I live in Houston and follow them more than any other team;
I dont trust Duckworth at all. He does not seem to be a starter and is better suited as a reliver. His last game against cincy he only lasted 3 innings and gave up 3 runs...but Houston won 5-3. in fact he has not gone more than 5.0 innings this year ..JMO
I dont trust Duckworth at all. He does not seem to be a starter and is better suited as a reliver. His last game against cincy he only lasted 3 innings and gave up 3 runs...but Houston won 5-3. in fact he has not gone more than 5.0 innings this year ..JMO
Trying to make it with Red Sox:
http://www.magicvalley.com/news/local/article_82bc383c-273d-559e-acdf-6125d4a9f575.html
YOU DON'T SAY: Here's to one more season in the sun for Brandon Duckworth
Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 1:00 am |
Growing up in Pocatello back in the 1960s, I used to hang out at Halliwell Park — the local minor league baseball stadium.
Most nights during the summer when the Pocatello Chiefs were in town, I’d show up a couple of hours before games, stand behind the batting cage and talk to the players.
Back then, many of them were baseball bums: They’d bounced around the minor leagues for a decade or more.
But one pitcher — I remember that he was 35 because I asked him — had spent some time in the big leagues with the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. That was long before, though, and by then he was a dead-ender at his last stop in professional baseball: the Class C Pioneer League.
One night in late August, he pitched a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the Boise Braves. It was a scoreless game before he surrendered a one-run homer in the ninth — on an 0-2 curveball.
That would turn out to be the final pitch he would throw in professional baseball. The Red Sox — the parent team of the Chiefs — released him the next day.
“Damn,” I overheard the pitcher say as he walked back toward the dugout that night. “He hit a good pitch.”
I think about that story every time I think about Brandon Duckworth, also 35, a former College of Southern Idaho baseball star who’s now in his 13th minor league season, pitching for the Pawtucket, R.I., PawSox of the International League.
There has been some major league glory mixed into that career: Duckworth was enough of a sensation with the Philadelphia Phillies during a three-year stint from 2001-03 to warrant his own official rooting section, The Duck Pond, at what’s now Citizens Bank Park.
But mostly, it’s been long bus rides and meals at open-all-night diners since Duckworth graduated from CSI in 1997.
Between stints with the Phillies, the Houston Astros and the Kansas City Royals, Duckworth has played minor league baseball in Clearwater, Fla.; Spartanburg, S.C.; Moosic, Pa.; Reading, Pa.; New Orleans; Round Rock, Texas; Indianapolis; Wilmington, N.C.; Omaha; Allentown, Pa., and Pawtucket.
In parts of eight major league seasons — and he hasn’t pitched at all in the big leagues since 2008 — Duckworth has 23 wins, 24 losses and an earned-run average (per nine innings) of 5.28, which is weak by baseball standards.
But in 13 minor league season, Duckworth is a much-more impressive 92-65, with an ERA of 3.84.
Injuries have been the big right-hander’s biggest problem (he’s 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds). Duckworth throws a mediocre fastball (in the high-80 mph range), with a nice 76-78 mph curveball and changeup in the low-80 mph range.
But as a pitcher, Duckworth has two major issues: He gives up a lot of home runs (63 in eight major league seasons; 200 in his professional career) and he fares poorly against left-handed batters (they hit for a .299 average against him, right-handers bat .239).
Yet hope springs eternal, I guess. The Red Sox — the parent team of the PawSox — are in first place in the American League East with their two best pitchers, John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaki , on the disabled list.
http://www.magicvalley.com/news/local/article_82bc383c-273d-559e-acdf-6125d4a9f575.html
YOU DON'T SAY: Here's to one more season in the sun for Brandon Duckworth
Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 1:00 am |
Growing up in Pocatello back in the 1960s, I used to hang out at Halliwell Park — the local minor league baseball stadium.
Most nights during the summer when the Pocatello Chiefs were in town, I’d show up a couple of hours before games, stand behind the batting cage and talk to the players.
Back then, many of them were baseball bums: They’d bounced around the minor leagues for a decade or more.
But one pitcher — I remember that he was 35 because I asked him — had spent some time in the big leagues with the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. That was long before, though, and by then he was a dead-ender at his last stop in professional baseball: the Class C Pioneer League.
One night in late August, he pitched a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the Boise Braves. It was a scoreless game before he surrendered a one-run homer in the ninth — on an 0-2 curveball.
That would turn out to be the final pitch he would throw in professional baseball. The Red Sox — the parent team of the Chiefs — released him the next day.
“Damn,” I overheard the pitcher say as he walked back toward the dugout that night. “He hit a good pitch.”
I think about that story every time I think about Brandon Duckworth, also 35, a former College of Southern Idaho baseball star who’s now in his 13th minor league season, pitching for the Pawtucket, R.I., PawSox of the International League.
There has been some major league glory mixed into that career: Duckworth was enough of a sensation with the Philadelphia Phillies during a three-year stint from 2001-03 to warrant his own official rooting section, The Duck Pond, at what’s now Citizens Bank Park.
But mostly, it’s been long bus rides and meals at open-all-night diners since Duckworth graduated from CSI in 1997.
Between stints with the Phillies, the Houston Astros and the Kansas City Royals, Duckworth has played minor league baseball in Clearwater, Fla.; Spartanburg, S.C.; Moosic, Pa.; Reading, Pa.; New Orleans; Round Rock, Texas; Indianapolis; Wilmington, N.C.; Omaha; Allentown, Pa., and Pawtucket.
In parts of eight major league seasons — and he hasn’t pitched at all in the big leagues since 2008 — Duckworth has 23 wins, 24 losses and an earned-run average (per nine innings) of 5.28, which is weak by baseball standards.
But in 13 minor league season, Duckworth is a much-more impressive 92-65, with an ERA of 3.84.
Injuries have been the big right-hander’s biggest problem (he’s 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds). Duckworth throws a mediocre fastball (in the high-80 mph range), with a nice 76-78 mph curveball and changeup in the low-80 mph range.
But as a pitcher, Duckworth has two major issues: He gives up a lot of home runs (63 in eight major league seasons; 200 in his professional career) and he fares poorly against left-handed batters (they hit for a .299 average against him, right-handers bat .239).
Yet hope springs eternal, I guess. The Red Sox — the parent team of the PawSox — are in first place in the American League East with their two best pitchers, John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaki , on the disabled list.
- Maybe — just maybe — there’s a last act for Brandon Duckworth.
