Daily Clips
October 21, 2017
LOCAL
Duffy's attorney enters not guilty plea for DUI
Royals left-hander was cited on Aug. 27; next court date is Dec. 1
October 20, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Danny Duffy, through attorney, enters not guilty plea for DUI
October 20, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
Dayton Moore on what might happen for Royals in 2018
October 20, 2017By Lee Judge/KC Star
Letters: Dayton Moore's Leadership
October 20, 2017Letters to the Editor/KC Star
Royals pitcher Danny Duffy faces charge of driving under the influence
October 20, 2017By Stephanie Kayser/KCTV5.com
MLB TRANSACTIONS
October21, 2017 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
Duffy's attorney enters not guilty plea for DUI
Royals left-hander was cited on Aug. 27; next court date is Dec. 1
October 20, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
The attorney for Royals left-hander Danny Duffy entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf Friday morning to a charge of driving under the influence.
In a municipal court in the suburb of Overland Park, Kan., attorney Steven Sakoulas entered the plea for Duffy, who was not in attendance. The next scheduled court date in the case is Dec. 1.
Duffy was cited for DUI on Aug. 27 outside an Overland Park fast-food restaurant. He was scheduled to make his first court appearance Sept. 19 but received a continuance until after the season.
Duffy, 28, was not with the team when he was cited for DUI, having returned early to Kansas City from a road trip in Cleveland to have an MRI on his elbow. He subsequently was placed on the disabled list with a low-grade pronator strain.
Royals general manager Dayton Moore and Duffy held a joint news conference a day after the DUI became public knowledge. At the time, Duffy apologized for the distraction the incident had caused the team.
"He's hurting, but honestly, I'm glad he's hurting," Moore said then. "He needs to hurt. He needs to feel shame. And he can never ever forget what he's experiencing, because it's real and it's life-changing, and hopefully it never happens again.
"These guys, they're human beings. They make mistakes. And for us to put our faith in a person or an athlete as a perfect vessel, someone who's always going to make the right choices, it's just, it's a failed way to live your life. And Danny obviously regrets the situation."
Danny Duffy, through attorney, enters not guilty plea for DUI
October 20, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
An attorney representing Royals pitcher Danny Duffy, who was cited for driving under the influence of alcohol in August, entered a not guilty plea on Duffy’s behalf Friday morning in Overland Park Municipal Court.
Duffy’s next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 1. He was cited around 8 p.m. Aug. 27 in the drive-thru lane of a Burger King restaurant after employees called police because they saw a vehicle stopped short of the window with a man inside slumped over the console between the driver’s and passenger’s seats.
A 28-year-old left-hander, Duffy concluded his seventh season with the Royals in 2017, posting a 9-10 record with a 3.81 ERA in 24 starts. He signed a five-year, $65 million contract extension last January following the best season of his career in 2016. Known for his accessible public persona and quirky sense of humor, Duffy was expected to front the Royals' rotation for years.
Two days after being cited in Overland Park, Duffy apologized “for the distraction” at a news conference at Kauffman Stadium. He also asked Royals fans and observers to “let the facts shake out.”
“Please continue to have faith in me,” Duffy said. “Because I’m better than the distraction that is at hand. And I’m going to continue do great things for this city.”
The citation came one day after Duffy was placed on the disabled list with what the Royals called a pronator strain near his left elbow. He returned to the mound on Sept. 17 and made three starts during the final weeks of the season.
He underwent minor arthroscopic surgery in early October to remove loose bodies from the back of his elbow. The elbow cleanout — a procedure to eliminate loose cartilage and bone fragments that cause inflammation — will delay Duffy’s offseason workout plan by close to six weeks, according to the Royals. He is expected to be healthy for spring training.
For now, Duffy has not faced any public discipline or punishment from Major League Baseball. The Royals have stated that they wish to let the legal process play out.
Dayton Moore on what might happen for Royals in 2018
October 20, 2017By Lee Judge/KC Star
A couple years ago, people assumed the Royals would not be able to re-sign Alex Gordon. But as Royals GM Dayton Moore pointed out in his Wednesday news conference, the market came back to them and the Royals were able to work out a deal to keep Gordon in Kansas City.
Nobody knows which way the free-agent market is going to move this offseason, so just like everybody else the Royals have to wait to find out if they have any chance of re-signing a player like Eric Hosmer.
If the market allows them to re-sign some of their free agents, the Royals will go one direction; if those free agents become too expensive, the Royals might decide it’s time to let their young players play.
The difference between coaching veterans and rookies
When GMs or field managers give press conferences, what they say might be less informative than what they don’t say, so it helps if you know enough to read between the lines.
During his news conference Dayton talked about the importance of getting the right mix of coaches to work with certain types of players and here’s at least part of what that means:
If you’re coaching Alex Gordon, there’s probably not a lot you can teach him about playing left field. Gordon has played 1,035 games in left field and won four Gold Gloves. The coaching challenge with a veteran like Gordon is helping him maintain his routine and approach and getting him back on track when he goes off the rails.
Coaching Jorge Bonifacio is a different story.
Bonifacio has played 88 big-league games as a right fielder and that means he still has a lot to learn. The same goes for young players like Raul Mondesi, Cheslor Cuthbert, Jorge Soler and, should he get his chance to play in the big leagues in 2018, Bubba Starling.
If the Royals give their young players a chance to step up and prove they belong in the big leagues, the coaching staff will have to do more teaching than they would with a team of veterans. And if a coach doesn’t like having to teach the basics at the big league level or doesn’t want to hold a rookie’s hand while he figures things out, he’d probably be a bad match for a young team.
That doesn’t make him a bad coach, it just means he might be a better coach with a different set of players.
If the Royals go young, how long will it take them to win?
When Eric Hosmer was a rookie, he failed to take an extra base when he could have. A veteran player pulled Hosmer aside and told him he needed to know if the opposing outfielders were right- or left-handed. If an outfielder caught the ball on his glove side while moving away from third base, he’d have to re-set his feet to make a throw and while that was happening Hosmer could go first-to-third.
If a player didn’t pick it up in the minors, that’s the kind of stuff rookies have to learn when they get to the big leagues. Making mistakes and learning what to do differently next time is how rookies become solid major-leaguers and that takes time.
There are always exceptions and once in a while a rookie gets it right away, but when I asked players and coaches how long it took to learn what it takes to win in the big leagues, the most common answer was three to four years. Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Danny Duffy and Salvador Perez made their big-league debuts in 2011 and made it to the World Series in 2014.
So if the Royals play the kids, don’t be surprised if they take a step back for a few seasons and then become more competitive in 2021.
The quality control coach
Like just about every other business, baseball teams like to present themselves to the public as one happy family. But in reality, there are always conflicts and sometimes those conflicts are between coaches.
Ned Yost is known as a manager who sits back and lets his coaches coach, but that can mean one coach is approaching a game from one direction and another coach is thinking along different lines.
What a team does on defense has to match what that team does on the mound. What a team does on the base paths has to match what that team is doing at the plate. And if coaches can’t agree on an approach, that can mean conflict.
On Wednesday, Moore announced the creation of a quality-control coach who will make sure everybody on staff is pulling on the same end of the rope. The need to create that position might lead reasonable people to believe that wasn’t happening in 2017.
If the coaching moves the Royals have made so far are any indication, the team might hope they’re getting some of their veteran players to re-sign, but they’re preparing a coaching staff to work with younger players.
And now we all get to sit back and see what happens in the offseason.
One way or another, it should be interesting.
Letters: Dayton Moore's Leadership
October 20, 2017Letters to the Editor/KC Star
Moore’s vision
Effective leadership creates a vision for the future, and general manager Dayton Moore is the Royals’ leader for the future.
Taking his staff to Atlanta to study Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s teachings indicates he has both the character and guts it takes to effect change. (Oct. 19, B1, “Why Moore is taking his staff to Atlanta to study MLK”)
For those of us who lived through the civil rights era, the divisive rhetoric prominent in America now is the same rhetoric King gave his life to change. In my opinion, King was the epitome of moral leadership, and we know that this divisiveness will destroy our country.
It is refreshing to see a leader do exactly as he should by starting an open conversation about race and leadership in his own environment.
When faced with racism, it takes true leadership and character to speak out against it or be prepared to face it.
Thank you, Dayton Moore, for recognizing the teachings of Dr. King and having the courage to share the civil rights struggle with your staff. Keep up the great work.
It will be leaders like you who will initiate the changes that will positively affect America as a whole.
Debra Johnson
Kansas City
Royals pitcher Danny Duffy faces charge of driving under the influence
October 20, 2017By Stephanie Kayser/KCTV5.com
Royals pitcher Danny Duffy is facing a charge of driving under the influence.
His attorney met with the prosecutor Friday morning. He scheduled Duffy's next court appearance for Dec. 1.
Sean Reilly with the City of Overland Park says no plea has formally been entered yet.
Duffy was arrested back in August. Employees at an Overland Park Burger King say Duffy pulled through the drive-through to order food and passed out in his car sometime later. They called the police, and Duffy was charged with driving under the influence.
In Kansas, a DUI could indicate either drug or alcohol use. The first offense carries a sentence of a minimum 48 hours in jail, a 30-day license suspension as well as a fine.
MLB TRANSACTIONS
October21, 2017 •.CBSSports.com
Atlanta Braves / Ian Krol / Outrighted to Minors