League’s No. 1 pitching staff comes courtesy of Moore, Eiland

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – While much of the talk about the Royals' coaching staff lately has been confined to George Brett and his influence on the hitters, pitching coach Dave Eiland has somewhat quietly guided the No. 1 pitching staff in the American League.

It almost seems unfathomable to be mentioning the "Royals" and "No. 1 pitching" in the same sentence. Just three years ago the Royals had the worst staff in baseball with a bloated 4.97 team ERA.

But Eiland began making adjustments last year in his first season, emphasizing that his pitchers use a more over-the-top approach, which created more sink and downward action to their fastballs and sliders. The results were encouraging: Even with a shaky starting rotation, the Royals' team ERA dropped to 4.30, down from 4.44 the year before.

And this year, the Royals are sporting a league-best 3.57 ERA, the principal reason they are still hovering close to the .500 mark.

"You can't say enough about what Dave has done," general manager Dayton Moore says. "The results are obviously right there for everyone to see. Our pitching was a weakness and now it's a strength."

Eiland shrugs his shoulders at any compliments, especially when the topic of having the league's best ERA is brought up.

"Look, the only number that matters is wins," Eiland says. "Sure, it's nice to have (the 3.57 ERA), but it's a bottom-line business and the bottom line is wins and losses. We need more wins."

Eiland's pitchers, though, swear by his methods.

Royals fans by now are familiar with the resurrection of Jeremy Guthrie, whose career appeared to bottom out last year in Colorado where he went 3-9 with a 6.35 ERA.

But after being traded to the Royals in late July, Guthrie flipped his season and his career by posting a 5-3 record with a 3.16 ERA.

Guthrie points to one man for the crucial career save -- Eiland.

"We made a couple of mechanical adjustments that turned it around," Guthrie says. "They weren't dramatic but they were really helpful. It helped that he had seen me before when he was with other teams, so it's not like he was just throwing stuff out there and hoping it would stick.

"Because he had seen me, he wanted me to get back to what I was doing when he saw me pitch well."

Eiland immediately tried to make Guthrie throw a little more over the top, which gave him more sinking action to his pitches.

"He listens very well," Guthrie says. "That makes it easy to communicate with him, and then you start to benefit by what he's telling you."

Eiland also tweaked Ervin Santana's delivery slightly this year, again stressing more downward action to his fastball and slider. Santana is having a career year, going 5-5 but with a dazzling 2.84 ERA.

Left-hander Tim Collins is another believer. Collins always was known as having strikeout stuff, but his command suffered during his rookie season in 2011.

Eiland noticed Collins was closing off his shoulders too much when coming to the plate, making it hard for Collins to locate his target visually.

"I was really closed off that first year," Collins says. "He got me more square to the plate, which gives me a better look when I'm releasing toward home plate. It's improved my command.

"The problem I had before was too many walks and not being consistent in the zone. Plus, I feel like I have a repeatable motion now, and that always gives you confidence."

The results for Collins were almost immediate: His strikeout-to-walk ratio was 60 to 48 in 2011 and went up to 93 to 34 last season.

Of course, even the best pitching coaches in the business need to have talented pitchers to work with if they are to rise to No. 1 in the league.

"This staff will make a pitching coach look good," Eiland says.

Moore's ability to pull off trades for James Shields, Wade Davis and Ervin Santana, and to re-sign Guthrie paved the way for this staff's rise to the top.

"Certainly, it starts with talent," Guthrie says. "But I've seen some instances where pitching coaches actually make pitchers regress. With Dave, he is getting the most out of all of us, I believe. That's when you know you have a good pitching coach.

"I think everyone on the staff enjoys working with him. He's easy to communicate with."

Collins agrees.

"You need talent but you also need a pitching coach you can rely on," Collins says. "When you're struggling or just have an off day, he can help you. That's what you need. He can recognize things pretty fast. He has gotten to know each one of us individually and he knows our individual styles and what makes us successful.

"It all starts with starting pitching. Those guys have done a great job of getting long into games and then it's our job to come in and shut the opponent down. But that goes back to Dayton and the job he did to get starting pitching in here. And then it goes to Dave to keep it all together."
 
You can follow Jeffrey Flanagan on Twitter at @jflanagankc or email him at jeffreyflanagan6@gmail.com