Robert Kevin Appier (; born December 6, 1967) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher for the Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, New York Mets, and Anaheim Angels. Appier's solid pitching during his first full season in the majors earned him several rookie accolades in . His fastball, tight slider and nasty forkball contributed to impressive pitching statistics, distinguishing himself as one of the American League's top right-handed starting pitchers throughout much of the 1990s. Appier enjoyed the most success with the Royals in the early to mid-1990s as one of the league's earned run average leaders, a Cy Young Award contender in and culminating in with a selection to the American League All-Star team. He was a starting pitcher on the World Series Champion Anaheim Angels in before retiring four seasons later. Kansas City Royals Appier had a strong rookie campaign for the Royals in 1990, going 12-8 and posting the league's fourth-best ERA (2.76), thus earning him Rookie Pitcher of the Year honors. In , he had 13 wins (tied for the team best), and pitched 3 shutouts, two of which were back to back against the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. He was the Opening Day starter in and posted a 15-8 record with the league's second-best ERA (2.46) for a team that only went 72-90. Highlights of the season included a career-high nine-game winning streak and the American League Pitcher of the Month award for July, in which he went 4-0 with a 1.55 ERA. In , Appier posted an 18-8 record with an AL leading 2.56 ERA, set a club record of 33 consecutive scoreless innings, and finished third in Cy Young Award balloting. In , he was selected for his only All-Star team, pitching 2 perfect innings for the American League. He reached a career high in strikeouts in with 207, and won his first of two Roberto Clemente Awards (the other in ). Appier suffered through his first sub-.500 season in 1997, despite posting a 3.40 ERA (7th best in AL) Despite being one of the better pitchers in baseball during this time period, his accomplishments went largely unnoticed due to playing for the Royals, a small market team that was generally not in contention during Appier's tenure. In , under the promise of the team's improvement, he signed a long-term