The minor league baseball regular season has come to a close. Who were the top performers?
Minor league baseball is deep in its playoff season right now, but the regular season brought out incredible performances from players that were expected to do well and many who were not. Today, we’ll look at the best statistical performers in the minor leagues in 2017!
We will start with the “team” of the year, which player was the best at each position in the minors in 2017 (based primarily on stats, not on prospect status), and then finally the pitcher of the year and the player of the year. All of these reviews for this post are based on the numbers each player put up in the 2017 season, not their status as a prospect. We will have later posts on the top prospects for each affiliate league this month, leading into other posts this fall and winter on the top prospects for each team, the top prospects at each position, and the top prospects overall in baseball.
Let’s start with the minor league leaders:
AVG (min. 300 PA): Bo Bichette, 19, Toronto Blue Jays, low-A/high-A, .362
AVG (min. 100 PA): Donovan Casey, 21, Los Angeles Dodgers, Rookie/Advanced Rookie – .408
OBP (300): Yandy Diaz, 25, Cleveland Indians, AAA – .454
OBP (100): Ryan Noda, 21, Toronto Blue Jays, Advanced Rookie – .507
SLG (300): Garrett Cooper, 26, Milwaukee Brewers/New York Yankees, AA/AAA – .634
SLG (100): Casey Golden, 22, Colorado Rockies, Advanced Rookie – .660
OPS (300): Garrett Cooper, 26, Milwaukee Brewers/New York Yankees, AA/AAA – 1.057
OPS (100): Mason Martin, 18, Pittsburgh Pirates, Rookie – 1.087
R: Garrett Hampson, 22, Colorado Rockies, high-A – 113
H: Ronald Acuna, 19, Atlanta Braves, high-A/AA/AAA – 181
2B: Ryan Mountcastle, 20, Baltimore Orioles, high-A/AA – 48
3B: Franchy Cordero, 22, San Diego Padres, AAA; Jorge Mateo, 22, New York Yankees/Oakland Athletics, high-A/AA – 18
HR: A.J. Reed, 24, Houston Astros, AAA – 34
RBI: Christian Walker, 26, Arizona Diamondbacks, AAA – 114
TB: Austin Hays, 21, Baltimore Orioles, high-A/AA – 310
SB: Wes Rogers, 23, Colorado Rockies, high-A – 70
HBP: Brett Cumberland, 22, Atlanta Braves, low-A/high-A – 41
G: Logan Kensing, 34, Detroit Tigers, AAA – 66
GS: Five with 29
IP: Shane Bieber, 22, Cleveland Indians, low-A/high-A/AA – 173 1/3
W: Zack Littell, 21, New York Yankees/Minnesota Twins, high-A/AA – 19
CG: Brian Keller, 23, New York Yankees, low-A/high-A; Shawn Morimando, 24, Cleveland Indians, AAA – 4
SV: Pedro Beato, 30, Philadelphia Phillies, high-A/AAA – 33
K: Alec Hansen, 22, Chicago White Sox, low-A/high-A/AA – 191
ERA (min. 100 IP): Jon Duplantier, 22, Arizona Diamondbacks, low-A/high-A – 1.39
ERA (min. 25 IP): Carlos Ramirez, 26, Toronto Blue Jays, AA/AAA – 0.00
WHIP (100): Connor Grey, 23, Arizona Diamondbacks, short-A/low-A/high-A/AAA – 0.87
WHIP (25): Jhon Romero, 22, Chicago Cubs, Rookie/short-A/low-A – 0.62
BB/9 (100): Shane Bieber, 22, Cleveland Indians, low-A/high-A/AA – 0.5
BB/9 (25): Jim McDade, 24, San Diego Padres, short-A/low-A – 0.4
K/9 (100): A.J. Puk, 22, Oakland Athletics, high-A/AA – 13.2
K/9 (25): Tyler Bashlor, 24, New York Mets, high-A/AA – 15.2
K/BB (100): Shane Bieber, 22, Cleveland Indians, low-A/high-A/AA – 16.2
K/BB (25): Jim McDade, 24, San Diego Padres, short-A/low-A – 18.75
Now, we’ll get into our awards. First up, the men to don the tools of ignorance, the catchers:
Next: Catcher