(((( Rookiees Preview Texas VS Kansas City ~ Info on Daniel Duffy ))))

THE_ROOKIEEE · #1 05-18-2011, 01:47 PM

kansas city is so glad that cleveland has left... 2 games 30 hits and 26 runs the indians... now they welcome in texas who has pitcher Oganda starting on the hill ( 4-0 2.06 on the season ) ...The royals are american leagues worse hitting team over the L7 games with a .199 BA and texas has only 7 wins on the road with 3 coming against these very same royals in late April.... so this line opening of texas -140 on the road seemed about right yet most places have dropped that line to -124 against a first time starter.... that made me curious about todays matchup with a rookie left hand starter.....

KC Daniel Duffy age 22 has a minor league career record of 27 -14 with a 2.59 ERA in 71 starts. He was drafted in the 3rd round of the 07 draft and has moved steadily thru the ranks of the royals organization... baseball had him as the #68 prospect coming into this season.

In 2010 AA Texas League for the NW Arkansas last season he compiled a 5-2 2.95 ERA with a whip of 1.18 facing 160 batters. He had a 9.3 k/9 while averaging 8.6 h/9...He has continued his climb this season going 3-1 with a 3.00 ERA in 7 starts with a 1.11 whip facing 145 batters for Omaha in the AAA PCL league... His k/9 have increased to 10.8 and his h/9 have decreased to 7.8 which is more than enough to qualify to come up.... in contrast to his opponent ~ texas pitcher Oganda has for this season facing 171 batters a 6.6 K/9 with a whip of 0.88.... another difference is Duffys 4.56 so/bb ratio compared to Ogandas 3.20, but i will call that pretty even due to the AAA to MLB compitition..... so in retrospect i believe on paper that these 2 pitchers are fairly equal.

The question i have is whether or not he can come into the bigs against this texas team who is 2nd in the AL against lefties with 63 runs~5th in hits with 111~ 3rd with 15 HRS~ 2nd with 182 total bases while supporting a .271 batting average..... Not to mention again that Texas has already swept Kansas city in this park.

But i will also let you in on something that imo will be valuable to your decision on this game.... on May 13th i had the opportunity to watch this kid Duffy against the Arizona PCL team ( RENO ACES ) here in reno in which he lost the decision after throwing 88 pitches and not getting out of the 5th inning. His line for the game was 4 innings pitched /4 runs/ 6hits/ 3 bbs / 2 k's... and this was after his own team supported him 2 runs in the first... The kid showed me that he can pitch up at this level right now as maybe a number 4 or 5 starter max. He does possess a live fastball around 92-93 that gets a lot of ground balls and fly balls when he gets ahead in the count, but he seems to struggle when he got behind hitters unless the batter chased his slow curve ball of around 72.... He reminds me of a Zito with a fastball and i think if he works on that curve ball then he will be a good pitcher here but untill then against discipline teams he will need offensive run support.

Rookiees Final Thought:

Too much is going against this kid for this start and grant it that he may surprise a few, but i think that the patience the rangers have played against lefties this season will pay off in this game. They are 5th in walks this season in all of MLB against lefties and are astounding 2nd in MLB with only 55 strikeouts against lefties.

I also realize that KC is one of the top teams hitting at home but the last 18 between these two, the rangers are 13-5.... Oganda has faced this team at home and is just a winner time in and time out. This line looks sceptical with the unknown but i will chance that history and what i have seen will prevail in this game.... i also will lean to the over in this game as what i mentioned with the patience of texas hitters and the hitting of KC at home.

best of luck on your plays today

TEXAS -122 AND LEAN TO THE OVER

other plays considering ~ R/L Tigers ~ Mets