April player awards: Rochester Red Wings

I will be continuing to look at the month of April as I take a look at the Rochester Red Wings. They did not have a great month record wise, but they still had some very good performances that I feel deserve to be recognized. If you agree or disagree with me let me know who you think should be the players of the month. If you have any comments or questions you can either leave a comment in the comment box or shoot me an email at travis_aune@yahoo so enjoy and let me know what you think.

• Pitcher of the Month: Anthony Slama- For a guy that really did not have much to prove in AAA Slama really outdid himself in April. For a closer to win pitcher of the month that means either that he pitched extroidanary or the starters did not do anything that really stood out. In this case it is a little bit of both as the starters did nothing to really stand out and Slama was very good in April. Slama pitched in 12 April Games with 5 saves. Slama pitched 15.1 innings and only gave up 2 earned runs in those 15.1 innings for an era of 1.17. He struck out 19 while walking 7 so he needs to work on the walks as he continues to struggle a bit with the bases on balls. That is the only thing really keeping him out of the major leagues and if he could take care of that he will be up with the Twins sooner rather than later. The most impressive stat that I saw in Anthony Slama was he held opponents to a .102 batting average.
• Others considered: Jeff Manship, Kyle Waldrop

• Hitter of the Month: Dustin Martin- Dustin Martin really stepped up in April to really show that he is still a prospect. After hitting only .254 in 2009 there were some thought that Martin's prospect status was a thing of the past. However, those that thought that could not have been more wrong. It is possible that not getting invited to spring training with the Twins this year put a spark in him. At the start of the year Martin was going to be a backup in the outfield and by the end of April he was starting for the Red Wings. In 18 April games Martin hit .338 with 4 homeruns along with 17 rbi's and scored 13 runs. Martin had two doubles along with a triple while walking 9 times and striking out only 13 times in 65 at bats. He had a phenomenal .419 on base percentange along with a good .585 slugging percentage for a very good 1.004 OPS. It will be interesting to see if Martin can keep it going all season long or if April was just a hot month and will come back down to earth.
• Others Considered: Trevor Plouffe, Brian Dinkelman