Chris Duffy

What's up with Chris Duffy? It's night and day, the differing dope we hear on his play. Will Carroll just wrote in a for-pay section of Baseball Prospectus:

I’ve had at least three people tell me the Pirates' Chris Duffy looks terrible in camp, looking down and trying to say the right things. With his shoulder and hamstring taking away the strengths of his game, it’s going to be tough for him to hold onto CF, the position where the Bucs might be the strongest with Nate McLouth and Rajai Davis coming fast . . .

That paragraph is thoroughly laced with language straining toward hyperbole ("at least three," "looks terrible," "might be the strongest," "coming fast"). I read that as a combination of indecision (or imprecision) and general tendency. He's not sure how to spin the reports, so goes whole hog and moves on. Exaggeration is the easiest way to make a little thing big.

Yet with John Wehner, who coached Duffy some the last few years in the minors, now a broadcaster, and myself limited to what I hear on the radio for in-game analysis, I can only get the opposite picture. Wehner's promoting Duffy like crazy; so are the other guys. Wehner said today he's "running without a hint of trouble; free and easy; 100%" out there.

Here are my questions: (1) How does Duffy really look? I don't put a whole lot of stock into Carroll's comment, but let's assume he does have sources saying negative things. He did have to DH last week. (2) Are McLouth and Davis truly "coming fast"? I have not gotten that impression; not at all. Is there any chance either of those guys grabs the starting spot from Duffy before the end of the month? Finally, (3) if Duffy is looking "terrible" in the field, what business do the broadcasters have painting the opposite picture? Clapping harder is not going to influence Duffy's performance on the field. I'm all about the broadcasters being partisan, but they should also be professional, which includes being honest about the performance on the field. If they think it is virtuous or helping the team to do otherwise, I think they are mistaken.

My guess is Duffy looks good and bad; Carroll's sources call the glass half-empty and our broadcasters celebrate it as half-full.

Yet maybe one of you knows better? If so, fill me in.