Royals Report: 5 Things About Bizarro-Day Win

1). Danny Duffy Approached Start Like Relief Appearance

Danny Duffy made his first start of the 2016 season, after the KC Royals told him to focus on being a reliever in spring training. Duffy, opened the game throwing 97 mph gas.

Unsurprisingly, he struck out the side while allowing only a single.

Overall, Duffy lasted 3.0 innings while striking out five and walking two. He didn’t allow a run in a successful outing.

Despite the two walks, Duffy was aggressive and wasn’t nibbling like he did so often as a starter. With a strict pitch count of 50, Duffy lasted three innings to get the Kansas City Royals off to a good start on a day when manager Ned Yost knew he had to lean on his bullpen.

Kevin Kuprecht at Royals Review wrote an interesting article about how Danny Duffy had the stuff to be a dominant starter, but wasn’t using his pitches effectively. In short, Kuprecht concluded that Duffy needed to use the high fastball more along with locating his change-up low and away against right handed hitters more instead of low and inside.

In the first inning, Duffy did exactly what Kevin suggested to notch two strikeouts.

Hmmm. Nice piece Kevin!

Here’s to hoping that Danny Duffy can use a stint in the bullpen to turn himself into a monster as a starter. If Duffy can simplify his approach and keep throwing gas, he might get his pitch count down enough to last deeper into games. The interesting point will be to see how this season plays out. Will Duff-man remain in the rotation, or go back to the pen?

I think it will depend on how he performs over the next few weeks. Stay tuned Kansas City Royals fans.

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