Duffy to A-Ball?

Duffy to A-ball?

DANNY DUFFY could be making the leap from Rookie ball to the single A level, so his dad conjectures.

"We're thinking he could be in Burlington," Dan Duffy Sr. said Sunday as he stocked up for Super Bowl TV.

"He just got back from a 10-day camp and everything went well. We're still taking it one day at a time though."

Duffy, a lefthanded strikeout machine, was drafted in the third round last June by the Kansas City Royals after putting up an Earned Run Average at Cabrillo High of 0.58. He then burst upon the pro baseball world in the Arizona Rookie League where he posted 63 strikeouts, only 17 bases on balls and an ERA of 1.45.

He was named by Baseball America magazine the league's most promising newcomer. He was similarly honored by the Southern California Scouts Association and even by Lompoc Locker Room where he was named local male Athlete of the Year for 2007.

The Burlington (Iowa) Bees compete in the low-A Midwest League against such rivals as Cedar Rapids, Clinton, and Quad Cities in Iowa, South Bend and Fort Wayne in Indiana, Lansing, Michigan, Peoria, Illinois, and Dayton, Ohio.

An assignment to Burlington would indicate that the youngster, less than a year after his high school graduation, is considered skilled and mature enough to advance from a protected, virtually fan-free, camp atmosphere to a city with a baseball following. The Bees open their season hosting the Peoria Chiefs on April 3.

The Royals' other possible options for Duffy-- Burlington, North Carolina of the Appalachian League, and Idaho Falls, Idaho, of the Pioneer League, play short seasons beginning in June. Still another option would have been to keep him in Arizona.

Should Duffy advance to Burlington and do well, the next step up the KC ladder is High Desert of the high-A California League. The Mavericks play in Adelanto, near Victorville.