Tonight is the third annual “Swing For the Cure” breast cancer awareness night at City Stadium, and all proceeds from tonight’s game between Lynchburg and Wilmington will go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. With that promo plug out of the way, let’s talk some baseball, starting with a quick wrap of Friday night’s game, a 6-4 Lynchburg victory. Some things I didn’t get to in last night’s game story:

* I came away impressed with Blue Rocks starter Daniel Duffy, the No. 6 prospect in the Kansas City organization. Duffy won’t be legally allowed to drink a beer until December, but he’s already moving quickly in his development. After a dominant year at Low-A Burlington last year, he’s started off well in Wilmington, compiling a 4-1 record with a 3.16 ERA. He was in position to win last night before the Blue Rocks bullpen coughed up a 4-1 lead in the eighth inning. Duffy’s numbers from last night—four hits, one earned run, one walk and three strikeouts in five innings. He’s really only had one poor outing this season, when he allowed six earned runs in five innings at Winston-Salem. In his other starts, he’s allowed three runs or fewer.

Duffy has clearly grown into his 6-foot-2, 185-pound frame. According to Baseball America, Duffy was only 5-4 as a high-school freshman and barely threw 70 mph. His fastball now sits between 88-92 and touches 94. His curveball can be a plus pitch and his changeup is above average. The challenge for Duffy going forward will be to find a way to get command of his secondary stuff on a consistent basis. Often, he’ll have feel for one pitch but not the other, which tends to make him predictable. He has the chops, though, to be one of the Carolina League’s best pitchers this season.

* A situation worth watching if you’re interested in maybe catching a major leaguer coming through town—Red Sox pitcher John Smoltz has started his injury rehab at Boston’s extended spring training facility in Florida. He threw two innings Friday and struck out the side in one of them. He came away feeling good, the Boston Herald reported. He’ll throw again Wednesday and the Red Sox will decide after that what his next move will be.

Why does this concern folks in Lynchburg? Well, there’s a decent chance Smoltz could make an injury rehab appearance with Salem, which comes to town for a three-game series May 26-28. Stay tuned on this front.

* Asked Hillcats pitching coach Wally Whitehurst about the progress of LHP Bryan Morris, the Pirates’ No. 5 prospect who said he expected to be back in Lynchburg by mid-May. Whitehurst said Morris had just started throwing in extended spring training and is probably 2-3 weeks away from coming back to town. Morris left the team in April with an impingement in his throwing shoulder.

* Kansas City has several more of its top prospects in Wilmington, not just No. 1 prospect Mike Moustakas (who is starting at third and batting third tonight) and Duffy. Second baseman Johnny Giavotella is the Royals’ No. 11 prospect. OF David Lough is rated 15th, OF Derrick Robinson 16th, OF Adrian Ortiz 22nd and RHP Juan Abreu 25th. Robinson and Ortiz were in Wilmington last year, but the core group of Moustakas, Duffy, Giavotella, Lough and Abreu were all in Burlington last year.

* To add a brief note about the comments in today’s game story about a core group learning to win together, it can’t be understated for the Pirates. The parent club hasn’t had a winning season in 16 years. The Gulf Coast League rookie team (the “Baby Bucs”) was the only minor-league club to finish with a winning record last year. And some of the minor league teams were beyond awful. The rookie-league club in State College was 18-56. So any opportunity a core group has to learn how to win together will be welcomed by the parent club.