In the Cross Hairs: Kyle Lohse

Pitching.  It's what most of the organizations in baseball has in their arsenal and it's the one key area Kansas City desperately need.  It's going to take some dedication and time for GMDM and his staff to come up with the plan to acquire the personnel we need for the rotation when February rolls around.  Oh, and the fact that David Glass said he would be willing to spend some bucks.  Saying we certainly need our front office to come through this winter is an understatement.

Anyway, a few days ago, Bob Dutton posted a very good article on a few specific guys the Royals have their eyes on, a list of other possibilites, etc.  I looked over it and saw a couple names I liked, a few I didn't.  One of the names I looked into a little longer was (hopefully some of you will agree with me) Kyle Lohse.

Lohse is climbing in age, but has been fairly solid for the Cardinals the past 2 years. Courtesy of FanGraphs, 16-3, 2.86 era with opponents hitting .234 this season, respectively. Along with his lowest BB/9 season of his career with 1.6, he also piled up a groundball rate of 40.5% and a flyball rate of 35.6%.  I think Lohse would be a good fit playing at The K. While throwing strikes and putting balls into play, the Royals much improved defense can definitely play a beneficial role for Kyle.

Here's the kicker: he threw 211 innings this season, the most since 2008.  So far, he has thrown in the very "Wild" wild card game against the Braves last Friday, going 5.2 innings and giving up just 2 ER.  Depending on how Game 2 goes against the Nationals, Lohse will most likely get the nod for game 3 if the Cards' lose, even though Chris Carpenter is scheduled to start.

One more point of interest.  After the season concludes, Lohse will have made just under $12 million this season ($11,875,000 to be exact).  Signing him to a 1-2 year deal, I'd be willing to give him around that ballpark, considering Jeremy Guthrie made $8.2 million this year.