I will finish my series on the July awards as I will go over the Gulf Coast League Twins. The Twins played very well in July going 14-13 as they marched to a division title. Also, there was some very good individual performances in July that deserve to be recognized. I hope everyone enjoys it and if you disagree with any of my picks you can email me at
travis_aune@yahoo.com or leave me a comment in the comment box and i will get back to you as soon as is humanely possible.
- Pitcher of the Month: BJ Hermsen- Going into the season there was a lot of interest in Hermsen as the Twins paid quite a bit over slot to sign Hermsen and stop him from going to Oregon State. So there was quite a bit of pressure on him this year with the GCL Twins and he has far exceeded expectations this year. At 6'6 230 lbs Hermsen has been the beast that you would expect and in July he really stepped up his game to be the ace many Twins people expect him to be. In July BJ went 4-1 with a 1.27 era in 5 July starts working an impressive 28.1 innings which is almost 6 innings a start which is very impressive in the GCL because for most of the guys it is there first year in pro baseball so they want to limit their innings. In 28.1 innings Hermsen only gave up 4 earned runs to show the dominance that he showed in the GCL. His control was very good as he only walked 3 batters in the 28.1 innings which striking out 18. Most impressive though was he held opponents to a very good .202 batting average. BJ Hermsen is definately someone to keep your eye on and I truly hope the Twins hang onto him because he brings something that not many Twins pitchers organization possess and that is potential to be ace material if he continues to develop as he is only 19 years old and this good already.
- Others Considered: Blayne Weller, Adrian Salcedo, Zach See
- Hitter of the Month: Jairo Perez- Honestly, there wasn't alot of good performances by the GCL Twins in July as they won with their pitching. Jairp Perez had by far the best month of anybody on the team and quite honestly it was not that impressive. In July Perez hit .265 with 1 homerun and 5 rbi's along with 4 doubles. He showed a very good eye at the plate walking 8 times while only striking out 6 times in 68 at bats. He had a .354 on base percentage which is ok for a middle of the order bat. He had a .368 slugging percentage which is honestly not very good for an ops of .722. Perez joined the Twins as a free agent in 2006 out of Venezuela and is only 21 years old right now and has time to grow and get better. If he is going to take the next step next year with E-Town he really has to work extra hard this winter and improve because the numbers he is putting up this year are not that impressive and with draft picks coming on all the time he is going to find himself on the outside looking in if he doesn't improve.
- Others Considered: Kennys Vargas, Oswaldo Arcia, Nick Freitas
