Some can say naming an entire team as Player of the Week is taking the easy way out. When you have a week like the Fresno Grizzlies did, its impossible not to. Going 6-1 this week, and 9-1 in their last 10, Fresno sits just one game behind the Reno Aces for first place in the Pacific Coast League’s Pacific Northern Division. Saying the Grizzlies bats were scorching would be an understatement. The team scored 81 runs this week and hit 23 home runs which to me is crazy for one week. So with that, the Fresno Grizzlies are the Astros Future Player of the Week.
Living in the northeast, the Pacific Coast League games are on way too late for me. I have to rely on checking out the box scores every morning to see how the games go. I plug in individual statistics all week to make it easier on myself when it comes time to choose the Player of the Week. So often this week I was beside myself on the amount of runs Fresno put up almost nightly. Scoring 11 runs on Saturday was impressive, but the 22 runs on Monday, the 19 on Tuesday, and the 18 on Thursday was just plain craziness.
I already mentioned the 81 runs total they scored this week, but as a team the Grizzlies batted .348 (97-for-279). They also added 19 doubles and 34 walks. The only thing they didn’t do was hit a triple. Derek Fisher led the team this week scoring 11 times followed by Jon Kemmer who scored 10. Fisher also tied with teammate Tony Kemp recording 12 hits. Teoscar Hernandez led the way for Fresno with five doubles and A.J. Reed led the team with four home runs and 13 driven in.
All but two players that appeared in games for Fresno this week hit above .300. Everyone scored at least once with two hitting double digits. Four players had more than 10 hits and four players had more than 10 RBI. When a team performs that well offensively it makes it much easier to be a pitcher. The staff as a whole performed admirably.
The Corpus Christi Hooks also had themselves a decent week. A near no-hitter by Alex Winkelman was certainly a highlight. Jason Martin under normal circumstances would have been in the conversation for Player of the Week. He went 10-for-25, with five runs, four doubles, a triple, four home runs, and six runs driven in. Two other Hooks’ players (Jack Mayfield and Dexture McCall) belted four home runs this week also.
Ronnie Dawson who has had his name mentioned several times this season, turned in a nice performance with the Quad Cities River Bandits. He went 6-for-20, but also hit for the weekly cycle adding a double, triple, and two home runs. Josh Rojas chipped in for the River Bandits hitting three home runs and driving in nine.
The Tri-City ValleyCats have been struggling out of the gate so far in the New York-Penn League. Even with that, there are still a few players to highlight for the week they had. Kristian Trompiz went 10-for-23 which ultimately led to a promotion in the latter part of this week. ValleyCats pitcher Ben Smith threw 4.2 innings, giving up just one hit, striking out six, and picking up two of the three wins Tri-City had this week.
I am not sure that a team can sustain the amount of success that Fresno did this week, but it was certainly fun to see. Congratulations to the Fresno Grizzlies on being named the Astros Future Player of the Week.
