Midwest League Week in Review: All-Star Teams Announced
By Jay Blue
June 10, 2012; Gainesville, FL, USA; Florida Gators pitcher Jonathon Crawford delivers a pitch during game two of the Gainesville super regional at McKethan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Foldy-USA TODAY Sports
The Midwest League announced their All-Star teams this week but first we’ll let you in on the league’s award winners.
League Awards
For the offensive Player of the Week in the Midwest League, Quad Cities River Bandits Ronnie Mitchell was the selection. He had a four-game home run streak for the Bandits as part of a .409/.440/1.000 week, going 9/22 with four homers, a double, 12 RBI, two walks and two stolen bases. Mitchell has eight home runs now after hitting another on Monday.
The Pitcher of the Week award goes to Harrison Cooney of the Burlington Bees. Cooney, the L.A. Angels sixth round pick last year earned an All-Star nod in his first season in the Midwest League to go along with the Pitcher of the Week award, thanks to a complete-game shutout of the Peoria Chiefs in which he allowed six hits and no walks and eight strikeouts.
All-Star Teams Announced
The 50th Midwest League All-Star Game, to be held in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the home of the West Michigan Whitecaps on Tuesday, June 17. Named to the teams are some highly-rated prospects including Detroit’s Jonathon Crawford, Cincinnati’s Nick Travieso, San Diego speedster Mallex Smith and Minnesota righty Kohl Stewart.
Cardinals’ farm club, Peoria, placed five players on the Western Division team with righties Chris Perry, Arturo Reyes, infielder Juan Herrera and outfielders Ronald Castillo and C.J. McElroy Jr.
The host team, West Michigan Whitecaps had six All-Stars including four pitchers from their dominant staff. Included are righties Johnathon Crawford, Buck Farmer, Austin Kubitza, lefty Joe Mantiply as well as outfielder Wynton Bernard and infielder Javier Betancourt.
You can find the full list here.
Division Leaders
In the Eastern Division, the South Bend Silver Hawks have a 2.5 game lead over West Michigan for the division lead with both teams in contention for first-half playoff spots. Only the Lake County Captains have been eliminated from contention although with a 2.5 game lead for the second-place spat over Dayton, West Michigan has the inside track.
In the West, Kane County looks like they’ve got the division locked up for the first half. With a 7-3 run in the last 10 games coinciding with a 4-6 record over their last 10 by second place Peoria, the Cougars are cruising towards the All-Star break in a couple of weeks. The second-place playoff spot is still very much up for grabs with Peoria’s slide timed well with strong runs by Quad Cities and Burlington. Those two teams, plus the Clinton Lumberkings, are all within a game and a half of Peoria.
Leaderboard
The league’s leading hitter is Herschel Powell of Beloit (named to the All-Star Game) who is hitting .350/.462/.443 in 203 at bats.
Clint Coulter of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers leads in home runs with 11 with both Eric Haase (Lake County Captains) and Michael Ratterree (Wisconsin) trailing at 10.
Coulter is second in the league in OPS with .985 while Sebastian Elizalde (Dayton Dragons) leads with a .999 mark, thanks to his .322/.453/.546 line.
Lake County’s Robbie Aviles leads the league in ERA with a 1.45 mark through 56 innings with his nearest competition all over 2.00 with Austin Kubitza (West Michigan) at 2.02 and Harrison Cooney at 2.05. Two more West Michigan starters, Kevin Ziomek (2.26) and Jonathon Crawford (2.27) are right behind.
Another West Michigan starter, Buck Farmer, leads the league with 74 strikeouts with Kubitza behind him at 68 and Lake County’s Adam Plutko at 66.