July Awards: Fort Myers Miracle

Today I will be continuing my July Awards as I move on to the Fort Myers Miracle. The Miracle had a decent month as they moved into first place in the FSL South division with a 14-16 record in July. Keep in mind the Miracle already won the first half title so winning the second half title is just a bonus since they are already in the playoffs. There were some very good performances in July thought that I feel deserve to be recognized. The Miracle are probably having the best year out of any team in the organization this year. Like usual I will be naming a pitcher of the month and a hitter of the month. If anyone disagrees with me I welcome comments in the comment box or an email at travis_aune@yahoo.com.

• Pitcher of the Month: Santos Arias- Santos Arias has come from obscurity to become probably the most consistant starter for the Miracle after Mike Mccardell and Deolis Guerra got their promotions to AA. Arias started the season in the bullpen and did a great job out of there, but with those promotions he got his chance to shine and he hasn't disappointed. In July Santos Arias appeared in 9 games including 3 starts for the Miracle. Arias went 1-1 with a miniscule 1.13 era along with a save. Santos worked 24 innings and only gave up 3 earned runs. He walked only 6 batters while striking out an impressive 20 batters in 24 innings which is about 8 strikeouts per 9 innings. Most impressive though is he held opponents to a .218 opponents batting average. Arias has kept it up in July and is probably the favorite right now to win the it again in August as he is 1-0 with a 2.29 era in 3 August starts. Overall, Arias is 6-1 with a 2.02 era for the Miracle. Arias future is probably in the bullpen because of his razor thin body as he only weighs 162 lbs on his 5'11 body so he would more than likely break down if he pitched 200 innings. However, for right now he is doing awesome and you can't take him out of that starting rotation as he is trying to help the Miracle to a Florida State League title.
• Others considered: David Bromberg, Steve Hirschfeld, Michael Tarsi

• Hitter of the Month: Chris Parmalee- On the outside looking in it doesn't look like Chris Parmalee had a very good July as he only hit .235 at the plate, but if you did deeper you see he did exactly what the Miracle and really the Twins want him to do and thats hit for some power and get on base. In July Parmalee hit only .235, but he hit 5 homeruns with 16 rbi's along with 6 doubles. Those 11 extra base hits in the month is exactly what the Twins want to see out of Parmalee as he will never be a high average hitter, but if can continue to get lots of extra base hits and be able to hit .260-.270 the Twins would be estatic. In addition to his power numbers what the Twins are probably happiest about in July was that he drew 15 walks. He struck out a little too much as he struck out 26 times in 98 at bats in July. They would like to cut those strikeouts in half, but power guys like him are going to get their share of strikeouts and you need to just deal with it. The amazing thing was even though he hit only .235 he still had a .333 on base percentage which is ideal for a power hitter. He slugged .449 which is very impressive for an OPS of .782. That is pretty good for a down month out of him as on the season he has an OPS Of .826 which is very good. If Chris Parmalee can cut down on the strikeouts and keep the walk total up while getting a few more doubles he will be up with the Twins in a couple years and be the future at 1st base. Justin Morneau is awesome and still young enough, but I can't see when his contract is up the Twins being able to pay 2 max contracts with him and Mauer so in 4 years I look for Parmalee to take over taht first base job and run with it and put up Adam Dunn esque numbers for the Twins. Chris Parmalee is definately someone to keep your eye on for the future.
• Others Considered: Rene Leveret, Joe Benson, Ben Revere