Astros Minor League Player and Pitchers of the Week: Week 18

It's time to look back at Week 18 and acknowledge some winning performances for the week commencing Sunday, July 27th and continuing through Saturday, August 2nd.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

A special shout out goes to Domingo Santana for his excellent week which led to him being recalled to Houston on Sunday. Also of note is the TRIPLE TRIPLE game from Marc Wik. In Thursday's game, Wik hit three triples in one game for Quad Cities. Nicely done, sir! Quad Cities' J.D. Davis also had a terrific week.

All of my nominees played in at least six games for the week. They are, in no particular order, as follows:

IF Joe Sclafani (Oklahoma City)

.500/.577/.545 in 6 games
6R 2B 5RBI 3BB 4SO 2SB 1CS

OF Alexander Melendez (GCL*)

.500/.583/.650 in 6 games
7R 2B 3B 2RBI 3BB 4SO 4SB 0CS
*Melendez was just promoted to Quad Cities

IF Jack Mayfield (Lancaster)

.476/.593/.810 in 6 games
6R 2-2B 3B HR 5RBI 5BB 3SO 1SB 1CS

OF/SS/3B Marcos Almonte (DSL)

.458/.536/.583 in 6 games
6R 3-2B 2RBI 2BB 3SO 2SB 2CS

C Orlando Marquez (DSL)

.435/.500/.696 in 6 games
3R 4-2B 3B 9RBI 2BB 5SO 3SB 0CS

1B Jake Bowey (DSL)

.368/.520/.684 in 6 games
4R 2HR 7RBI 6BB 6SO 1SB 0CS

3B Tyler White (Lancaster)

.346/.452/.731 in 7 games
7R 4-2B 2HR 4RBI 5BB 7SO

1B Chase McDonald (Quad Cities)

.407/.448/.741 in 7 games
6R 3-2B 2HR 5RBI 2BB 11SO

Our winner has had a power surge of late. He homered in five straight games (starting in the prior week) and has homered in six of his last eight games. As his good friend Lance McCullers would say, "Weird."

OF Brett Phillips (Quad Cities)

.259/.333/.889 in 7 games
6R 2-2B 5HR 9RBI 3BB 5SO
1 Outfield Assist
(And I totally had this part of the post written before the news came out this morning that Brett was being promoted to Lancaster!)

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: OF BRETT PHILLIPS

Brett Phillips - June 2014

Photo by Jayne Hansen

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STARTING (TANDEM) PITCHER OF THE WEEK

There are three pitchers this time around that pitched in two games for the week with excellent results so the rest of these pitchers will have to settle for honorable mentions: Lancaster's Kyle Westwood, Matt Heidenreich and Brian Holmes; Corpus Christi's Mark Appel; Tri-City's Austin Chrismon and Randall Fant; Yhoan Acosta of the GCL; and the DSL's Carlos Hiraldo, Albert Abreu and Erasmo Pinales.

The two runners-up are:

LHP Kent Emanuel (Lancaster) - 1 win & 1 save
2.45 ERA/1.000 WHIP .214 BA
11IP (2 games/1 start) 2BB 9SO

RHP Edison Frias (Quad Cities) - 1 win
1.64 ERA/0.909 WHIP .238 BA
11IP (2 games/1 start) 0BB 14SO

My winner has had a very good season, his first with the Dominican Summer League Astros. In 12 games (8 starts), he is 5-2 with a 2.17 ERA and a 1.228 WHIP. And for the week he was even better!

LHP Salvador Montana (DSL)

0.00 ERA/0.900 WHIP .176 BA
10IP (2 games/2 starts) 3BB 10SO

STARTING (TANDEM) PITCHER OF THE WEEK: LHP SALVADOR MONTANO

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RELIEF PITCHER OF THE WEEK

I have quite a number of honorable mentions this week, including Corpus Christi's Mitch Lambson and Tyson Perez; Lancaster's Jamaine Cotton; Greeneville's Zach Davis; the GCL's John Gatlin and Alejandro Solarte; and the DSL's Jose Ramos and Joel Belboder. In particular, I want to point out that Greeneville Astros RHP Eric Peterson was perfect in his two innings of work over two outings.

This time I went with a couple of long relievers who absolutely dominated for the week. First my runner-up (and my Relief Pitcher of the Month for July):

RHP Angel Heredia (Greeneville) - 1 save
0.00 ERA/.0.667 WHIP/.190 BA
6IP (2 games) 4H 0BB 8SO

My winner hasn't had the best of seasons thus far which makes his two appearances stand out even moreso.

RHP Antonio Almonte (DSL) - 2 wins
0.00 ERA/0.536 WHIP/.129 BA
9.0IP (2 games) 4H 1BB 11SO
2 inherited runners/0 scored

RELIEF PITCHER OF THE WEEK: RHP ANTONIO ALMONTE