July Awards: New Britain Rockcats

I will continuing my July awards with the New Britain Rockcats. The Rockcats really struggled with any consistancy in July as they fell out of the division title race, however they are hanging in there in the wild card race. In July the Rockcats went a very bad 12-18 to drop to 9 games out of first place, but are tied for the wild card league with Trenton a Yankees affiliate. Even though the Rockcats did not win alot of games in July they had some good individual performances and I want to recognize them because they are not that widely known. If you disagree you can either leave a comment in the comment box or send me an email at travis_aune@yahoo.com. Thanks and Enjoy

• Pitcher of the Month: Kyle Waldrop- I am very glad to see the month Kyle put up at New Britain in July. As most know Waldrop missed all of last year due to arm surgery so this year was about staying healthy and getting better as the year went along. Kyle has done a terrific job at Fort Myers before moving up to New Britain. In July Kyle went 1-2 with a very good 1.69 era in 11 games. He worked 21.1 innings and only gave up 4 earned runs. He also only walked 4 batters and struck out 11. Waldrop held opponents to a very impressive .289 opponents batting average. Kyle Waldrop has improved immensely as the season has gone on and probably has found a niche working out of the bullpen for the Rockcats and I look for him to get better and better as he keeps knocking the rust off his arm and hopefully he can continue to stay healthy and pitch good innings out of the pen because as everyone has seen there is a need for relief pitching in the Twins organization.
• Others Considered: Anthony Slama, Rob Burnett

• Hitter of the Month: Erik Lis- After getting off to a slow start for the Rockcats this year Lis really stepped it up in July to put his numbers back to where we are used to seeing them. In July Lis hit .305 with an impressive 7 homeruns and 16 rbi's along with 5 doubles. He also had 12 walks along with 20 strikeouts. Lis had a very impressive .377 on base percentage. That high of a on base percentage is usually reserved for leadoff hitters not middle of the order boppers. He also had a very impressive .552 slugging percentage thanks to his 12 extra base hits. Because of that he had a very impressive .932 ops which is very good. Erik Lis has turned himself from a guy that was on the border of being released after the year to back on the prospect lists with this month. He now is hitting .292 with 15 homeruns and more importantly 20 doubles. I look for him to be promoted to AAA next year and when you get to AAA you are one phone call away from being with the Twins. Erik Lis is a natural great hitter who I think could roll out of bed and hit .300 he is that good of a hitter.
• Others considered: Rene Tosoni, Juan Portes