F?

DM and Hillman are to blame

what the fuck is going on with this organization? is the curse of denkinger that strong?

Duffy
Bianchi
Aviles
Gordon

that greinke kid did that once…

Here’s Schaum

http://royalsprospects.com/?p=531

I will give you more details as I get them but I was told by someone close to the situation that he had lost his love of the game and wanted to go back to school.

This doesn’t sound so much like the Greinke situation.

Yikes.

Yet another example of the axiom that, “Prospects fail. Success is the exception to the rule.”

just when you think it can’t get any worse.

KC Royals.com

J.J. Picollo, Kansas City’s assistant general manager for scouting and player development, released the following statement.

“Danny informed us yesterday that his desire is to leave baseball at this time to reassess his life priorities,” it said. "Should Danny decide in the future to return to the game, we will be happy at that time to discuss the possibility.

Best of luck to the guy, I had huge hopes for him. It’s hard not to be selfish for the Royals though: this sucks.

Maybe he couldn’t stomach have the stellar D in KC behind him every 5th day throughout the summer.

That’s kind of how I feel.

You can’t really rely on them.

Dan Cortez
Danny Gutierrez
Danny Duffy

I swear this is just some part of Dan Glass wanting to be the only Dan in the organization

If he doesn’t come back I hope he spends the rest of his life regretting this decision. To walk away from all that potential and ability is a shame, makes me freaking sick.

not literally, of course. Not with Betancourt and Kendall in the lineup.

He got a moderate signing bonus, which for all we know could have gone to paying off Mom and Dad’s mortgage. He gets paid peanuts as a minor leaguer. He spends hours each week on a bus driving from backwater to backwater. All his friends are probably having an awesome time in college, and he has a curfew and has to watch everything he eats, everyhting he drinks etc etc etc.

It’s not hard to see where disillusionment might set in.

Angels territory now, but I suspect this thread will live for a long time.

If he forced himself to keep playing baseball when his heart really wasn’t in it, don’t you think his performance would suffer anyway? If he isn’t interested in baseball, he’s not likely to put in too much effort in improving his mechanics, developing new pitches, or staying in shape. Making him stay would probably doom him to a life of toiling in the minors for no money, only further enforcing his dislike for the game, making him struggle further, etc.

Might as well let the kid go and figure things out. If he wants to come back, we’ll welcome him with open arms. If not, good luck out there.

and had a few hundred grand put in my hand for my “potential” I would assume:

1. Money is easy to get and will never be a problem.
2. I will be special and sought after no matter what I do
3. $200 grand in the bank makes me set for life.
4. Life is pretty easy

Give him a year, let his bank account dwindle, let him face the prospect of working for $12 bucks an hour. His perspective may “mature”

Might there be something to the way the Royals are developing players that could have led to this “unhappiness?” What if the loss of love for the game has anything to do with “I hate playing this game the way they want me to.” Schaum’s story about him throwing the slider in the Futures’ Game when he’s not allowed to for the organization suggests that there is no give and take This isn’t the first time the regime has asserted its will and caused some problems with good pitching prospects (the Danny Gutierrez rehab incident, the Mike Montgomery long toss episode). While I don’t believe teenage kids should dictate the way they are taught or used, in the same way the organization seems to have a “one-size fits all” method to their system, when every kid is not the same. That mindset suggests a systemic arrogance that we’ve certainly seen evidence of in the organization. After yet another setback, it seems incumbent on the system to prove this wrong.

More than ever, I fear that there is no bright future ahead under the current front office.

I have a very good friend that hosts some of the players in Wilmington. She was saying that one of her players said Duffy almost quit last year but the strength coach on that team talked him out of it. He told her they were there for 2 hours after a game one night just talking about life and he convinced Duffy to stay with baseball.

I agree with the Unibrow. If his heart wasn’t in it, he wasn’t going to make it as a good player. Better to let him reassess and if he comes back with renewed vigor in the game, great. But I’d rather he walk away than half-ass it because his heart wasn’t in it.

anyone?

“i feel bad for him!” and “the dude screwed us!”

Why can’t it be that it’s a tough situation for the organization, and had they done their job scouting properly, might have prevented this? Why can’t it be that yes, he did (or is about to) screw us, but that is directly proportional to our investment—and it’s better to lose the dime now than to lose the dollar later?

Nuance, people. It sucks for both the org and the player. Let’s hope he gets right and comes back, and if not, the Royals don’t lose too much money trying to convince him otherwise.

it might be a sign that he couldn’t deal with adversity of being injured and maybe he wouldn’t have been up for the next challenge. Whatever the reason I wish him luck and if he wants to come back I’m sure we’ll all welcome him. KC is very deep at left handed pitching prospects and this doesn’t hurt all that much.

…I was pretty sure he was going to be the first to move in the whole “pitching is the currency of baseball” philosophy.

This has a greater impact to the minor system in general because he could have been moved to fill some of our gaping holes in the minors (SS, C).

maybe the game of baseball was taking him down some paths he wasn’t sure he wanted to go down.

I hope that he’s ok – both mentally and physically (and that he’s NOT depressed or suicidal or anything). With the lack of any other info, I will assume that he’s making this decsion with sound mind and body (at least as “sound” as any other 20 yr old). Therefore, I wish him well. If he never returns to baseball, I hope that he has a good life.

the chances of duffy pitching again, for the royals, are good

What would the reaction here be if we were talking about Mike Montgomery instead of Danny Duffy? The same? Stronger reactions?

Also, is there a link to the royalsreview breaking story (like this one) about Greinke? I’d love to see the reactions there.

I would guess that part of the discomfort is that there’s nothing very specific in Duffy’s decision to leave. When the A’s minor leaguer Grant Desme left baseball to pursue the priesthood, it came as a bit of a surprise, but since there was a definite focus to his future plans (and, I suppose, also because he wasn’t considered that great a prospect by some) it didn’t have the same sting to it.
I’m hardly the one to talk the kid out of departing; I’m making my own career-change plans, at a much older age than he (and money’s not an issue, I’ll be poor but happy either way), so I have no business telling someone what he has to do or what it’s his “responsibility” to do. I just hope he gets to a place where he can make up his mind without too many penisheads ruining his life one way or the other.

I saw one post that said he is really religious (unless i read this wrong as I was flying thru it)

that has never come up once in my conversations with him and I know that is not an issue

let me ask you what is the one thing that would have become a major problem for you at his age….think of what it is and while there might be different thoughts I imagine a few of you can find a common thread that binds you

I am sorry….I was not referring to Danny with my post….I meant in general most of us at that age had issues we did not cope with well….

I am sorry I was not trying to become PerezHilton here

The Royals are not going anywhere.

is good. We have more good arms

my son is

Will: What do I wanna way outta here for? I’m gonna live here the rest of my fuckin’ life. We’ll be neighbors, have little kids, take ’em to Little League up at Foley Field.

Chuckie: Look, you’re my best friend, so don’t take this the wrong way but, in 20 years if you’re still livin’ here, comin’ over to my house, watchin’ the Patriots games, workin’ construction, I’ll fuckin’ kill ya. That’s not a threat, that’s a fact, I’ll fuckin’ kill ya.

Will: What the fuck you talkin’ about?

Chuckie: You got somethin’ none of us have…

Will: Oh, come on! What? Why is it always this? I mean, I fuckin’ owe it to myself to do this or that. What if I don’t want to?

Chuckie: No. No, no no no. Fuck you, you don’t owe it to yourself man, you owe it to me. Cuz tomorrow I’m gonna wake up and I’ll be 50, and I’ll still be doin’ this shit. And that’s all right. That’s fine. I mean, you’re sittin’ on a winnin’ lottery ticket. And you’re too much of a pussy to cash it in, and that’s bullshit. ‘Cause I’d do fuckin’ anything to have what you got. So would any of these fuckin’ guys. It’d be an insult to us if you’re still here in 20 years.

It’s not a big shift, but in the sensitivity to age in baseball there is some difference between 21 and 20 and Duffy is definitely 21.

I WAS referring to the post above mine