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

It's time to reward those players who had superlative weeks during the past week -- there were more than a few! These performances are for the week starting Sunday, April 27th and going through Saturday, May 3rd.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

The list this week was really long and I had to draw the line somewhere so let me hand out a few honorable mentions for those players who had great weeks, but who played in five or fewer games: Quad Cities' Brian Holberton, Tanner Mathis (3-2B in one game!), and Jobduan Morales (4H in one game); and Corpus Christi's Rene Garcia and Tyler Heineman all had very good weeks.

In addition, a special shout-out to Corpus Christi's Preston Tucker for his power output last week as he put up a .538 slugging percentage for the week (but his BA and OBP were not up to his usual standards) and to Oklahoma City's Robbie Grossman and Ronald Torreyes who hit an impressive .333 and .360 respectively for the week, but whose slugging percentage didn't measure up to that of our nominees. Stats are for the week only and are not cumulative for the season.

3B Rio Ruiz (Lancaster)
.296/.367/.519
3R 3-2B HR 6RBI 3BB 6SO

IF Carlos Perdomo (Lancaster)
.348/.407/.522
6R 2-3B 3RBI 1BB 1SO

2B Tony Kemp (Lancaster)
.417/.500/.542
5R 2B 3B 4RBI 2BB 4SO 2SB

1B Brandon Meredith (Lancaster)
.409/.458/.682
4R 2B 3B HR 2RBI 2BB 3SO
Meredith also had an outfield assist in his only outfield appearance this season.

OF Brett Phillips (Quad Cities)
.348/.400/.652
4R 2-2B 3B HR 6RBI 4BB 3SO 2SB 3SF SAC

It almost doesn't seem fair that Kemp or Meredith or Phillips can't be our winner this week, but when you see what our actual winner did for the week, I think you'll understand why they had to be bridesmaids this week. Our winner took it to another level.

OF Andrew Aplin (Corpus Christi)
.429/.529/.821
8R 3-2B 3B 2HR 8RBI 6BB 5SO

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: OF ANDREW APLIN

Andrew Aplin - April 2014

Photo by Jayne Hansen

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STARTING (TANDEM) PITCHER OF THE WEEK

As the tandem pitchers start pitching into the later innings, I'll start transitioning as well. Up until now, a pitcher needed to make two appearances before I would consider them for the Pitcher of the Week. Now I will consider any pitchers who have pitched either two games or a minimum of five innings in one game. There were four standouts for the week who didn't qualify, but who had great outings: Kevin Comer (Quad Cities), Adrian Houser (Quad Cities), Vincent Velasquez (Lancaster) and Brian Holmes (Lancaster).

With that said, here are my nominees and my winner for the week. Stats are for the week only and are not cumulative for the season.

LHP Luis Cruz (Corpus Christi) - 1 win
1.00 ERA/1.222 WHIP
9IP (2 games) 4BB 10SO
Held hitters to a .219 BA

RHP Gonzalo Sanudo (Quad Cities) - 1 win
1.80 ERA/0.600 WHIP
5IP (1 game) 0BB 4SO
Held hitters to a .167 BA

LHP Tommy Shirley (Corpus Christi)
1.80 ERA/0.400 WHIP
5IP (1 game) 0BB 6SO
Held hitters to a .118 BA

And our winner had his most dominant outing of the season.

RHP Lance McCullers (Lancaster) - 1 win
0.00 ERA/0.800 WHIP
5IP (1 game) 1BB 10SO
Held hitters to a .167 BA

STARTING (TANDEM) PITCHER OF THE WEEK: RHP LANCE MCCULLERS

Lance McCullers - March 2014

Photo by Jayne Hansen

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RELIEF PITCHER OF THE WEEK

Patrick Christensen of Quad Cities gets an honorable mention for his excellent two-inning appearance, but all of my nominees and my winner put together some great multiple outings. Stats are for the week only and are not cumulative for the season.

RHP Tyler Brunnemann (Quad Cities)
0.00 ERA/0.900 WHIP/.237 BA
3.1IP (2 games) 0BB 2SO
3 inherited runners/2 scored

RHP Daniel Minor (Lancaster) - 1 win
0.00 ERA/0.429 WHIP/.111 BA
2.1IP (2 games) 0BB 3SO
2 inherited runners/2 scored

LHP Darin Downs (Oklahoma City) - 1 win
0.00 ERA/0.500 WHIP/.154 BA
4IP (2 games) 0BB 4SO
1 inherited runner/0 scored

RHP Richard Rodriguez (Lancaster/Oklahoma City) - 1 win
1.69 ERA/0.938 WHIP/.250 BA
5.1IP (3 games) 0BB 7SO
The three games were his first appearances above Low A.

RHP Rhiner Cruz (Oklahoma City) - 1 win
0.00 ERA/0.692 WHIP/.188 BA
4.1IP (3 games) 0BB 6SO
1 inherited runner/0 scored

How do you beat so many great performances? Well, this time it took perfection ... three perfect relief outings from our winner.

RHP Josh Zeid (Oklahoma City) - 2 saves
0.00 ERA/0.000 WHIP/.000 BA
2.2IP (3 games) 0BB 1SO

RELIEF PITCHER OF THE WEEK: RHP JOSH ZEID

Josh Zeid - June 2013

Photo by Jayne Hansen