Top 10 starting pitchers in KC Royals history

It is hard to believe that this left-hander has played for the KC Royals nine seasons already.

While most of his career has been as a starter, Danny Duffy has also given the team some solid work out of the bullpen in 28 appearances.  The talk is that he may eventually move to the reliever role but he is still a formidable starter.

His win total is definitely hurt by being bookended by poor Royals teams.  To date, his record is 60-61 and he will need to stick around for a few more seasons for a shot at the 100 win mark.  Duffy is just 74 strikeouts from reaching 1,000 with the team and his overall ERA+ is at 108. His 7.900 K/9 ratio puts him second all-time in team history and he is also in the top ten in whiffs, games started, and strikeouts to base on balls issued.

One obstacle that Duffy has had to overcome while working his way into one of the top Royal pitchers of all-time is battling depression and anxiety. He opened about it in an interview with Sam McDowell last September:

"“The biggest thing I’ve learned in therapy, and it sounds cliche, is you can’t go wrong by being yourself,” Duffy says. “It’s a deeper statement than it sounds. You never ever fail yourself if you act as who you are. We were made this way for a reason. It takes a certain level of confidence to do that. I didn’t have that confidence.” – Kansas City Star"

Duffy’s postseason numbers have not been great and solely done in a relief role. He did show up big against the New York Mets though. In three games his WHIP was 0.857 and a strikeout per 9 innings ratio of 11.6. In fact, in nine total playoff appearances, his K/9 rate jumps up nearly four points above his regular season average.

With two more years of his contract to go, Duffy will likely have an opportunity to pass more milestones in overall stats for Kansas City pitchers.  It will be fun to see one of the most open, honest, and humble players in recent memory meet them.