Adam Bernero - My New Hero?

So, if you follow the Royals (and, if you’ve found this blog, then you probably do), you are probably asking yourself something along the lines of “Who in the hell is Adam Bernero?”

Maybe you saw something like this.

Year  IP    ERA
2000  34.3  4.19
2001  12.3  7.30 
2002 101.7  6.20
2003 133.3  5.87
2004  32.3  5.57
2005  47.0  6.51

Then, you would have rightfully thought, “Man, Adam Benero sucks!”

Of course, then you would have gone back to what brought you here in the first place:

Date IP  H ER BB K  
8/16 6.0 5 0  0  6
8/11 5.2 7 1  0  5

Well, then… now you don’t know what to think. Does he suck, or is he the kind of K-an-inning guy that the Royals so desperately need in their starting rotation?

Here are his career minor league stats, along with his splits from this year.

In parts of six seasons in the minors, Bernero has given up about a hit an inning, while posting a k/9 of 7.13, which is above average, but not great.

In 80 innings with Omaha this year, his numbers look like this:

IP   H  BB K  WHIP K/9  ERA
79.3 63 23 47 1.08 5.33 2.84

Again, nice, but not fantastic. Especially for a guy who’s a few years older than most of the competition.

My guess is that Adam will have one of those patented eight-run innings that all Royal pitchers are contractually obligated to have, and his ERA will end up in the 4-5 range… giving us one more guy who “might” be a solid fourth starter next year.

I do hear that Grienke is finally pitching well, so hip-hip-hooray for that.