The Duke

Buster Olney has a piece on Duke today in his ESPN Blog (which is Insider only like much of ESPN.com these days). It's a bit late coming, as it mostly talks about the Duke/Maddux face-off from a month or so ago. It then talks about the circumstances under which we got him (scared teams off with his signability, appeared set to go to college, signed with us when the money became "real"). It's also got the usual glowing quotes from Spin Williams:

"I've been in the Pirate organization for 27 years, and I've never seen anybody like this kid. Even when the pressure's on, he stays within himself. He's got the makeup and poise of someone who's been doing this for 10 years."

Olney is more impressed by a specific game, the game that I also thought was Duke's best by far:

The best example of that came on the day he dueled Maddux. The Cubs had runners at first and third, nobody out, Duke nursing a 2-0 lead, with MVP candidate Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez due to bat. Duke pumped a fastball over the inside corner for strike two, surprising Lee, and then, with Lee cognizant of the inside corner, Duke spun his nasty breaking ball -- and Lee flailed badly for strike three. Then Ramirez grounded into an inning-ending doubleplay, and Duke went on to throw eight scoreless innings. Since then, he's given plenty of reason for other hitters to gawk at him.

It's also got some quotes from Brian Graham, our Director of Player Development. He's not usually someone you hear from in the PG articles, and I'd question his credentials (seeing as how he's OUR director of development, not a team with a better track record in that department) but, as usual, his review of Duke is glowing:

Graham saw Duke pitch a game late in a minor-league season, and saw that Duke was tired -- somewhat weary, at the end of a long summer. Rather than try to bull his way through the situation and continue firing mediocre fastballs, Duke went to the soft stuff. "I saw him use his changeup back to back pitches," said Graham. "He used the weapons he had to be successful. For a pitcher to have that good of a feel for himself at that age was remarkable."

The obsession with Duke in the national media died quickly with the arrival of King Felix in Seattle, but he certainly isn't being ignored. I have tickets for Tuesday so hopefully we'll keep the five man rotation intact at least until then as I haven't seen him pitch yet and seeing him is high on the priority list for the beginning of this semester.