Astros Minor League Players and Pitchers of the Month for July

The month of July gave us many, many, many more terrific performances from which to choose for the WTHB Players/Pitchers of the Month. In addition to the following nominees for Player of the Month, a few shoutouts are in order for Telvin Nash who banged out 10 home runs in July; Jason Martin and James Ramsay who collected four triples each; Cristopher Luciano who walked a whopping 22 times during the month and Edwin Medina who collected 16 stolen bases. Here are my nominees in no particular order ~

IF Juan Santana (Greeneville/Tri-City)
24G .371/.379/.517
20R 10-2B HR 14RBI 3BB 11SO 3SB 1CS

OF Derek Fisher (Tri-City)
25G .368/.459/.442
27R 3-2B 2-3B 12RBI 14BB 20SO 13SB 1CS
Fisher was first in runs scored in the Astros minor leagues in July.

3B J.D. Davis (Tri-City/Quad Cities)
26G .359/.434/.554
18R 9-2B 3HR 17RBI 10BB 21SO 1SB 0CS

IF Nick Tanielu (Tri-City)
23G .344/.380/.505
11R 7-2B 3B 2HR 29RBI 4BB 18SO 1SB 0CS
Please note that Nick's 29 RBI led the Astros minor leaguers in July.

OF Ronnie Mitchell (Quad Cities/Lancaster)
25G .330/.419/.648
18R 9-2B 3B 6HR 22RBI 14BB 22SO 1SB 3CS

IF Jack Mayfield (Lancaster)
27G .343/.383/.610
19R 12-2B 2-3B 4HR 20RBI 7BB 18SO 1SB 3CS
Mayfield led the Astros minor leaguers in hits and doubles for the month.

With all of these incredible performances for the month, there were three that really stood out. Some may be surprised that with his streak of five home runs in five games, Brett Phillips is not my Player of the Month. But there were a couple of performances that I found to be just a tiny little bit stronger overall so Brett will have to settle for bridesmaid this month with these excellent numbers.

OF Brett Phillips (Quad Cities)
27G .314/.368/.667
18R 9-2B 2-3B 8HR 20RBI 9BB 24SO 3SB 1CS

For the top spot, it came down to two players and ultimately I couldn't decide between the two so I will have to declare a tie. Chase McDonald balanced immense power with excellent on-base skills. Rio Ruiz displayed just a tiny bit less power than McDonald, but showed fantastic patience at the plate in his walk rate. Ultimately, they are two different types of players who both excelled at what they do best. Here are your co-winners for the month.

1B Chase McDonald (Quad Cities)
26G .362/.434/.649
21R 9-2B 6HR 19RBI 11BB 20SO

3B Rio Ruiz (Lancaster)
26G .333/.424/.590
23R 11-2B 2-3B 4HR 21RBI 18BB 16SO 2SB 1CS

JULY PLAYERS OF THE MONTH: 1B CHASE MCDONALD AND 3B RIO RUIZ

Chase McDonald - June 2014

Photo by Jayne Hansen

Rio Ruiz - May 2014

Photo by Jayne Hansen

As a reminder, Players of the Week for July were:
Nick Tanielu

A.J. Reed

Rodrigo Ayarza

Mott Hyde

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Next up, we look at Starting (Tandem) Pitchers who had particularly good outings in July. The winner on this was a no-doubter, but there were a few other performances of note as well. Again, these are in no particular order.

RHP Chris Devenski (Corpus Christi)
6 Games/3 Starts 29.1IP 3-3 record
2.76 ERA/0.784 WHIP 6BB:27SO .162 BA

RHP Joe Musgrove (Tri-City)
6 Games/4 Starts 28.2IP 3-0 record
3.71 ERA/0.887 WHIP 4BB:30SO .196 BA
Although Joe's ERA was a bit high, his WHIP and walk to strikeout rate were outstanding.

RHP Agapito Barrios (Greeneville)
6 Games/2 Starts 24IP 3-0 record
2.63 ERA/0.958 WHIP 3BB:16SO .222 BA

RHP Austin Chrismon (Tri-City)
6 Games/3 Starts 23.1IP 3-0 record
1.16 ERA/0.986 WHIP 7BB:20SO .188 BA

RHP Joshua James (Greeneville)
6 Games/4 Starts 24IP 1-2 record
1.13 ERA/1.000 WHIP 9BB:27SO .181 BA

My winner had a ridiculously good month, getting five wins in six starts. The only game that he didn't win was a 1-0 team win in which he had a no decision after five scoreless innings. He also led all Astros minor leaguers for the month with his 40 strikeouts and 34 innings pitched.

RHP Troy Scribner (Tri-City)

6 Games/6 Starts 35.2IP 5-0 record
0.79 ERA/0.824 WHIP 10BB:40SO .154 BA

JULY STARTING (TANDEM) PITCHER OF THE MONTH: RHP TROY SCRIBNER

Troy Scribner - August 2014

Photo by Jayne Hansen

As a reminder, the Starting Pitchers of the Week for July were:
Chris Devenski
Jose Montero
Michael Feliz
Agapito Barrios

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Now for our Relief Pitchers. Again, the nominees are in no particular order. (The cut-off for this one was a minimum of 10 innings pitched.)

RHP Josue Uribe (DSL)
4 Games 10.2IP 1-0 record with 1 save
0.00 ERA/0.844 WHIP 5BB:9SO .118 BA
6 inherited runners/2 scored

RHP Richard Rodriguez (Corpus Christi/Oklahoma City)
9 Games 18IP 0-0 record
1.42 ERA/0.632 WHIP 3BB:22SO .141 BA
3 inherited runners/2 scored

RHP Aaron Vaughn (GCL/Quad Cities/Tri-City)
9 Games 11.2IP 1-1 record with 2 saves
1.54 ERA/0.686 WHIP 2BB:12SO .154 BA

2 inherited runners/1 scored

LHP Mitch Lambson (Corpus Christi)
10 Games 11.2IP 0-0 record
1.54 ERA/0.943 WHIP 2BB:16SO .209 BA

9 inherited runners/1 scored

LHP Albert Minnis (Quad Cities)
7 Games 17.2IP 1-0 record
1.53 ERA/1.132 WHIP 7BB:16SO .188 BA
8 inherited runners/2 scored

RHP Keegan Yuhl (Greeneville)
6 Games 17.2IP 0-0 record
0.51 ERA/1.189 WHIP 4BB:13SO .246 BA
1 inherited runner/0 scored

RHP Joel Belboder (DSL)
8 Games 14.2IP 3-0 record with 2 saves
1.23 ERA/1.227 WHIP 6BB:14SO .218 BA
6 inherited runners/2 scored

The winner is someone who continues to (pleasantly) surprise me. As a former shortstop who has only pitched about 75 career innings, he seems to be figuring out how to succeed as a relief pitcher quite nicely.

RHP Angel Heredia (Greeneville)
8 Games 18IP 3-1 record with 2 saves
0.50 ERA/0.778 WHIP 7BB:26O .136 BA
2 inherited runners/0 scored

JULY RELIEF PITCHER OF THE MONTH: RHP ANGEL HEREDIA

Angel Heredia - July 2014

Photo by Jayne Hansen

As a reminder, the Relief Pitchers of the Week for July were:
Tyson Perez
Albert Minnis
Juan Delis
Bryan Radziewski

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If you remember, I decided to create separate categories for catchers since they generally play in fewer games and are judged as much if not more by their defensive contributions as they are by their offense.

My Defensive Catcher of the month has flown largely under the radar. I was actually surprised when I looked at his numbers for the month. In 15 games in July (13 as the starting catcher and two as a defensive replacement), Alfredo Gonzalez had a 44% caught stealing rate which is impressive, but not as impressive as something else I noticed. Gonzalez was charged with only one passed ball for the month and pitchers only threw three wild pitches while he was behind the plate in July. One of those belonged to knuckleballer Blaine Sims. That is EXTREMELY impressive.

JULY DEFENSIVE CATCHER OF THE MONTH: ALFREDO GONZALEZ

Alfredo Gonzalez - August 2014

Photo by Jayne Hansen

One catcher clearly stood out for July as far as offensive prowess. 2014 13th round draft pick Jamie Ritchie has gotten off to a great start at the plate with Tri-City, going .433/.545/.567 in his first 25 games. In 15 games in July, he hit .417/.492/.542 with six doubles and 15 RBI. He scored six runs, stole two bases and walked eight times while only striking out in six plate appearances.

JULY OFFENSIVE CATCHER OF THE MONTH: JAMIE RITCHIE

Jamie Ritchie - July 2014

Photo by Jayne Hansen