Chris White Defies the Odds
CHRIS WHITE has done it again.
For the second year in a row White, the onetime Cabrillo and Sacramento City College centerfielder, has so impressed the Detroit Tiger management that he has won a mid-season promotion.
White was elevated last Friday from Lakeland of the Class A (Advanced) Florida State League to Erie of the AA Eastern League, just two jumps from the major leagues.
Last year it was from short-season A to low A. This year if was from high A to double AA. And in neither case did White sport the eye-popping statistics sports prognosticators say are needed to win promotion up the greased ladder of minor league baseball.
White was batting .235 for Lakeland yet boomed a home run in his second game with Erie.
It was the same last year. White was batting just .230 with Oneonta of the Class A Short-season New York –Pennsylvania League when he was promoted to the Midwest League where he jumped his batting average fifty points to .284.
White has played most of this summer in the Florida league which at High A is one level higher than the Midwest. Most Lompoc sports wise guys were looking for the more heralded, and statistics-laden, Danny Duffy to be advanced from High A at this point in the season. But it's White instead. 
Wow.
Wow.Duffy Walks High Wire to Triumph
They say a good pitcher can win on his off days.
DANNY DUFFY must be good for he pitched from a high wire as if auditioning for the Flying Wallendas Tuesday night as he picked up his ninth victory of the season in a 4-2 verdict over the Lynchburg Hillcats.
Duffy gave up seven hits including three doubles and a triple, and most tellingly, struck out just one batter.
Duffy sports a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 109-37, this in 115 innings pitched. When he does not notch strikeouts you know he did not bring his best stuff to the mound. And yet he gained the triumph to make his season record 9-3 and shave his ERA to 3.21.
Duffy worked out of trouble in every inning but one. He had runners in scoring position in every frame but the fifth.
The first batter of the inning was the most successful against Duffy. In five of six innings the leadoff hitter banged a base hit, a double in the first, a single in the second, a triple in the third, a double in the fourth and a double in the sixth.
After the leadoff man was on base Duffy bore down to allow only two singles, both driving in runs. He left six runners on base and picked one off.
Maybe it was not a work of art but it was solid work. Duffy is with Wilmington of the Class A (Advanced) Carolina League.
They say a good pitcher can win on his off days.
DANNY DUFFY must be good for he pitched from a high wire as if auditioning for the Flying Wallendas Tuesday night as he picked up his ninth victory of the season in a 4-2 verdict over the Lynchburg Hillcats.
Duffy gave up seven hits including three doubles and a triple, and most tellingly, struck out just one batter.
Duffy sports a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 109-37, this in 115 innings pitched. When he does not notch strikeouts you know he did not bring his best stuff to the mound. And yet he gained the triumph to make his season record 9-3 and shave his ERA to 3.21.
Duffy worked out of trouble in every inning but one. He had runners in scoring position in every frame but the fifth.
The first batter of the inning was the most successful against Duffy. In five of six innings the leadoff hitter banged a base hit, a double in the first, a single in the second, a triple in the third, a double in the fourth and a double in the sixth.
After the leadoff man was on base Duffy bore down to allow only two singles, both driving in runs. He left six runners on base and picked one off.
Maybe it was not a work of art but it was solid work. Duffy is with Wilmington of the Class A (Advanced) Carolina League.
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