Chattanooga (AA) pitcher Tyler Duffey is the first Twins Minor League Player of the Week in 2015. Duffey made a start for the Lookouts on April 15 versus Birmingham tossing 7 shutout innings with two hits allowed, one walk and eight strikeouts. The 24 year-old Duffey has made two starts this season, tossing 13.2 scoreless innings pitched with six hits, two walks and 18 strikeouts. The right-handed Duffey was recently ranked seventh in minor league baseball on Baseball America’s Prospect Hot Sheet, covering games of April 9-16. Tyler Blinn Duffey was the Twins fifth round pick in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft out of Rice University and reportedly signed for a $267,000 signing bonus. Duffey served as the Rice Owls closer in his final season in college ball.
Duffey who was born in Houston, Texas and is starting this season at Chattanooga (AA) this season pitched at three levels in the Twins minor league system in 2014 starting out in Ft. Myers (High A) where he was 3-0 with a 2.82 ERA before being moved up to New Britain (AA) where he went 8-3 with 3.81 ERA. Duffey then was moved up to Rochester (AAA) where he was 2-0 with a 3.91 ERA and a SO/9 ratio of 9.0 in three starts. That SO/9 ratio at Rochester is a bit deceiving as his career SO/9 ratio is 7.4 but so far this year his SO/9 ratio is 11.9.