...The Astros select 6'3" 215lb 3B Matt Duffy, a senior out of the University of Tennessee.
Duffy started 54 games for the Volunteers, hitting .312/.429/.497 with 22XBH/39RBI, and 26K:28BB, with 13 HBPs in 2011.
Duffy transferred from the University of Vermont (he's based out of Milton, Massachusetts), when he transferred to the other UT, in Knoxville, because Vermont cut its baseball program, after being named the 2009 America East player of the year (hitting .388 with 13HR/57RBI).
Recently-fired UT head-coach Todd Raleigh, on Duffy:
"You can talk recruiting and we certainly sign first rounders out of high school and all these top picks. But they're still unproven in college, I don't care if they have five stars or four stars, it doesn't matter. When you have an opportunity to get somebody who is already established in college baseball, that's the best indicator, to me, of success because he's already achieved success at this level."
Here's a terrible story (in content - not taking a shot at the writer) on his sister, who passed away last summer at the age of 22. Duffy:
“I’d do the same thing everyday. I’d wake up, go work out and spend the day (at the hospital), just hanging out with her. I tried to stay occupied, but it was the only thing on my mind 24-7.”
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
