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Duffy: Management Messed Me Up

More dumping on Jim Tracy and company:

Starting in January, Tracy urged Duffy to adopt more of a prototypical leadoff approach, to draw walks and hit the ball more the other way and into the ground. Although Duffy was a line-drive hitter all through the minors, he offered no resistance, even when his spring struggles carried over into the season.

Yesterday, he made clear -- to management and, later, to the media -- that the change was not to his liking.

"Before I even played for Tracy, he was already kind of saying what he wanted me to do. I think, sometimes, I'm a little too coachable," Duffy told reporters.

I wonder if Tracy might be doing a little too much coaching? He is, I believe, the third Pirate whom the new coaches told to change an approach that had worked in the past, after Zach Duke and Oliver Perez. All three of those guys got off to bad starts and now Perez and Duffy have both blamed the Bucs for changing them. Obviously, Perez's problems go well beyond was Tracy and Jim Colborn may have suggested, and Duffy is a low-upside player anyway, but still, maybe the Pirates' coaches should back off.

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Neil Walker will begin play today for Lynchburg.