Camp Sights: Royals bullpen about to get even better

Note: Paste BN Sports' Paul White, via car, causeway, plane and rail, will reach every major league camp this spring.

Follow his exploits on Twitter -- @PBJWhite- as he makes his way through the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues before imparting all you didn't know about every team right here.

Today: Kansas City Royals

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SURPRISE, Ariz. – Kansas City's late-innings relief combination of Greg Holland, Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera was the dominant story line of last year's postseason – at least until Madison Bumgarner's World Series-winning trump card.

The October notoriety was nice, but the Royals' shutdown trio was overpowering pretty much all year. Consider these combined numbers for the regular season: 5.7 hits per nine innings, 11.4 strikeouts per nine and 3.7 strikeouts for every walk.

Wait, it gets better – very soon.

When we last saw Luke Hochevar, he was better than that: 5.2 hits per nine, 10.5 strikeouts per nine and a 4.82 strikeout/walk ratio. That was during the 2013 season, the 2006 No. 1 overall pick's first as a reliever.

Since then, he's had Tommy John surgery, watched the team he's grown with win a pennant and darned near a World Series and resigned himself that, as he says, "There's not a stinking thing in the world you can do."

He can now.

When you see, in all probability, Hochevar's name back on the disabled list when this season begins, be patient. That won't be nearly as difficult – or as long – as how he's had to bide his time.

The big, bearded right-hander got into his first spring game this week and was able to say the same thing he said before the game:

"I feel great. I can't complain about anything."

In other words, that Kansas City bullpen is about to get even better.

There's no target date.

"If it takes me a couple extra weeks, I'm fine with that," says Hochevar, who had his surgery a year ago Wednesday. "I'm not in a hurry because it doesn't benefit me or the team or anybody else to rush this thing. If it takes me a week or two weeks longer to get into the swing of things, it might save me four, five, six weeks down the road."

It doesn't hurt that the Royals bullpen as we already know it should be saving games in the meantime.

"That's a good thing, too," says Hochevar, who found his niche in 2013 after a 5.45 earned run average over five seasons as a starter. "How deep our 'pen is, how good our 'pen is, I'm protected there."

Manager Ned Yost hasn't even begun to sort out how the late innings will play out once Hochevar is back. But, to borrow from Yogi Berra, it's going to get late early in Kansas City.

It could be ridiculously early.

There's also Brandon Finnegan, last year's first-round pick by the Royals who debuted in September, had a 1.29 ERA in seven appearances down the stretch and found himself on the postseason roster. The 21-year-old lefty's eventual role is as a starter but he has just five pro starts – all at Class A – and his left-handedness could factor into the Royals' roster decisions since primary lefty reliever Tim Collins had Tommy John surgery this month.

Veteran lefty Franklin Morales also has impressed Yost this spring, so he could fill a situational spot if the Royals decide they prefer to emphasize Finnegan's development as a starter. Remember, they lost No. 1 guy James Shields and free-agent signing Edinson Volquez is the likely newcomer to the rotation.

But back to the bullpen and Ryan Madson – remember him?

He's a veteran of four post-seasons with the Phillies, including 2011 when he had 32 saves. That's the last time he pitched – again thanks to Tommy John surgery and subsequent complications.

Contracts with three teams later, "He looks great," Yost says.

Yeah, he's aiming for a spot in that Royals bullpen.

"All systems are go with him," Yost says. "Healthy, feeling good. He's got the fastball back up to 91, 92 with that devastating changeup."

Like Hochevar, Madson is on a conservative ramp-up program pointing toward April. Chances are good Madson will have to start the season in the minors – the bullpen is simply that crowded.

And, like Hochevar, there's no reason to rush.

"It's just being off the mound for an extended period, getting your timing, your delivery, your mechanics and consistency getting your pitches down in the zone," Yost says. "You build them up. You don't start a race."

And despite what you may have seen in October – the bullpen pitched 45% of the Royals' World Series innings -- Yost isn't planning any drastic new strategy for this season. Like every other team, he'll look at a seven-man relief group with an eighth as a possibility from time to time. And he'll want as many innings as possible from his starters.

"Going into the playoffs, all of a sudden, the significance of the games is much bigger," Yost says. "You use your bullpen a lot more than you would during the regular season. You still have to depend on your starting pitchers to go deep into games so that your bullpen can be healthy and can be available to do that in late September and into October."

You see, he's planning on it now.

**

A long December

The underlying theme of the Royals' pennant was a group of players who mostly grew up together in their professional lives and finally matched expectations that had surrounded them for longer than they cared to hear them and beyond plenty of fans' and analysts' "sell-by" date.

They figured it out, learned how to win, believed they could win.

So, when did that finally happen?

"Eighth inning of the wild-card game," Yost says.

So much for the emotional made-for-TV movie full of maturing, bonding and overcoming adversity.

It's a ballgame, folks.

And in that particular one, Yost recalls, "They came in, we were down four runs, 7-3, against Jon Lester, a pitcher we never beat. They came in for the bottom of the eighth inning and I've never seen them so intense, never seen them so fired up.

"All you could hear from the far end of the dugout was, 'We're not losing this game. Not tonight. Not to this guy.' They went out and scored three, tied it up in the ninth; they scored, we scored; they scored, we scored. But they believed that they were good enough."

And they won the next seven games to sweep into the World Series.

Nice winter stories for the fans, but that's not the feeling that permeates this spring training.

"I said all winter long that I was very proud of what we accomplished but I wasn't satisfied with what we'd accomplished," Yost says of getting pretty much to within one swing of beating the Giants. "When I got to spring training, I found out to a man that was the exact same feeling -- and they were serious."

Maybe getting so close eliminated a happy-to-have-been-there carryover.

"I know the taste it left in all our mouths," says first baseman Eric Hosmer. "I know it made the offseason feel like it was that much longer. The way it ended, it was tough. It was tough to look at all these guys after that loss because all these guys had invested so much. We all truly believed we were going to do it."

That's translated to what Yost calls, "The best spring training I've ever been around. There is no, 'OK, let's get focused. Let's do this right.' The intensity and the focus have been there from the start."

He doesn't think he'll need to push very hard this year.

"Until you go to the World Series, I don't think you ever realize what you're missing." Yost says. "You can sit at home and watch the World Series from your couch and think, 'Oh, that's cool, it's the World Series.' Until you experience it, you don't understand exactly what it's like. And once you experience it, you never want to not experience it again – ever."

**

Don't know much about Calculus

The Royals could be one of the more disrespected champions in recent memory.

Despite going 89-73, plus an 11-4 post-season run, the projection processes at major analytical websites don't even come up with a winning record for 2015.

FanGraphs has them going 79-83 and finishing third in the AL Central behind the Indians and Tigers. Baseball Prospectus treats the Royals even more harshly, projecting a 72-90 record that leaves only Minnesota behind them.

Certainly, there's been turnover since last season – most notably Alex Rios replacing Nori Aoki in right field and Kendrys Morales taking over at DH for Billy Butler.

That however, is not the issue.

Both websites have the Royals scoring just about as many runs as a year ago – three more according to FanGraphs, five fewer via Baseball Prospectus's methods.

So, the computers clearly aren't buying into the pitching that was so crucial a year ago.

Inside the Royals clubhouse, the calculations are different.

"For the first time, all of our planning is to go deep into October," Yost says. "We haven't done that. Before, all of our planning was, 'We have to get into the playoffs; got to find out how to get there.'

You still have to get there. We feel now for the first time we have a team that's capable of doing that. We thought we did last year and then the thought became reality."

For the record, last year's projections had the Royals winning 85 (FanGraphs) and 79 (Baseball Prospectus).

GALLERY: Best images from spring training