A Hair Off Square   custom cards

Danny Duffy is a part of the Royals future plans, period. Is he part of the plan for this year though? I have him playing a lot in Kansas City this out of the bullpen. I originally thought Everett Teaford would fill a lefty out of the bullpen role along with Tim Collins but Teaford has gotten rocked so far this spring. He did pitch two innings and give up one run today in a spring training game but I still see him missing the cut unless things improve dramatically for him.

That is not to say Teaford won’t spend time in Kansas City too, I think he will. After his first couple spring appearances it just looks like he has some things to figure out.

So my prediction is that Duffy is likely to make the team. He might not make the opening day roster due to some service time issues but I’m not really sure where he is on that. Service time is a bit confusing and I’ll admit I don’t have it figured out. I know in some cases if a team holds a prospect off the roster for as little as a couple weeks they can keep him under contract for another year. The bottom line is Duffy will be in KC.

Performance is really only a part of this. I think Duffy could be in Kansas City to appease the fans. Fans have endured a lot of losing over the last few years, alright, a lot of years, and they keep hearing the names Duffy, Lamb, Hosmer, Moustakas… The fans will get the first glimpses of these guys this year. It appears to be a consensus that Moustakas will spend some time in Kansas City this year and by the end of September we are likely to see Hosmer, Lamb and a couple other guys.

Now back to Teaford for a bit. Everett Teaford seemed to be a leading candidate going into camp this year to fill a lefty spot in the bullpen. Now, maybe not so much. Ned Yost may even carry three lefties in the pen at times, I think two will be a much more common number.It will be interesting to see who joins Tim Collins in the Royals pen this year. Teaford and Duffy are not the only candidates either. There are several dark horses that could perform well and grab a spot on the 25 man roster. We will find out in a few weeks.