Minor league baseball 2018 All-Star team
After recognizing each team’s top performers in minor league baseball, we turn to the best throughout the entire minors!
Through the entire month of October, we examined the top performers in the minors for each team. We will now expand that to all of minor league baseball with a top performer for each position around the diamond and a half dozen pitchers.
This team is selected on numbers alone, not on the prospect status of the player, though in close “battles” there is weight given to age relative to league. That would mean a pair of players both hitting for an .800 OPS at second base in AA would lead to the 20-year-old performing at that level getting more consideration for this list than a 26-year-old.
We will start with the minor league leaders on the season, then examine our team of the year…
2018 Minor League Baseball Leaders (150 PA or 50 IP for rate stats)
AVG – Malcom Nunez, St. Louis Cardinals, .415
OBP – Cal Stevenson, Toronto Blue Jays, .511
SLG – Malcom Nunez, St. Louis Cardinals, .774
R – Vidal Brujan, Tampa Bay, 112
H – Josh Fuentes, Colorado Rockies, 180
2B – Alex Kirilloff, Minnesota Twins, 44
3B – Jorge Mateo, Oakland Athletics, 16
HR – Peter Alonso, New York Mets; Ibandel Isabel, Los Angeles Dodgers/Cincinnati Reds, 36
RBI – Peter Alonso, New York Mets, 119
SB – Myles Straw, Houston Astros, 70
TB – Alex Kirilloff, Minnesota Twins, 296
W – Scott Moss, Cincinnati Reds, 15
G – Pedro Beato, Philadelphia Phillies, 63
SV – Pedro Beato, Philadelphia Phillies, 35
IP – James Marvel, Pittsburgh Pirates, 167.1
K – Dean Kremer, Los Angeles Dodgers/Baltimore Orioles 178
ERA – Luis Rodriguez, Chicago Cubs 0.73
WHIP – Luis Palacios, Miami Marlins 0.60
K/9 – Demarcus Evans, Texas Rangers 16.6
K/BB – Bryan Valdez, Arizona Diamondbacks 59.00
Let’s start our minor league baseball team of the year with the infield…
Minor League Baseball 2018 Top Performers – Infield
Catcher
The #3 overall pick in the 2018 draft, Joey Bart made a big impression in his pro debut. He spent most of his time in the Northwest League, hitting .294/.364/.588 with 15 doubles and 13 home runs in just 51 games. Bart will be a guy to watch as he could move quickly, and his big performance this season could allow the San Francisco Giants to take the bold move to trade Buster Posey.
First Base
This was probably the closest race, but Nathaniel Lowe of the Rays beats out Peter Alonso of the Mets system. Alonso did lead the minors in home runs and RBI, but Lowe’s all-around line was incredibly impressive. A 13th round pick in 2016, Lowe played up 3 levels in 2018, finishing in AAA, hitting a combined .330/.416/.568 with 93 runs, 32 doubles, 27 home runs, 102 RBI, and an impressive 68/90 BB/K over 555 plate appearances.
Second Base
Becoming a fan favorite before he even stepped on a major league field, Jeff McNeil had New York Mets fans begging for him at the major league level before he arrived with a big season between AA/AAA. Even though he is 26, his season was good enough that he beat out younger players, hitting .342/.411/.617 with 26 doubles, 5 triples, 19 home runs, and 6 steals in just 384 plate appearances, with a 36/42 BB/K. He then finished out his season with a .329/.381/.471 line in 248 plate appearances in the major leagues, hitting 11 doubles, 6 triples, 3 home runs, and 7 triples. His combined numbers between majors and minors were .337/.399/.559 with 37 doubles, 11 triples, 22 home runs, and 13 steals. An incredible season indeed!
Third Base
Certainly, the most-talked-about prospect in all of baseball in 2018 was Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays. Without an injury that kept him out a touch over a month, Vlad may have received a major league call-up. Instead, he spent the entire year in the minor leagues, hitting primarily with AA and AAA at just 19 years old the entire season. He hit .381/.437/.636 with 29 doubles and 20 home runs over 408 plate appearances. He struck out just 38 times, an insanely low amount for a power hitter. He may not be a long-term third baseman, but the bat is real and should be doing fun things in the major leagues in 2019.
Shortstop
With Vlad in the majors in 2019, the teenager everyone will be swooning over will be Wander Franco of the Tampa Bay Rays. While there were some excellent performances from a number of full-season shortstops, what Franco did in just 61 games for Princeton in the Appalachian League was other-worldly at any age, but for a player who was 17 the whole season, it’s incredible – even better than Vlad at the same level. Franco hit .351/.418/.587 with 10 doubles, 7 triples, 11 home runs, and 4 stolen bases, while putting up an incredible 27/19 BB/K ratio over 273 plate appearances. He also showed off impressive range and a powerful arm at shortstop. He could be a rare Rays prospect that moves quickly.
Minor League Baseball 2018 Top Performers – Outfield
The outfield this year in minor league baseball was absolutely loaded with elite talent and elit performers. If Vlad Jr. was not the player of the year, it’d come from among these three.
The guy who probably surprised the most in 2018 among the outfielders on this team is Alex Kirilloff in the Minnesota Twins farm system. Kirilloff was a first-round pick in 2016 out of high school in Pennsylvania with one of the most picturesque swings you could ever watch as a scout.
After missing all of 2017 due to Tommy John surgery, Kirilloff had seemingly fallen off the radar of many in the minor league baseball writing industry, not making a single top 100 list, and even missing a few top 10 lists of Twins prospects. He came out in 2018 and showed why that was a mistake. That beautiful swing from the left side played 65 games exactly at both A-ball levels, and Alex was able to put up a .348/.392/.578 line with 44 doubles, 7 triples, and 20 home runs. He should open 2019 in AA, but he could move quickly.
The final two outfielders are on the cusp of the majors already. Eloy Jimenez is in a similar situation as Vlad Jr., as he would have likely been in the majors this season if not for an injury in-season that kept him out for a decent chunk of time.
He was dominant at both AA and AAA, hitting even better at the higher level, with a combined line of .337/.384/.577 with 28 doubles and 22 home runs, with a 32/69 BB/K ratio over 456 plate appearances. He should be the Chicago White Sox lineup focus starting in 2019 and for years to come.
Of the competitors for the top overall player in minor league baseball, only one actually broke through to play in the majors this season. That was Kyle Tucker, who played 28 games with the Houston Astros this season in the midst of putting together his second consecutive 20/20 season in the minor leagues.
Tucker played AAA ball all season, and he was able to bring down his strikeout rate significantly while putting up a .332/.400/.590 line with 27 doubles, 24 home runs, and 20 steals over 100 games. He did struggle at the major league level, but he did keep his strikeout rate low and wasn’t panicking in that time. He will have a chance to compete for a starting position in the Astros outfield in 2019.
Minor League Baseball 2018 Top Performers – Pitchers
For pitching, I decided to go with a pair of lefty starters, a pair of righty starters, and a pair of relievers.
Unlike hitters, if I were selecting a top performing pitcher in minor league baseball in 2018, the choice would be clear. Philadelphia Phillies prospect David Parkinson had an incredible first full season after being a 12th round pick out of the University of Mississippi in 2017.
Parkinson is a 6’2″, 210-pound lefty, so there’s not likely a lot more physical development there, but with the performance he put up across A-ball this season, he may not need it. Parkinson put together an 11-1 record over 22 games, 21 of them starts. He tossed 124 1/3 innings, with an incredible 1.45 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, and a 35/141 BB/K ratio.
Incredibly, the guy who would have challenged Parkinson is not another starter, but lefty reliever Colin Poche, who pitched in the Arizona Diamondbacks and finished in the Tampa Bay Rays system. Poche was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 14th round in 2016 out of Dallas Baptist. Poche had an incredible season, with 40 appearances, 2 of them starts. He pitched 66 innings, with a 0.82 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, and a 19/110 BB/K ratio.
Let’s take a look at a pair of other lefties…
Left-handed starter
After a dominant season in 2017 for Xavier, Zac Lowther was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2nd round. He is not a guy with a tremendous fastball, but he did see a tick up in his velocity to the low-90s consistently to go along with his deception and offspeed stuff this year. That allowed Lowther to put up a 2.18 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and a 35/151 BB/K ratio over 123 2/3 innings across both A-ball levels.
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Right-handed starters
Acquired from the Marlins,
Mike Kingdeveloped into a dominant pitcher in 2018 in the New York Yankees farm system. King shot up from high-A through AA to AAA, and he had his best numbers at the highest level. Combined, King had an 11-5 record over 161 1/3 innings, posting a 1.79 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and a 29/152 BB/K ratio.
After three seasons in the Red Sox lower levels, Denyi Reyes pitched his first full season in the Boston system. He was able to have tremendous success across both levels of A-ball. He posted a 1.97 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and a 19/145 BB/K ratio over 155 2/3 innings.
Relief pitcher
It just so happened that both of the relievers chosen this year were left-handed. Andrew Vasquez had a dominant 2017 season where he struck out 85 over 58 innings with a 1.55 ERA, then posted a 1.42 ERA in 12 2/3 innings in the Arizona Fall League with 14 strikeouts.
He then took all of that to another level in 2018, starting the season in high-A and finishing in the major leagues. Vasquez posted a 1.30 ERA over 40 games and 69 1/3 innings in the minor leagues, with a 1.02 WHIP and a 21/108 BB/K. He got touched up a bit in the majors, but the strikeouts were still there, whiffing 7 in 5 major league innings.
Next. Red Sox 2018 minor league awards. dark
That’s the 2018 minor league baseball All-Star team via performance. Do you have others that you think should have been on the team? Any that you think should not have made it? Comment below!!