How a first-strike competition has taken over the Royals' clubhouse

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Royals starter Michael Wacha looked sharp with 3 2/3 scoreless innings Thursday in the Royals’ 6-0 win over the D-backs at Salt River Fields, but most of the Royals’ pitchers watching their teammate were focused on just one thing:

How many first-pitch strikes did he throw?

There’s quite a bit riding on it.

Royals pitchers this week have been divided into four teams and are keeping track of how many first-pitch strikes are thrown from Tuesday to Sunday, with seven games in six days due to Friday’s split-squad.

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The team that throws the most will be named the champion with bragging rights, and nobody wants to lose.

“I want the whole staff to do well,” Wacha, taking the stance of a veteran leader, said. “It’s key for a pitcher.”

He paused for a beat.

“But yeah, who doesn’t want to win?” Wacha clarified with a grin. After all, his team had a strong showing Thursday: Wacha went 9-for-14 in first-pitch strikes, and Luis Cessa went 3-for-4 -- which Wacha was quick to point out.

The Royals have been relentless with the idea of first-pitch strikes and getting ahead in counts both last season and this spring. In 2023, batters slashed .260/.380/.446 after a 1-0 count versus .219/.266/.352 after a 0-1 count.

When the pitcher got ahead -- 0-1, 0-2 or 1-2 counts -- batters slashed .203/.212/.317. When the batter was ahead? That resulted in a .282/.473/.498 slash line.

“That strike one is the best pitch in baseball,” Wacha said.

“You want them to be aware of the benefits,” pitching coach Brian Sweeney added. “You don’t want to force anything on them. There’s no freedom in that, and you want them to be free on the mound. But the awareness of, if they do throw a first-pitch strike, they’re in the driver’s seat. They really are. The odds are with them. That should be exciting.”

This isn’t a new revelation; throwing strikes is taught in Little League. But execution on a big league mound is trickier.

“Even in college, my coaches would say, ‘Throw strikes. Get ahead. Stop walking people,’” reliever James McArthur said. “That thought process was very like, ‘Don’t throw a ball.’ And it just spiraled. Once I started to think aggressively and trust my stuff, that’s when it got better.

“If you think, ‘Don’t throw a ball,’ the first thing in your head is a visual of someone throwing a ball. Positive visualization goes a lot further for me.”

In Spring Training, days can get long and monotonous while players focus more on getting ready for the season than results. So Royals coaches began thinking of ways to reinforce their strike-throwing philosophy.

The answer was to get a bunch of competitors to compete.

“We’re always trying to encourage them to be thinking these things, the things that matter to us,” Sweeney said. “Instead of just saying, ‘Hey, you’ve got to throw first-pitch strikes.’ They do, but that’s no fun. Any time you get baseball players or athletes in general in competition, they always want to be on top.”

On Tuesday morning, Sweeney gathered pitchers in big league camp for the inaugural First Pitch Strikes Draft. He had written four teams with two captains each -- all starters -- on the white board: Cole Ragans and Brady Singer; Wacha and Angel Zerpa; Jordan Lyles and Alec Marsh; and Seth Lugo and Daniel Lynch IV.

Due to the odd number of starters in camp, Anthony Veneziano was placed in the pool of relievers to be drafted, a decision based on service time.

A draw out of a hat revealed that Team Wacha-Zerpa received the first pick of the draft. The selection: Cessa.

“I was happy to be the first pick,” Cessa said. “You need something like that to increase the pressure and get it done. If you say now [in spring] that you need to be aggressive early in counts, maybe it helps the rest of the season.”

McArthur was the second pick, heading to Team Lyles-Marsh. Ragans and Singer had the third pick but were thrown by McArthur going second overall -- already their draft strategy was ripped into pieces. The relievers who joined them ended up being Will Smith, John Schreiber and Dan Altivilla.

“I’m confident in our team,” Singer said. “We’ve got some veteran guys in there.”

The Royals already include first-pitch strikes and getting ahead in counts in their reports each morning, but now they’re keeping track of how each team fares.

And of each other.

“I texted Cole [on Tuesday] and said, ‘Hey, how were your first-pitch strikes? Don’t care how your outing went,’” Singer said. “And they were good. He helped us out a lot.”