[duncan_idaho]

I'm still convinced the plan with Chen is for him to make around 10 starts and cover the innings they want out of his spot in the rotation but know they can't get out of Duffy (because he's limited to 140-150 this year) or Zimmer.

I'd rather see Duffy in Omaha continuing to work on his slider than pitching out of the bullpen, but using him out of the Royals pen at the start of the year DOES allow them to limit his innings while still having his work supervised by Eiland.

I wonder, too, how much Duffy's development would have been helped if they'd just let him start throwing a slider 3-4 years ago rather than insisting he stick to a curveball as his breaking pitch. His arm slot is probably more conducive to a slider, and it works better off of his fastball than a curve (and is harder to recognize, improving the swing and miss ability of both pitches).