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In another installment of my FIO post, Impact Rookies for 2008, let’s look at [tag]Kansas City Royals[/tag] starting pitcher [tag]Luke Hochevar[/tag]. Taken with the first overall pick in the 2006 Amateur Draft, Hochevar quickly rose through the minor league ranks to earn a September call up in 2007. Before being called up he split time between AA Witchita and AAA Omaha posting these numbers:

Luke Hochevar - 4-9 4.86 ERA | 152.0 IP | 138:47 K:BB

Hochevar has a nice 2.93 strikeout to walk ratio, but his record and ERA left something to be desired. In fact, to help him gain better command over his curveball and change up, Hochevar was told by his coaching staff that he wasn’t allowed to throw his sinker and slider, giving him only three pitches to work with. That lasted until mid season when he was given free reign to use his entire repertoire of pitches. Many believe that Hochevar needs some more time in AAA before being ready to pitch in the major leagues. And that looked like the way things would work until he got called up in September and posted these numbers:

Luke Hochevar - 0-1 2.13 ERA | 12.2 IP | 5:4 K:BB

He’s going to need to continue in spring training, the success he had in September, to earn a spot on the big club’s roster in early April. But, most people presume that a spot in the Royals rotation is a given for Luke Hochevar at some point in 2008. It’s just a matter of when.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 10:07 am and is filed under Prospects, Starting Pitchers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.