Minor League Monday 4/20/09

Before I get into the individual performances, I want to call your attention to what's been happening with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. In case you haven't heard, the defending International League champions have started their season by winning their first 11 games. That is not only a club record, but according to Chad Jennings at the Times Tribune , it's also the best start for an International League team for at least 30 years. Even more impressive is how they've won those games. The team leads the league in nearly every offensive category, including an 86 run mark that's a full 30 runs better than the next best team, Toledo. The team is hitting .320/.394/.510. That's right, I didn't say that the team's best hitter has a .320 batting average, I said the entirety of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, a team which is playing baseball on an actual baseball field against real, professional baseball players, and not on an Xbox, is hitting .320. It's a little insane and a lot of fun, so I encourage you to watch them if you can.

Hitter of the Week - Jesus Montero, C/DH, Tampa Yankees (High A):

It probably seems a little strange for me to be naming a Tampa Yankee the hitter of the week after gushing about the mighty offense of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, but Montero deserves the honor. As badly as Austin Jackson, Juan Miranda and Shelley Duncan have been pummeling the poor pitchers of the International League, Montero has been doing worse to their Floridian counterparts. His triple slash line of .395/.452/.658 is impressive enough on its own, but it becomes even more impressive when you realize that he's one of the youngest players in the league and is playing in a pitcher's park.

Pitcher of the Week - Mark Melancon, RHP, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees

Of course, there had to be at least one Scranton player picking up an award this week. That player was almost Ian Kennedy, who has had two dominant starts so far, striking out 16 batters against 9 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs in 12 innings. As good as he was, though, Melancon was simply ridiculous. Pitching 9 inning in relief over five games, Melancon has faced a total of 30 batters. Of those 30 batters, he has struck out 15. That's correct, he's struck out half the batters that he's faced. Of the other 15, only two have gotten hits, and another three managed to get a walk. No one has managed to make it past second base, let alone score a run. That, my friends, is why he's the most likely candidate to step into the large shoes of Mariano Rivera.