Kris Bubic’s transformation into an All Star

Kris Bubic was selected as the 40th overall pick in 2018. He does not throw particularly hard, nor have his strikeout rates ever been eye popping. And yet, Bubic is at the All-Star Game, to be played tonight. I’m not sure very many people who were not paying extremely close attention to the Royals could have seen this coming even a couple of months ago.

Kris was a Stanford Cardinal who pitched his last two seasons as a fixture in their rotation. The lefty managed sub-3 ERAs in both his sophomore and junior campaigns while having a K/BB above 3. That is how you end up a supplemental pick like he did in 2018. He made it to the big leagues much faster than you would expect because the Royals…