Astros Minor League Player and Pitchers of the Week: Week Two

Welcome to Week Two of my newest feature focusing on outstanding Astros minor league performances from the prior week. The nominees and winners for Player and Pitchers of the week for Sunday, 4/6 through Saturday, 4/12 are as follows:

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Several players were outstanding in smaller sample sizes (limited number of games or at-bats), including Quad Cities' Jack Mayfield and Jobduan Morales and Corpus Christi's Tyler Heineman and Jio Mier. Quad Cities OF James Ramsay only had 19 at-bats in 5 games, but he made the most of them, hitting .368/.520/.526 with a double, a triple, an RBI, five walks and five stolen bases.

Here are some of the noteworthy performances for those with at least 5 games and 20 at-bats. Stats are for the week only and are not cumulative for the season.

Tony Kemp (Lancaster)
.370/.452/.518
10R 2B HR 7RBI 3BB 2SO 3SB 2CS

Jon Singleton (Oklahoma City)
.320/.414/.680
7R 3-2B 2HR 11RBI 4BB 7SO E

Gregorio Petit (Oklahoma City)
.433/.485/.633
5R 3-2B HR 3BB 7SO 2CS 2E

George Springer (Oklahoma City)
.333/.455/.629
9R 3-2B 3B HR 3RBI 6BB 8SO 4SB

Austin Wates (Oklahoma City)
.354/.444/.613
9R 3-2B 3B HR 3RBI 5BB 4SO 4SB

Kike Hernandez (Corpus Christi)
.476/.523/.714
5R 2-2B HR 5RBI 1BB 2SO

Matt Duffy (Corpus Christi)
.458/.458/.625
3R 4-2B 6RBI 0BB 5SO E

Any and all of those nominees are worthy of Player of the Week, but our winner took it to another level in Week Two. And, in case you're wondering, the four triples is not a typo. Teoscar Hernandez had more triples in one week than most players will have in a full season.

Teoscar Hernandez (Lancaster)
.407/.484/.852
7R 2B 4-3B HR 8RBI 4BB 4SO 3SB 1CS E

Teoscar Hernandez - April 2013

Photo by Jayne Hansen

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: OF TEOSCAR HERNANDEZ

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STARTING (TANDEM) PITCHER OF THE WEEK

This was absolutely the hardest category for me to pick a winner. I had to limit the nominees some way so I only nominated those who had at least two outings during the week which unfortunately left fine performances from Oklahoma City's Paul Clemens and Corpus Christi's Ross Seaton out in the cold. With that said, it was still ridiculously difficult to chose among the following. Stats are for the week only and are not cumulative for the season.

Jake Buchanan (Oklahoma City) - 1 win
1.13 ERA/0.750 WHIP
8IP 6H 1R/1ER 0BB 7SO

Kyle Westwood (Lancaster) - 1 save
1.00 ERA/0.889 WHIP
9IP 6H 2R/1ER 2BB 9SO

Tommy Shirley (Corpus Christi) - 1 win, 1 loss
1.00 ERA/1.000 WHIP
9IP 7H 3R/1ER 2BB 10SO

Gonzalo Sanudo (Quad Cities) - 2 wins
0.00 ERA/1.000 WHIP
6IP 4H 0R 2BB 5SO

OK, here is where it gets REALLY difficult.

Brady Rodgers (Corpus Christi) - 1 save
1.00 ERA/0.778 WHIP
9IP 6H 1R/1ER 1BB 8SO
Pitched 5 no-hit innings with one walk in one of his outings

CORRECTION:
I transposed some numbers and totally messed up on Vincent Velasquez' totals. Velasquez should have been my Pitcher of the Week, but since David Martinez also had such a terrific week, I'll just have to make them co-winners. Blame my senility and bad handwriting!

Vincent Velasquez (Lancaster) - 2 wins
0.00 ERA/0.111 WHIP
9IP 1H 0R 0BB 9SO
Pitched 4 perfect innings in one of his outings

David Martinez (Oklahoma City) - 2 wins
0.00 ERA/.0.444 WHIP
9IP 3H 0R 1BB 7SO
Pitched 5 perfect innings in one of his outings

David Martinez - May 2013

Photo by Jayne Hansen

STARTING (TANDEM) PITCHERS OF THE WEEK: RHP DAVID MARTINEZ AND RHP VINCENT VELASQUEZ

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RELIEF PITCHER OF THE WEEK

In limiting the relief nominees, I went for those who either made two appearances or pitched multiple innings. There were still several standouts. Again, stats are for the week only and are not cumulative.

Mitch Lambson (Lancaster) - 1 save, 1 win
0.00 ERA/1.333 WHIP
3IP 3H 0R 1BB 2SO

Travis Ballew (Corpus Christi) - 2 saves
0.00 ERA/1.285 WHIP
2.1IP 2H 0R 1BB 1SO
2 inherited runners/0 scored

Zach Morton (Quad Cities)
0.00 ERA/0.857 WHIP
2.1IP 2H 0R 0BB 5SO
1 inherited runner/0 scored

Patrick Christensen (Quad Cities)
0.00 ERA/0.375 WHIP
2.2IP 0H 0R 1BB 4SO
3 inherited runners/1 scored

Tyler Brunnemann (Quad Cities)
0.00 ERA/0.00 WHIP
2.1IP (1G) 0H 0R 0BB 1SO
1 inherited runner/0 scored

So, how on earth can you beat Tyler Brunnemann's terrific outing? You can have two perfect outings and get two saves in the process.

Jason Stoffel (Oklahoma City) - 2 saves
0.00 ERA/0.00 WHIP
2IP 0H 0R 0BB 3SO

Jason Stoffel - June 2013

Photo by Jayne Hansen

RELIEF PITCHER OF THE WEEK: RHP Jason Stoffel