My candidates for MiL player/pitcher of the month

[Frobby]

So for July, I’d picked Neustrom and Rom.  Turned our to be Stowers and Rom.  

For August, I’d voted for Bannon and Pinto.   The O’s selected Rutschman and Pinto.

I guess I’m better at picking the pitchers than the hitters.   Can’t complain about the choices of Stowers and Rutschman much — see discussion above.   There were really good candidates both months.   
 

[Frobby]

April 2022

I did a long post today on the candidates for player and pitcher of the month.   Somehow it disappeared.   I’m too lazy to reconstruct it so I’ll just summarize.

My player of the month is Hudson Haskin, who hit .373/.476/.706 for the month to lead the organization in all three slash categories, and had 4 homers and 14 RBI to go with it.    He had good competition: Prieto, Rhodes and Hernaiz all exceeded 1.000 OPS, Nevin was at .980 and earned a promotion to the majors, and Mayo hit 6 homers and knocked in an org-leading 20 runs.  

My pitcher of the month was Ryan Watson, who in 13 innings allowed only 2 hits and 3 walks, for a 0.00 ERA and 0.39 WHIP, coupled with 11.1 K/9 and 5.3 K/BB.   Other strong candidates included Kyle Bradish, Juan De Los Santos, Kevin Smith and Grayson Rodriguez.   
 

[connja]

Surprised to see Kevin Smith on your list of candidates.  ErA is good, but only 9 Ks's with 9 BBs in 14 innings makes me nervous.  That walk rate needs to come back to earth to make him a legit option.

[Frobby]

17 hours ago, connja said:

Surprised to see Kevin Smith on your list of candidates.  ErA is good, but only 9 Ks's with 9 BBs in 14 innings makes me nervous.  That walk rate needs to come back to earth to make him a legit option.

Yeah, I threw him on due to low ERA and a fairly high innings total, but I easily could have left him off, for the reasons you stated.   

[Frobby]

May 2022

Batters (by level)

Nottingham .262/.418/.613, 5 HR, 13 RBI in 55 PA

Stowers .244/.327/.572, 7 HR, 16 RBI in 101 PA

Martin .319/.417/.458, 0 HR, 5 RBI in 84 PA

Henderson .333/.462/.617, 4 HR, 16 RBI in 104 PA

Fontana .333/.492/.511, 2 HR, 7 RBI in 61 PA

Handley .320/.397/.462, 1 HR, 8 RBI in 58 PA

Bowens .266/.407/.469, 2 HR, 8 RBI in 82 PA

Teter .290/.373/.487, 3 HR, 17 RBI in 89 PA

Bellony .250/.357/.488, 4 HR, 20 RBI in 98 PA

Pitchers (by level)

Rodriguez 32.0 IP, 2.25 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 13.5 K/9, 4.4 K/BB

Roth 25.2 IP, 3.86 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 2.6 K/BB

Armbruester 23.1 IP, 3.09 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 4.2 K/9

Gillispie 22.0 IP, 1.64 ERA. 1.09 WHIP, 10.6 K/9, 1.6 K/BB

Tavera 18.1 IP, 0.49 ERA, 0.60 WHIP, 12.8 K/9, 5.2 K/BB

My Picks

With apologies to the lesser-known candidates, I'm going with the top listed prospects, Gunnar Henderson and Grayson Rodriguez.   We had three guys with a 1.000+ OPS (Henderson, Nottingham, Fontana), but Henderson sustained it over mamy more PA than the other two, and had the highest OPS of the three, a gaudy 1.079.   Just don't think you can pick anyone else.   On the pitching side, Tavera had better rate stats than Rodriguez, but Grayson pitched nearly twice as many innings and you can't ignore that.   So, I'm going with the big boys.

 

[Frobby]

June 2022

Hitters

So many players had a great June, though I think we all know this comes down to two players.  By level:

Henderson .344/.451/.644, 20 R, 6 HR, 20 RBI

Westburg .330/.380/.660, 22 R, 7 HR, 22 RBI

Bannon .267/.417/.579, 11 R, 5 HR, 18 RBI

Stowers .267/.376/.533, 16 R, 4 HR, 20 RBI

Vavra .304/.404/.430, 21 R, 1 HR, 9 RBI

Handley .280/.419/.540, 14 R, 3 HR, 11 RBI

C. Roberts .328/.400/.569, 4 R, 3 HR, 10 RBI 

Cowser .306/.433/.529, 19 R, 3 HR, 11 RBI

Kjerstad .433/.500/.633, 11 R, 2 HR, 12 RBI

It’s tempting to throw Kjerstad into the Henderson-Westburg conversation, but as Kjerstad didn’t debut until June 10, I can’t see picking him.   It sure is great to see him hitting so well after all his health issues though.

At the end of the day, it’s still gotta be Henderson I think.   He’s got a pretty big OBP/OPS lead on Westburg, and close calls go to the guy who’s two years younger.  So Henderson it is.

You have to like Norfolk having four guys with a .900+ OPS, four with a .400+ OBP and four with a .500+ SLG.  It’s fun seeing the two Bowie catchers both on the list too.  And finally, it’s a relief to see Cowser coming on strong and adding some power to his OBP skills.   All in all, a very encouraging month from our offensive prospects, especially our top guys.

This post got really long, so I’ll look at the pitchers later.

 

 

[Frobby]

June 2022 — Pitchers

Kind of under the radar, four pitchers had really outstanding months.

Zack Peek 25.0 IP, 1.08 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, 7.6 K/9, 5.3 K/BB

Noah Denoyer 16.1 IP, 0.55 ERA, 0.37 WHIP, 10.5 K/9, 19.0 K/BB

Peter Van Loon 28.0 IP, 0.96 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 10.3 K/9, 3.2 K/BB

Jean Pinto 20.0 IP, 1.35 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 9.0 K/9, 5.0 k/BB

I mean, that’s a really tough choice!  If you go by rate stats, it’s got to be Denoyer, but he threw far fewer innings than some of the others.  

It’s close, but I’m going with Van Loon, just because I like his name.  Plus, 28 innings with a sub-1.00 ERA is nothing to sneeze at.  

My question for @Tony-OHis, do Van Loon and Denoyer deserve some power ranking love?

 

[RZNJ]

58 minutes ago, Frobby said:

June 2022 — Pitchers

Kind of under the radar, four pitchers had really outstanding months.

Zack Peek 25.0 IP, 1.08 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, 7.6 K/9, 5.3 K/BB

Noah Denoyer 16.1 IP, 0.55 ERA, 0.37 WHIP, 10.5 K/9, 19.0 K/BB

Peter Van Loon 28.0 IP, 0.96 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 10.3 K/9, 3.2 K/BB

Jean Pinto 20.0 IP, 1.35 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 9.0 K/9, 5.0 k/BB

I mean, that’s a really tough choice!  If you go by rate stats, it’s got to be Denoyer, but he threw far fewer innings than some of the others.  

It’s close, but I’m going with Van Loon, just because I like his name.  Plus, 28 innings with a sub-1.00 ERA is nothing to sneeze at.  

My question for @Tony-OHis, do Van Loon and Denoyer deserve some power ranking love?

 

Good choice on Van Loon.   Tony recently said he liked Denoyer more than Rom so I do think you'll see him start to move up the rankings.   I don't know if Denoyer has a 3rd pitch.   We have to start thinking of him as a legitimate starting option sometime next year if he keeps this up.   Same question on Van Loon.  Does he have a viable 3rd pitch?    Sounds like Denoyer has got a decent fastball but it's the breaking pitch that is his major weapon.   I get a similar feel on Van Loon.   And thirdly I get a similar feel on Vallimont who has also become interesting.

[Tony-OH]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

June 2022 — Pitchers

Kind of under the radar, four pitchers had really outstanding months.

Zack Peek 25.0 IP, 1.08 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, 7.6 K/9, 5.3 K/BB

Noah Denoyer 16.1 IP, 0.55 ERA, 0.37 WHIP, 10.5 K/9, 19.0 K/BB

Peter Van Loon 28.0 IP, 0.96 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 10.3 K/9, 3.2 K/BB

Jean Pinto 20.0 IP, 1.35 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 9.0 K/9, 5.0 k/BB

I mean, that’s a really tough choice!  If you go by rate stats, it’s got to be Denoyer, but he threw far fewer innings than some of the others.  

It’s close, but I’m going with Van Loon, just because I like his name.  Plus, 28 innings with a sub-1.00 ERA is nothing to sneeze at.  

My question for @Tony-OHis, do Van Loon and Denoyer deserve some power ranking love?

 

DEnoyer is one the power rankings at #18 but he certainly could continue to rise. I need to go back and watch his last two starts.

I wasn't impressed with Van Loons' stuff when I saw him earlier in the year but he's worth following. Even Peek, who reminds me of Kremer a bit before Kremer improved his change and developed a cutter, is worth following. He doesn't throw quite as hard as Kremer though. 

[Tony-OH]

2 hours ago, RZNJ said:

Good choice on Van Loon.   Tony recently said he liked Denoyer more than Rom so I do think you'll see him start to move up the rankings.   I don't know if Denoyer has a 3rd pitch.   We have to start thinking of him as a legitimate starting option sometime next year if he keeps this up.   Same question on Van Loon.  Does he have a viable 3rd pitch?    Sounds like Denoyer has got a decent fastball but it's the breaking pitch that is his major weapon.   I get a similar feel on Van Loon.   And thirdly I get a similar feel on Vallimont who has also become interesting.

I will go back and do a more thorough look at both when I get a chance this weekend. Aberdeen is in a tough league for video work as some teams don't have broadcasts or are at the bare minimum like Aberdeen.

[Frobby]

July 2022

I’m a little late with this one. I think there’s two obvious candidates for player of the month of July, and then a bunch of honorable mentions.  The two obvious candidates are:

Joey Ortiz: 96 PA, .405/.438/.674, 5 HR, 19 RBI

Colton Cowser: 92 PA, .324/.446/.649, 6 HR, 16 RBI

The honorable mentions are from highest level on down:

Kyle Stowers: .279/.360/.532, 3 HR 15 RBI

Terrin Vavra: 68 PA, .296/.441/.444, 1 HR, 7 RBI

Shayne Fontana, 85 PA, .269/.412/.537, 5 HR, 20 RBI

Darrel Hernaiz: 75 PA, .319/.360/.507, 3 HR, 9 RBI

Heston Kjerstad, 86 PA, .314/.430/.500, 3 HR, 11 RBI

Benscome, 96 PA, .369/.448/.512, 2 HR, 10 RBi

Aron Estrada, 59 PA, .302/.475/.512, 2 HR, 8 RBI

Very tough choice between Ortiz (1.112 OPS) and Cowser (1.095), but I’ll give the nod to the shortstop Ortiz.

I’ll try to look at the pitchers later, but I know nobody had an overwhelming month.

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by Frobby

[RZNJ]

You chose wisely.

[Frobby]

August 2022

Hitters

Lots of good candidates again but I will keep it to a few.

Jordan Westburg .223/.381/.479, 6 HR 21 RBI

Colton Cowser .311/.421/.427, 3 HR, 14 RBI

Connor Norby .339/.405/.661, 9 HR 26 RBI

Joey Ortiz .324/.420/.598, 6 HR 25 RBI

Hudson Haskin .300/.418/.511, 2 HR 18 RBI

Billy Cook, .305/.367/.610, 5 HR 21 RBI

This really comes down to Norby and Ortiz.   I gave the narrow nod to Ortiz over Cowser last month, so this time I will go with Norby,  who led the org in HR, RBI and OPS (excluding Jud Fabian, who played a partial month including in the FCL).

Pitchers 

Some interesting choices here too.

Mike Baumann 21.2 IP, 2.91 ERA, 1.154 WHIP, 12.5 K/9, 4.3 K/BB

Cade Povich 28.0 IP, 2.57 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 10.9 K/9, 4.9 K/BB

Justin Armbruester 21.2 IP, 2.08 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, 8.7 K/9, 3.5 K/BB

Jean Pinto 20.0 IP, 0.90 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 9.0 K/9, 3.3 K/BB

While I could make the case for any of these, I'm giving the award to the newcomer Povich, who posted his numbers while navigating a change of organization and then a promotion to AA.  Plus, he threw six innings in three of his five starts, something we don't often see in our minor league system.

 

[RZNJ]

I did not realize that Billy Cook had such a good month, especially with batting average.  He's a longshot with a lot of swing and miss but he's got power and speed and a lot of versatility.   I love longshots!

Back to regular scheduled programming.   Gott go with Norby and Povich but it's nice to see all of the hitting candidates who had big months.    Also, I know Cowser had a homer today in AAA but his August is really interesting.   That's a really low slugging percentage so he must have had a lot of singles and that was while striking out at a high rate.   I don't know what to make of it but it's odd.

[waroriole]

Either Norby or Ortiz and Povich.