Top stories
MiLB recognizes Player of the Week recipients: Every Monday, Minor League Baseball honors each league’s Player of the Week recipient. This week included a pair of Florida Gators from the last few successful seasons in Gainesville, Preston Tucker and Mike Zunino. Tucker hit four home runs last week for Tri-City (NYPL) and has eight hits in his last three games, and Zunino has won Player of the Week for the Northwest League in three of the last four weeks to earn a promotion to AA. Other honorees include Blake Davis (IL), Mitch Maier (PCL), Oswaldo Arcia (EL), Brahiam Maldonado (SL), Xavier Scruggs (TL), Leon Landry (Cal), Giovanny Urshella (Car), Kyle Roller (FSL), Zeke DeVoss (MWL), Shawn Payne (SAL), Adam Walker (APP) and Nick DelGuidice (PIO).
MiLB recognizes Pitcher of the Week recipients: Every Monday, Minor League Baseball honors each league’s Pitcher of the Week recipient. This week included Syracuse’s Zach Duke, trying to work his way back to the majors after spending the entire season in AAA. This week also included Rafael Montero of St. Lucie whose stock continued to fly with 7.2 scoreless innings, but he’s now on the DL. Other honorees include Jon Link (PCL), Mark Cohoon (EL), Kirby Yates (SL), Nick Maronde (TL), Bradin Hagens (Cal), Erik Johnson (Car), Mark Williams (MWL), Adalberto Mejia (SAL), Hansel Robles (NYPL), Javier Avendano (NWL), Daniel Minor (APP) and Jared Ray (PIO).
Lehigh Valley awarded 2013 AAA Championship: Minor League Baseball rewarded one of its best markets and most popular franchises Monday by announcing the Lehigh Valley IronPigs would host the annual AAA Championship between the PCL and IL champions. It’ll come just three years after hosting the AAA All-Star Game, the first of four straight years a Phillies affiliate would host their league’s All-Star Game. The two league’s champions have met every year since 2006, but 2011 was the first year it was hosted outside of Oklahoma City. The 2012 game will be played in Durham.
Oklahoma City losing streak continues despite Hessman homer: Two months after a nine game winning streak that was in the midst of 14 straight home wins, Oklahoma City finds themselves losers of 10 in a row after falling to Sacramento 8-5. They once took a 5-4 lead, but the deep Sacramento offense kept grinding out runs against an ineffective bullpen to pull away. Mike Hessman got OKC’s scoring started in the 2nd inning with a solo home run, and he’s just the second minor leaguer this season to reach 30 homers after Wil Myers. It’s the 3rd time in his career he’s reached the 30 home run plateau, and if he plays another season, he could reach 400 minor league home runs in his career.
Profar homers in Frisco loss: As ML promotion rumors continue to swirl after Nolan Ryan said there’s a reasonable chance he gets called up this season, Jurickson Profar homered for the first time since July 24th in Frisco’s 4-3 loss to Northwest Arkansas. It was his 14th of the season, and combined with Sunday’s three hit game with two doubles, he may be breaking out of his recent mini-slump. With Michael Young continuing to struggle, Profar could be a key addition down the stretch with his ability to play all around the infield and give the regular infielders a day off if necessary. If it happens, it probably wouldn’t until the end of the minor league season to make sure he continues playing every day.
Sano, Vargas go back to back in narrow Beloit win: With Jorge Soler‘s promotion to Peoria, the Midwest League has been buzzing with power potential, but it was two Snappers making headlines Monday. Miguel Sano and Kennys Vargas went back to back in the 2nd inning as Beloit topped Peoria 3-2. Sano is of course one of the top prospects in the league and all of Minor League Baseball, and his 24th homer and 90th RBI both lead the league and by pretty large margins at that. Vargas has been on fire since being added to Beloit’s roster, hitting home runs in consecutive games again and now has nine in 72 at-bats.
|
. |
Top Hitters | Aff. | H/AB | R | XBH | HR | RBI | BB | K | SB |
|
. |
Name | |||||||||
|
. |
Charlie Blackmon | CS | 2/3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
|
. |
Daniel Lockhart | AZCH | 2/7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
|
. |
Darin Ruf | REA | 2/4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
|
. |
Eric Avila | WV | 3/4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
. |
Eric Haase | AZCL | 3/4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
|
. |
Garrett Schlect | AZCH | 2/5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
|
. |
Jerad Head | TOL | 2/2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
|
. |
Josh Elander | DAN | 2/3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
. |
Leonys Martin | RR | 3/5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
|
. |
Luis Antonio Jimenez | TAC | 3/4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
|
. |
Mac Williamson | SK | 3/5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
. |
Ronny Rodriguez | CAR | 3/4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
. |
Stefan Gartrell | GWI | 2/6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
|
. |
Tony Bryant | GCST | 5/6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
|
. |
Tony Nix | GCWA | 3/5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
. |
Top Pitchers | Aff. | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
|
. |
Name | |||||||
|
. |
Ali Williams | IF | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
|
. |
Ben White | VAN | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
|
. |
Brooks Pounders | WIL | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
|
. |
Chris Hanna | KAN | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
|
. |
Chris Hernandez | PAW | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
|
. |
Eswarlin Jimenez | CR | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
|
. |
Hector Santiago | CHA | 6.2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
|
. |
Ismael Guillon | BIL | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 |
|
. |
Jaden Dillon | GCAT | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
|
. |
Matt Tomshaw | BEL | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
|
. |
Omar Poveda | NO | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
|
. |
Rusty Shellhorn | EVE | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
|
. |
Taylor Jordan | HAG | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
|
. |
Tyler Thornburg | NAS | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
On tap today
Leagues begin final grind for the last three weeks
Mahoning Valley hosts the New York-Penn League All-Star Game
Grimm, Skaggs meet in top PCL matchup
Mississippi deals with Paxton and Walker in doubleheader at Jackson
Brandon Workman makes AA debut
Brandon Morrow makes rehab start at New Hampshire
Kyle Gibson moves up to Ft. Myers for rehab
