Long Beach State has added yet another player to its list of major leaguers brought up by head coach Troy Buckley and the Dirtbags team. Matt Duffy became the 45th player to work his way to an MLB roster when the San Francisco Giants promoted him last Friday.
Duffy came out of LBSU in 2012 as the 568th overall pick in the 18th round by the Giants, with not-so-impressive statistics as he hit a .253 batting average in 501 at-bats and collected zero home runs over his three years with the 49ers.
Even after getting drafted, Duffy hit a .247 average in 182 at-bats in the Northwest League, but continually showed improvement as he advanced to the Double-A Eastern League from the low minors.
The Long Beach native will be giving the Dirtbags and Dodgers fans at least one reason to cheer for the San Francisco Giants.
“Duff actually text messaged me the night before he was actually called up when he got the news,” head coach Troy Buckley said. “He told me I couldn’t say anything yet, but what a great message that was to get.”
Duffy joined an elite fraternity of former Dirtbag infielders to make it to the show. Sean Pellerin, who announced the Dirtbags’ play-by-play with KBeach radio, fondly recalls Duffy and his play at Blair field.
“The Duff Man was a human vacuum while playing shortstop for the Dirtbags just a few years ago,” said Pellerin. “He’s always had great hands and…a good baseball IQ…following in the footsteps of [Bobby Crosby], [Evan Longoria], [Troy Tulowitzki] and [Danny Espinosa].”