Kansas City Royals: MLB Team Agrees to Deals With Pitchers Chris Young and Joakim Soria

Young is a good signing. Not sure how to feel about Soria though.

:drool:Holland is out. Herrera may be trade bait. Madsen is gone. The Royals' formula for winning includes having the best bullpen in baseball.

Seems like a pretty solid move to me.

Dodgers are building a monster.

Soria was pretty daggum good last year.

What's the report on his breaking stuff?

When I've seen him pitch, he's looked like a guy that's an out pitch removed from being dominant. His fastball is at least an above average pitch and his changeup was solid/average as well (not enough drop to be true out pitch to my eyes). His breaking ball seemed like it had a chance to be that putaway pitch he needed to finish off ABs but it hasn't come along that way.

A lefty with a mid 90's fastball and solid change should be able to get a lot more strikeouts but it always seemed like Duffy was having to battle through ABs when I saw him. Those long ABs will tax a starter pretty badly and frankly, if he can't get a breaker he relies on, perhaps being a 2-pitch reliever and maybe developing his change into more of a split-change grip (to get more drop) would take him to the next level.

Duffy just reminds me of Affeldt when he was in KC (though he's been more successful than Affeldt). You watch him throw and just wonder why he's not a little better than he is.

Dodgers have won the Paper Tiger WS every year the past like 4-5 years

Duffy's problem is between his ears.

Duffy's curve is overrated. It has some break, but it's not what it was pimped to be coming through the minors. Just don't think there is any real deception with it, so it's relatively easy to track out of the hand.

Mariners are trying to get Miley from Red Sox.

@JoshVernier610: KC has some hesitancy with SP Doug Fister & OF Denard Span due to health, but still a possibility. #Royals

Uhhh
@Ken_Rosenthal: Some agents believe that Kazmir will aim higher than Iwakuma’s three-year, $45M deal. Younger than Iwakuma, no draft pick attached.

People said that about Lynn for years - turns out he just didn't have a good way to get lefties out.

Sometimes what appears to be a mental issue really is an arsenal problem. Duffy's giving up a .340+ career OBP against off-handed hitters and with so much of baseball being RH, that's obviously a hell of a problem.

He doesn't appear to be shying away from RH hitters (he comes inside against them more than in years past). That's usually the first thing to look for with guys that are mentally defeated by off-handed hitters - they pitch away, away, away over and over again.

It could be that he's now psyched out by them, so in that regard, perhaps it's a mental problem...but one borne of a lack of available options. If he could tinker with his breaker or change (really, the change should be his best weapon against RHers), perhaps he could break through that wall.

I guess what I'm saying is that there's a lot of selection bias at this level. Most guys that are truly soft just don't get this far. Generally when something appears to be mental, especially with pitchers, its really just a problem with his arsenal and an innate knowledge that he's fighting uphill against every RHer. If he could just have a little more success against RHers, it may be what puts him over the top.

Yeah, that's kinda the impression I got as well. I was just curious if it had become a point of emphasis for them.

Obviously saying that 'if he just had a plus curve' is similar to saying 'if he just threw 5 mph harder' - it's not exactly a fair thing to say. But really, if Duffy could just get a little more depth/break on that curve, he'd be a legit #3 starter and those guys are going for $15 million/season these days.

We gave Vargas 4 yrs at $8mil /avg. I'd much rather give Kazmir 4 yrs at $15 mil /avg.

Have to wait for Duncan to chime in but from what I seen at times he wasnt even close to the zone so he wound get into a lot of 3-2 counts. I recall it being the more guys taking a pitch a foot outside the zone that forced those counts more so than guys fouling off a lot pitches.

Thats why I think hes pretty much the same guy as a starter or in the pen. If you arent in or around the zone stuff playing up in the pen doesn't mean muchm