During the off-season the Royals biggest moves were on the coaching staff, firing Manager Mike Matheny and pitching coach Cal Eldred. When asked why they didn’t make more significant changes, General Manager J.J. Picollo responded that the team felt their minor league development was doing fine, they simply needed to improve their major league coaching. A week into the season, we have a plethora of evidence to suggest they may have been on to something.
FanGraphs has a really interesting set of stats that we can reference to determine the quality of the pitches being thrown: Stuff+, Location+, and Pitching+.