2003 Ultra, Brandon Duckworth

#150 Brandon Duckworth

Here is a card that I got signed at the first Royals Fanfest in the winter of 2008. Brandon pitched in 26 games for the Royals in '07 and I guess that they figured he would figure into their plans in '08, as well. It turns out that that was not the case as he only appeared in seven games and was not invited back to Fanfest the following year.

Brandon has spent parts of eight seasons in the Majors with the Phillies, Astros, and Royals. He got most of his playing time in the early part of his career as a starter for the Phillies. In 2002, Brandon had a career high in appearances with 30 (29 were starts) and that is the only season in his career that he pitched more than 100 innings in the Majors. He finished that season 8-9 with a 5.41 ERA and 167 strikeouts (also a career high).

Brandon is currently back in the Phillies system and he was pitching for their AAA team before hitting the disabled list earlier this month. He has not pitched in the Majors since 2008.

At the time of that first Fanfest, this was the only Brandon Duckworth card that I had to get signed and I thought that it was an Upper Deck card for the longest time. It just didn't look like what I thought an Ultra card should look like.