Astros Future Player of the Week: Ronnie Dawson
It was just as hard this week as it was last week to choose one for Astros Future Player of the Week for July 17th to July 23rd. When the dust settled it was hard to deny Ronnie Dawson the award after the week he had with the Tri-City ValleyCats.
Dawson, 21, was selected in the second round of the 2016 MLB Draft. After struggling through most of the New York-Penn League season so far, Dawson has come to life and shown the Houston Astros why they selected him so early in the draft.
This week, Dawson went 5-for-15 (.333), with five runs scored, two doubles, three home runs, and nine runs driven in. If that wasn’t enough, he drew nine walks which includes one intentionally for an OBP of .583. In his last 10 games, he has risen his season average up from .150 to .178. What is more impressive of a number is his slugging percentage that rose from a balmy .188 to .339.
I have had the opportunity to see Ronnie Dawson on a few occasions and all I can say is I am glad he had the week that he did. At times he looked lost at the plate and his swing appeared long and slow. After doing some work and settling down a little, he seems to have found his stride. He had this to say in an interview for MiLB.com “I’m just relaxing. Earlier in the year, I was just pressing. Starting to play pro ball and getting drafted high, I wanted to prove myself. The struggle at the beginning of the year just helped me to settle down. I can’t worry about getting hits in every at-bat; I just have to worry about trying to have good at bats.”
The Tri-City ValleyCats went 3-3 this past week and are about to start a series at home this weekend against the Vermont Lake Monsters. Tri-City is currently sitting in third place in the New York-Penn Leauges Stedler Division just two games behind first place Connecticut Tigers.
Honorable Mentions
Alex Bregman, who will probably be heading to Houston sooner rather than later, had a good week going 9-for-22 (.409), with two doubles, one home run, and one RBI at the time of this article. His Fresno teammates Tyler White (6-for-24, 3 HR, 5 RBI) and Preston Tucker (before getting promoted) had good weeks of their own.
Lancaster JetHawks Drew Ferguson had a decent week for the California Leauge’s first place team, going 4-for-12 with a triple, two home runs, and four runs batted in.
There were three pitchers that were under consideration James Hoyt (3.1 IP, H, 3 K, 2 SV), Joe Musgrove (7.0 IP, 6 H, 9 K, Win), and Tyler Britton (6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, BB, 13 K, Win), but they couldn’t take the top spot away from Ronnie Dawson this time.
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**Photo Credit: John Ginder**
