KC Royals Choose Brian Flynn Over Brian Duensing

When Terrance Gore was optioned, it seemed certain a left-handed Brian was getting called up by the KC Royals. It wasn’t the one most thought.

The KC Royals chose to bolster their relief pitching instead of trying to fix a broken offense. The bullpen may be gassed after losing eight of the last 11 games. Adding another pitcher may help extend the bullpen’s stamina heading into 13 games in 13 days.

The best thing about Brian Flynn is he’s a lefty. Before promoting Flynn to the big leagues, the Royals were handcuffed to lefty relief pitcher, Danny Duffy.

Duffy can throw the ball extremely fast, nearly hitting triple digits on the radar gun, but his other pitches need some work. The good news is he’s learned to love that fastball.

Hitters know what’s coming when Duffy’s on the hill, heat and more heat. Eventually, the hitter adjusts to the fastball and swings earlier than normal to make contact. When Duffy tries to command a pitch like a change up he often leaves it over the plate to be smashed for at least a double.

If the hitter adjusts to his fastball, that normally results in disaster for Duffy and the Royals. Through 13 games pitched, Duffy racked up a 3.77 ERA with a 1.44 WHIP nearly matching his career numbers. It should be noted that most of his damage came in one outing and he’s been pretty impressive aside from that.

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Flynn can pitch more than one inning if needed. While pitching for the Omaha Storm Chasers, he pitched as a starter and a reliever. In just six games, Flynn had an unimpressive ERA of 3.94. He picked up two wins and only one loss during the short six game stint.

The numbers say left handed pitcher, Brian Duensing, should have been the pitcher the Royals called up. In nine games in Omaha, his ERA is an outstanding 1.65. He’s picked up a win and two saves as well.

There are a couple of draw backs with Duensing. He’s 33-years-old and isn’t that tall at six feet. Another thing that may have held him back, is the Royals would have had to make a roster move to get him on the 40-man roster whereas Flynn was already there.

The Royals have until May 15th to put Duensing on the 40-man roster or risk losing him to another major league team. Duensing can opt out of his minor league contract on that date.

The veteran pitcher has more major league experience than Flynn. Duensing pitched for the Minnesota Twins forseven seasons before signing a minor league contract with the Royals.

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While in Minnesota, Duensing accumulated a 4.49 ERA throwing as a starter and reliever. He appeared in 354 games and started 61 games all coming in the first four seasons as a Twin.

With Duensing being more of a one-inning pitcher, the promotion of Flynn makes sense. His ability to pitch in long relief will help a KC Royals’ rotation that has had three short outings in a row. That’s a little presumptive of course, but Yordano Ventura currently stands at 73 pitches through 2.2 innings.