Andy Burns and Kevin Pillar earned 13 points as the top position players while Kendall Graveman racked up 14 points in July from the 3 Star selections from the Batter's Box Minor League correspondents. The scoring is based on a 5-3-1 points system.
For the first time in the long, distinguished history (all of four months!) of the Batter's Box Minor League awards, we have monthly co-winners! Andy Burns and Kevin Pillar share the Player of the Month honours for July while Kendall Graveman captured the Pitcher of the Month award.
Andy Burns and Kevin Pillar earned 13 points as the top position players while Kendall Graveman racked up 14 points in July from the 3 Star selections from the Batter's Box Minor League correspondents. The scoring is based on a 5-3-1 points system.
Andy Burns has bounced back after a tough start to the season at Double-A New Hampshire. After batting .200 and .223 in the months of April and May, Burns started to get his mojo back with a .272 June before tearing it up in July at a .312 clip along with an .884 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Overall, the right-handed hitter has a batting line of .254/.317/.414 with 36 extra-base hits with 21 doubles, four triples and 11 home runs and is 16-for-24 stealing bases. Burns - who will turn 24 August 7 - had two first-star selections and a third in July.
Kevin Pillar is doing all he can to get back to Toronto after his temper tantrum in late June resulted in his demotion back to Triple-A Buffalo. The 25 year-old right-handed hitter posted his third straight month of a .300-plus batting average with a .313 mark and ended July with hits in his last seven games and home runs in three of his last four. For the season, Pillar is hitting .320/.362/.497 with the Herd and has 40 extra-base knocks with 30 doubles, three triples and 7 homers. He has also swiped 21 bases in 25 tries. Pillar picked up a first-star selection and two seconds and thirds last month.
Kendall Graveman has put together a solid 2014 campaign which has resulted in promotions to Single-A Dunedin and Double-A New Hampshire after beginning the year in Lansing. The Jays eighth-round selection in the 2013 draft capped off July with a victory in his first Double-A start, pitching six innings of one-run ball in Binghamton. He started the year with a 2-0 record with a 0.34 earned run average in Lansing before going 8-4 with a 2.23 with Dunedin. The 24 year-old righty has posted a combined 11-4 record with a 1.81 ERA over 129 innings with a K-BB mark of 93-26. Graveman had a first-star selection and a trio of seconds in July.
Graveman held off Vancouver's Miguel Castro for top pitching honours last month with Castro getting 12 points. Taylor Cole collected 11 points, Casey Lawrence had nine while Matt Smoral, Starlyn Suriel and Raul Valdes finished in a three-way tie for fifth with eight points apiece. The overall leaderboard has Daniel Norris in the lead with 43 points and Matt Boyd is five points back with 38. Graveman is next with 33, Cole is in fourth has 26 and the since-departed Deck McGuire is fifth with 24 points.
Burns and Pillar outdistanced Vancouver's Franklin Barreto, who finished four points back with nine. Dwight Smith Jr. and Max Pentecost made the top five for the month with eight points each. Pillar is the overall leader with 35 points, six ahead of Smith Jr. and 10 up on Dan Johnson. Dalton Pompey is fourth with 24 points and Brad Glenn is fifth with 23.
The last full month of the minor league season is upon us. We'll see who can stand out from the crowd in August.
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