The Kansas City Royals need some of their arms to advance quickly through the system if they are going to stabilize the starting rotation anytime soon. Kyle Zimmer received the memo.
The team took Zimmer as the fifth overall selection in this year's MLB Draft in June, and he's already making his way into the system a bit further with the promotion announced on Monday from the team's Arizona League franchise to Class A Kane County. It's a nice jump in competition for the University of San Francisco pitcher, but he's clearly mastered his first outing.
Dick Kaegel writes, "Zimmer pitched three games in the Rookie classification Arizona League, allowing just one run on five hits in 10 innings, for a 0.90 ERA. He also had 13 strikeouts and no walks."
Zimmer offered the Royals a polished college pitcher at No. 5 overall, one year after the team selected raw high school hitter Bubba Starling. It was a move used to bring a sure thing into the farm system and it's proceeding according to plan so far.