My candidates for MiL player/pitcher of the month

[Frobby]

September 2022 - position players

September is a bit skewed since Norfolk played much longer than the other teams.   There were three deserving candidates there, and the names will be familiar:

Connor Norby .337/.429/.629, 18 runs, 7 HR 16 RBI

Joey Ortiz .333/.393/.563, 21 runs, 4 HR, 12 RBI.

Jordan Westburg .311/.400/.544, 18 runs, 5 HR, 24 RBI.

Great month for all three, but I’ll give the award to Mr. Norby.

Other players who had notable Septembers:

Greg Cullen 1.028 OPS in 48 PA

Donta’ Williams .999 OPS in 47 PA

Jud Fabian .850 OPS in 48 PA

Dylan Beavers .828 OPS in 60 PA

[Frobby]

September 2022 - pitchers

I’m going to arbitrarily limit this to pitchers who threw at least 10 innings.  My top 3 are:

Morgan McSweeney 10.2 IP, 1.31 WHIP, 5.9 K/9, 1.0 K/BB

Moises Chace 10.0 IP, 1.80 ERA, 0.70 WHIP, 9.9 K/9, 5.5 K/BB

Chayce McDermott, 13.2 IP, 1.98 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 13.8 K/9, 2.6 K/BB.

Very tough choice between the latter two, but I’ll go with McDermott.

Worth mentioning, Brenan Hanifee missed my 10 inning limit, but in two starts threw 9 innings of shutout ball, allowing only 4 hits, no walks and striking out 7.   He made a nice return from TJ surgery and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do next year, assuming he escapes Rule 5 selection.

[Frobby]

March/April 2023 - hitters

There’s an almost limitless supply of candidates this month.   From highest affiliate to lowest:

Josh Lester .866 OPS, 8 HR, 24 RBI

Kyle Stowers .996 OPS, 5 HR, 17 RBI

Lewin Diaz .905 OPS, 4 HR, 14 RBI

Hudson Haskin 1.152 OPS, 2 HR, 11 RBI

Colton Cowser .932 OPS, 4 HR, 19 RBI

Jordan Westburg, .927 OPS, 5 HR, 23 RBI

Heston Kjerstad, 1.004 OPS, 6 HR, 9 RBI

Jackson Holliday, 1.121 OPS, 3 HR, 17 RBI

Creed Willems, 1.209 OPS, 5 HR, 16 RBI

Sammy Basallo, .858 OPS, 3 HR, 23 RBI

Lester had the most HR (8) and RBI (24).  Cowser scored the most runs (27).  Haskin had the best BA (.391) and OBP (.500), but in fairly limited PA (56) due to injury   Willems had the best SLG (.726) and OPS (1.209).   

There’s several other guys who had very good months, but I figured 10 was enough.

Lots of great choices here, but I’d go with Willems.

[emmett16]

8 minutes ago, Frobby said:

March/April 2023 - hitters

There’s an almost limitless supply of candidates this month.   From highest affiliate to lowest:

Josh Lester .866 OPS, 8 HR, 24 RBI

Kyle Stowers .996 OPS, 5 HR, 17 RBI

Lewin Diaz .905 OPS, 4 HR, 14 RBI

Hudson Haskin 1.152 OPS, 2 HR, 11 RBI

Colton Cowser .932 OPS, 4 HR, 19 RBI

Jordan Westburg, .927 OPS, 5 HR, 23 RBI

Heston Kjerstad, 1.004 OPS, 6 HR, 9 RBI

Jackson Holliday, 1.121 OPS, 3 HR, 17 RBI

Creed Willems, 1.209 OPS, 5 HR, 16 RBI

Sammy Basallo, .858 OPS, 3 HR, 23 RBI

Lester had the most HR (8) and RBI (24).  Cowser scored the most runs (27).  Haskin had the best BA (.391) and OBP (.500), but in fairly limited PA (56) due to injury   Willems had the best SLG (.726) and OPS (1.209).   

There’s several other guys who had very good months, but I figured 10 was enough.

Lots of great choices here, but I’d go with Willems.

Was looking through stats in the post and said to myself “it’s gotta be the big man” with 5 bombs and a 1.209.  What a difference a year makes!

[Frobby]

March/April 2023 — pitchers

The pickings here are not as rich.

Justin Armbruester 19.1 IP, 1.40 ERA, 1.138 WHIP, 7.4 K/9, 2.0 K/BB

Jean Pinto, 18.0 IP, 2.50 ERA, 1.111 WHIP, 13.5 K/9, 3.9 K/BB

Bruce Zimmermann, 21.2 IP, 2.49 ERA, 1.154 WHIP, 9.6 K/9, 2.6 K/BB

Chayce McDermott, 16.1 IP, 1.65 ERA, 1.163 WHIP, 11.0 K/9, 2.2 K/BB

I could stretch it further, but I think it comes down to these four.  Each one has an argument, but I’ll go McDermott for the best combo of ERA and K/9.

[btdart20]

Thanks for continuing this @Frobby!  It's a great way to see some player trends through chunks of time throughout the year!

Seeing Haskin got me curious since he seemingly outperformed expectations last year as well.  The BA/OBP is being fueled by a .615 Babip too.  It would be nice to see the xBA, etc. on him.  32% K% is concerning.  10+% BB% is solid.  He might end up being an anomaly to follow stat-wise as well.  

I'll take Cowser for my positional MiL player.  He got off to a sluggish start (especially with the K's).  But has righted the ship and his K% is lower than it was at any stop last season (23.5%).  The .437 OBP sets the table for that stacked line-up!  21 BBs and a 17.6% BB%!  Toss in some solid CF defense for good measure too.  

For MiL pitcher, I like the Pinto line!  I'm a sucker for WHIP, but the K9-BB9 is the best of the grouping above too (9.6).

 

[emmett16]

Gotta say it’s pretty impressive Stowers put up those #s in so few ABs (compared to you others he’s 10-15 ABs less than others on the list).  After  his time in Baltimore and his slow start in AAA he has been scorching.  

Edited May 2, 2023 by emmett16

[emmett16]

1 hour ago, btdart20 said:

Thanks for continuing this @Frobby!  It's a great way to see some player trends through chunks of time throughout the year!

Seeing Haskin got me curious since he seemingly outperformed expectations last year as well.  The BA/OBP is being fueled by a .615 Babip too.  It would be nice to see the xBA, etc. on him.  32% K% is concerning.  10+% BB% is solid.  He might end up being an anomaly to follow stat-wise as well.  

I'll take Cowser for my positional MiL player.  He got off to a sluggish start (especially with the K's).  But has righted the ship and his K% is lower than it was at any stop last season (23.5%).  The .437 OBP sets the table for that stacked line-up!  21 BBs and a 17.6% BB%!  Toss in some solid CF defense for good measure too.  

For MiL pitcher, I like the Pinto line!  I'm a sucker for WHIP, but the K9-BB9 is the best of the grouping above too (9.6).

 

For a guy who doesn’t get much press Haskins has quietly put together a fanatic Pro career.  He just continues to steadily improve and keep moving up. He’s selling out for power a bit increasing his ISO but it  hasn’t hampered his OBP skills. I don’t think he will be a star or an impact player, but if he keeps up the incremental improvement I can see him carving out a nice MLB career. 

[Otter]

15 hours ago, Frobby said:

March/April 2023 — pitchers

The pickings here are not as rich.

Justin Armbruester 19.1 IP, 1.40 ERA, 1.138 WHIP, 7.4 K/9, 2.0 K/BB

Jean Pinto, 18.0 IP, 2.50 ERA, 1.111 WHIP, 13.5 K/9, 3.9 K/BB

Bruce Zimmermann, 21.2 IP, 2.49 ERA, 1.154 WHIP, 9.6 K/9, 2.6 K/BB

Chayce McDermott, 16.1 IP, 1.65 ERA, 1.163 WHIP, 11.0 K/9, 2.2 K/BB

I could stretch it further, but I think it comes down to these four.  Each one has an argument, but I’ll go McDermott for the best combo of ERA and K/9.

I agree with you, although the pitching prospects are really slim pickings....McDermott might be the only legit prospect in your group whereas 8 of the 10 hitters you list are legit prospects.  But not really surprising to any fan who has paid attention to the last 4 drafts...

[emmett16]

22 minutes ago, Otter said:

I agree with you, although the pitching prospects are really slim pickings....McDermott might be the only legit prospect in your group whereas 8 of the 10 hitters you list are legit prospects.  But not really surprising to any fan who has paid attention to the last 4 drafts...

Povich could have been on that list with a 3.71 era 1.23 whip & 14.3 k/9 

The 4.4 bb/9 is high with his career bb/p of 3.2  

I think some guys in the low to mid minors are going to appear this year. 

[Otter]

1 hour ago, emmett16 said:

Povich could have been on that list with a 3.71 era 1.23 whip & 14.3 k/9 

The 4.4 bb/9 is high with his career bb/p of 3.2  

I think some guys in the low to mid minors are going to appear this year. 

Agreed.  I'm really hoping for some under the radar pitching prospects to step up this year.  In fact, we really need that to happen because one could make the argument that Povich is the only truly legit starting pitcher prospect in the minors as of today.

Now I'm going to go back and read our minor league hitting stats to make me feel better...

[Frobby]

14 hours ago, emmett16 said:

Povich could have been on that list with a 3.71 era 1.23 whip & 14.3 k/9 

The 4.4 bb/9 is high with his career bb/p of 3.2  

I think some guys in the low to mid minors are going to appear this year. 

Povich is a very good prospect, who undoubtedly will be on some future prospect of he month lists, but I just felt that a 3.71 ERA was too high to make this month’s list.  WHIP was higher than anyone listed too.  And as you mentioned, the walks.  

[Frobby]

They weren’t my choices, but at least I had them on the list!

 

[Just Regular]

Last year Aberdeen's pitchers kind of hit me they were all okay, but they were all the same.

I hadn't looked at the Sally all year until the nudge from the Club giving Pinto the April award - he's running 3rd in the league in K-BB.     It was probably 2nd until last night - Daniel Federman is the guy who leapfrogged him into 2nd.

Federman is 3rd oldest of 26 Sally pitcher qualifiers this morning, Pinto is in the middle 3rd.     I'm mostly of the mindset pitchers break more than they age, but 24 in A ball still garners a little notice. 

[Frobby]

May 2023

Hitters 

Jackson Holliday, .384/.509/.628, 3 HR 19 RBI

Jordan Westburg, .300/.384/.646, 9 HR 24 RBI

Colton Cowser, .409/.533/.682, 3 HR 9 RBI

Max Wagner, .265/.446/.530, 6 HR, 13 RBI

Coby Mayo, .297/.404/.550, 4 HR, 16 RBI

Holliday is a pretty easy call this month for me, weathering his promotion to HiA and playing against older competition.   Cowser might have made it interesting if he hadn't gotten injured, as he actually topped Holliday in all three slash categories but only played in 12 games.   Others deserving a shout out not listed above include Josh Lester (.912 OPS and 25 RBI, most in the org for May); Creed Willems, who posted a second straight .900+ OPS month (.927), and Heston Kjerstad, who did the same (.910).

Pitchers

Justin Armbruester, 25.2 IP, 1.40 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 6.7 K/9, 2.7 K/BB

Connor Gillispie, 17.2 IP, 1.53 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 6.1 K/9, 1.5 K/BB

Alex Pham, 23.1 IP, 1.54 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 13.1 K/9, 2.8 K/BB

Ryan Long, 21.1 IP, 1.69 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 10.1 K/9, 6.0 K/BB

Jake Lyons, 20.0 IP, 1.80 ERA, 0.65 WHIP, 15.8 K/9, 35.0 K/BB

Lots of good options here, but I think Lyons' peripherals put him over the top.   35 K's, 1 BB in 20 IP!   Pretty hard to argue that, though the other listed pitchers edged him out in ERA.  

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Frobby