Hochevar Goes Number One

As expected, the Royals made 6' 5", 205-pound Luke Hochevar (pronounced HO-chay-vur) the first pick in the 2006 draft today. The Royals have never had the first pick in the draft before. Let's hope they made the right decision with Hochevar. As the day progressed, more information surfaced about why Hochevar might be a good choice. The main one seemed to be that Andrew Miller would have demanded a higher signing bonus. Secondly, Hochevar hasn't logged nearly as many innings as Miller this season, so he could get plugged right into the Royals system.

Some of the other players that the Royals were interested in slipped down in the first round. Brad Lincoln went number four to the Pirates. Andrew Miller went number six to the Tigers. Robert Stubbs went number eight to the Reds. And Tim Lincecum went number ten to the Giants.

Hochevar had a stellar three-year career at Tennessee. He was 25-10 with a 3.05 ERA in 51 career appearances—which included 33 starts (6 of which were complete games). He had 287 career strikeouts which ranks second in UT history.

Bobby Keppel, a new addition to the Royals starting rotation, was asked in the Royals clubhouse if he had any words of wisdom for Hochevar. Here was his response: "Just to come in and trust his stuff. That's what I'm doing right now. He's, from what I've heard, a phenomenal pitcher with an amazing fastball—good sink on it. I'd say come in and use that and be aggressive."

Keppel was also asked if he believed that Hochevar was helped by playing independent ball. Here's what he said: "Definitely. It's similar to rookie ball. I don't think he lost a year by sitting out last year. He was able to pitch in independent ball—get onto a five man rotation. I think he's going to come in, already pitching against wooden bats, which is a whole different game that college, so I think he'll do fine."

Keppel went on to say this about how quickly he'd like to see Hochevar in KC: "I'd say, 'Get into the system as soon as you can.' That's what I did. I signed shortly after. But if he can in and help us out—we need pitching right now obviously—and it would be good to have a quality arm like that."