Astros Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Week: Week One

With the new season, I'm going to start a new feature. Each Monday I'm going to look at the performances from the prior week (Sunday through Saturday) and give you my nominees and winners for Players and Pitchers of the Week. The first "week" consists of only three days (Thursday, 4/3 through Saturday, 4/5), but there are still some very worthy performances that should be acknowledged.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

In looking at the first three days of the season, there were certainly some excellent performances:

2B Tony Kemp (Lancaster) scored six runs, hit two doubles, walked three times, stole a base and compiled a .400/.571/.600 batting average over those three games. SS Carlos Correa (Lancaster) hit .455/.462/.545 with a double, five RBI and a walk over his first three.

Danry Vasquez, Andrew Aplin, Preston Tucker, Ronny Torreyes, Chan Moon, Tanner Mathis, Max Stassi and others also had good starts to their season, but one other name stood out for me for his overall performance for the week.

2B Austin Elkins (Quad Cities) hit safely in his first three games (he extended the streak to four in Sunday's game). He had one run scored, a triple, two RBI and a stolen base, and hit .455/.455/.636 over that period. He has also played errorless ball and helped to convert two double plays. Congratulations to Austin Elkins on a great start!

WEEK ONE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: 2B AUSTIN ELKINS

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

STARTING (TANDEM) PITCHER OF THE WEEK

There were several impressive starting pitching performances in the first three games:

LHP David Rollins (Corpus Christi) pitched four innings, allowing three hits and no runs. He walked two and struck out six (three swinging, three looking). RHP Aaron West (Corpus Christi) also pitched four innings, allowing one hit and one walk. He got two swinging strike outs.

Most probably think that I would pick LHP Josh Hader (Lancaster) for his 10-strikeout (nine swinging, one looking) performance over his first four innings. But there was the matter of four wild pitches and a hit batter, so I'm going in a different direction.

LHP Kent Emanual (Quad Cities) had a start very similar to Aaron West's excellent outing as he allowed only two hits and one unearned run with two strikeouts in four innings. But there are two reasons that I'm going with Emanuel. He didn't walk a batter and he got a pick off at first. Kent Emanuel, come on down!

STARTING (TANDEM) PITCHER OF THE WEEK: LHP KENT EMANUEL

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

RELIEF PITCHER OF THE WEEK

There have been several excellent relief performances already in the short season:

RHP Andrew Walter (Quad Cities) threw two hitless innings. LHP Chris Cotton (Quad Cities) allowed two hits and an unearned run in his two innings while striking out three and inducing a double play ball. RHP Chia-Jen Lo (Oklahoma City) faced three batters and struck out two of them. RHP Jose Cisnero (Oklahoma City) has pitched a total of 2.2 innings in two games, allowing a walk, striking out five batters and stranding the only runner he inherited.

But to me it came down to two pitchers who inherited bases loaded and got out of it. RHP Andrew Robinson (Corpus Christi) threw five pitches (four for strikes) to get the final out of the game on a swinging strikeout and earned his first save of the season.

However, RHP Josh Zeid (Oklahoma City) came in to a bases-loaded situation with only one out, got a swinging strikeout and a fly out and pitched another scoreless inning to boot. Zeid got the W in that game, and he gets my first nod as Relief Pitcher of the Week.

RELIEF PITCHER OF THE WEEK: JOSH ZEID