July Awards: Rochester Red Wings

I will be continuing my July awards with the Rochester Red Wings. The Red Wings really struggled in July going 14-15 to drop 10 games out of first place. However, there also were some good individual performances by the Red Wing players. I want to recognize some of these players because alot is not known about these guys. I again will have a pitcher of the month and a hitter of the month. Let me know if you disagree with any of my picks by leaving a comment in the comment box or emailing me at travis_aune@yahoo.com.

• Pitcher of the Month: Reid Santos- This may surprise many because he has been pretty anonymous for the Red Wings, but after getting off to a rough start he has gotten better every month and put his best month of the year. Santos appeared in 6 games and made 5 starts. Santos went 1-1 with a great 1.74era in 31 innings. In those 31 innings Santos only gave up 6 earned runs. He also walked only 8 batters while striking out an impressive 18 batters. The most impressive stat though was holding batters to a .265 average. Reid Santos has been a very solid pitcher for the Red Wings and in July he really turned it on to earn a starting spot in the rotation for the Red Wings. I really look for him to continue to be a solid AAA pitcher and a guy the Red Wings should really look into signing for next year, because he doesn't do anything really well but does alot of things pretty good. Should be interesting to see if Santos can build on his good July with a good August.
• Others Considered: Jeff Manship, Armando Gabino, Rob Delaney

• Hitter of the Month: Danny Valencia: Valencia joined Rochester at the end of June and got off to a good start and continued it in July. In July Valencia hit .287 with 3 homeruns and an impressive 20 rbi's along with 9 doubles and also scored 11 runs in July. He also walked 3 times and struck out 19 times in 101 at bats in July. He had a .305 on base percentage. He also had a .465 slugging percentage for a very good .770 ops. Danny Valencia came on the scene in June and has really taken the International League by storm. He has cooled off considerably this month, but he has shown he is a future Twin. He puts up good at bats and plays solid defense at 3rd base. There are some that would bring him up right now. However, I want him to finish out the year in Rochester and start next season with the Twins. I want him to go through the up and downs at AAA and come out of this slump he is in right now because he is going to go through slumps like this in the bigs. Overall, though what is there not to like about Danny Valencia he does so many things well and will be a fixture in the lineup for the Twins for years to come.
• Others Considered: Justin Huber, Brock Peterson, Jose Morales