.
02:24They're the only players that I can even bring up as a positive.
02:26If they had more guys than that, they'd probably have more wins.
02:29The interesting part about Kolick is, what are you seeing?
02:32Like, JJ had mentioned the striker thing.
02:33What has been stopping you from starting him this entire time?
02:38Well, nine starts in a Royals uniform.
02:39He's pitched well.
02:41And that's not many, admittedly.
02:43Almost 60 innings of work for you.
02:45And in his major league career, he's got like a 2.25 career ERA for you,
02:49a 3.84 career ERA for anyone.
02:54And he's doing a good job for you.
02:56So like, at this point, and they don't have to worry about it.
02:59I don't want to create, Vernon and I were literally talking about this before the game yesterday.
03:02We don't need to do the hypothetical conversation.
03:04Well, he better start the rest of the year.
03:05I don't need to create problems for a team that has real problems.
03:09That's a hypothetical problem.
03:11Cole Reagans isn't even back yet.
03:13It'll sort itself out.
03:14But Kolick should be a part of the future rotational plans for now because he's been a big bright spot
03:22for you.
03:23He has.
03:23You asked the question a minute ago.
03:25You were like, hey, how come he hasn't been pitched?
03:27I mean, in fairness, going back to opening day at the time, where the hell was he going to fit
03:30in?
03:30And Noah Cameron's spot, but we didn't beat out.
03:33But Noah Cameron was coming off an unbelievable season.
03:37So I don't think it's like this.
03:38How is he not in the rotation?
03:40I mean, it was understandable why he wasn't in the rotation.
03:43Now, yes, because of injury and performance, he's going to pitch plenty the rest of the year.
03:47Don't you worry.
03:47He will be pitching and starting plenty, hopefully the rest of the year for this team.
03:52I think that goes back to like we mentioned, wasting Bobby Wood Jr.'s year, right?
03:58If they if they come up way short of this season, you would have been like, they blew it.
04:02They got an MVP candidate every year and they're not a playoff team for two years in a row.
04:07That just makes it frustrating.
04:08The other part is and I know this because I've been a Royals fan a very long time.
04:11And so do you.
04:13Getting good starting pitching in a market this size is work.
04:18It's a lot of work and you're wasting it.
04:22You've had two years in a row of way above average, borderline great starting pitching.
04:29And you're not gonna be a playoff team either those years.
04:31How?
04:32How?
04:32Even in a year in which you lost your opening day starter, Stephen Kolek,
04:36are missing time with Chris Bubich.
04:38You just get Stephen Kolek to kick down the door and throw complete game shutouts for you.
04:43Like it's that's I mean, waste.
04:47Don't waste that.
04:47Don't waste good starting pitching.
04:49And that's the part that may be the story of the season.
04:52If we weren't talking about Vinny and Sally for a huge chunk of the season,
04:54I would talk about how many games they've lost this year in which they got a high quality start.
04:58We have the stat.
04:59How?
05:00I don't have it in front of me again.
05:01I told you I was driving back from the game last week.
05:04Listen to Vern.
05:05And actually, maybe I have it somewhere here.
05:07The quality start stat.
05:09This has changed.
05:09This is this is as of last Wednesday.
05:11So this clearly has changed because they got more quality outings this past week.
05:15They were 14 and 11 when they got a quality start from their staff as of a week ago.
05:20And it's only gotten worse.
05:20It's only gotten worse.
05:21Yeah, they've gotten more quality start.
05:22They're probably like 14 and 13 now or something like that.
05:25I'd have to go back and get the updated number.
05:27They won the Kolek one.
05:28So 15 and 11.
05:29Fair.
05:29They lost the one yesterday.
05:30So 15 and 12.
05:31At least 15.
05:32They lost another one.
05:33Yeah.
05:33Maybe 15 and 13.
05:34Yeah.
05:34And so like they it's still not good enough.
05:37How how and that like that.
05:39Look, that goes back to the offense and the bullpen in a game last night.
05:43The bullpen the offense wasn't good, but also you had the lead and needed three outs and
05:48had your clothes are on the mound or could have pitched Lynch or whatever or can continue
05:53to pitch Lynch.
05:53Obviously, he pitched in the eighth inning, but that oh, it's brutal.
05:58Brutal.
05:58I mean, genuinely brutal to watch a team with this much good starting pitching consistently.
06:03Not.
06:04Yeah, I mean, that's there's a lot of reasons for the added frustration among fans, but
06:08I think you're right.
06:08Some of it is you're getting some quality pitching at times.
06:11Of course, there's the obvious, as you alluded to, which is you've got a legit MVP candidate,
06:16the second best player probably in baseball and Bobby would junior and and here you are
06:20and you sit where you sit as an organization as we're about to turn the calendar to June.
06:24And yeah, it's not what anybody had in store for this season by any means, but there is
06:28this that realization like I think people already were even though we got multiple years till
06:32the opt out even exists possibly for Bobby with fans are already like thinking, all right,
06:37well, this is just going to this is going to impact his decision making moving forward.
06:41And so I think that that adds to the fuel of the frustration for 2026 is that if he continues
06:46to miss the playoffs every year, he's not going to believe that this is the place in which
06:49he can accomplish the goals that we know a player of his caliber is going to want to.
06:53The only thing I will say to that for those that are freaking out about that aspect is
06:56we are still years away.
06:58So if this if this organization were to get things together and get to this is not like
07:04this is the last it's like the opt outs happening in October.
07:06They got three years to continue to prove it.
07:08They got three years to figure this out, though, and get this thing corrected.
07:12Otherwise, yeah, that's I mean, I've told you this.
07:15So they could make the playoffs for four straight years, including this year.
07:17And to me, he's opting out.
07:19The question is whether or not he resigns.
07:21He's always going to opt out because financially it would be an idiotic decision not to opt
07:25out.
07:26Yeah.
07:27So, I mean, if I were if I were his accountant, he's going to opt out.
07:31The question is, is he opting out with the intention of signing a deal here?
07:33And we will find that out in four years or not have to opt out because he'll sign a deal
07:37here.
07:38Well, that's fine.
07:39Before the opt out.
07:40Fine.
07:40Yes, that's fair.
07:41But like if it just goes forward, then he's going to need a race.
07:44He's not staying on the current contract.
07:45How about that?
07:45If you were a free agent, right?
07:46Like next offseason, would he get three quarters of a billion?
07:49Would he get six hundred million?
07:51What did Juan Soto get?
07:52He'd get right in that ballpark.
07:55Now, that's it.
07:55Not including the CBA crap that's about to happen.
07:58So I don't know what that does.
07:59Soto got fifteen, seven, sixty five.
08:02We don't know what twenty twenty seven is going to bring when it comes to baseball.
08:06Juan Soto got seven.
08:07I forgot how big his contract was.
08:09He got seven hundred and sixty five million dollars.
08:13And he's playing pretty well this year.
08:15Yes, he's a good player.
08:16Hitting two ninety five and ten homers.
08:18Yeah, I've got no complaint.
08:20I'm sure that right now he's only twenty seven.
08:22That's crazy.
08:22That's crazy.
08:23He got the league when he was like, what, nineteen?
08:25Yeah.
08:25But Bobby did.
08:26I mean, Bobby wasn't that old when he got in.
08:28Right away.
08:30Two ninety four, three ninety on base percentage.
08:32That's the thing I continue to point out about Bobby is baseball players a lot of times
08:36at their prime older than Bobby is.
08:39That's what's crazy.
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