Minor League Batter of the Sim
AA 2B Rubén Vargas : This 24 year old native of Colorado is entering his second year at AA Anderson, and he has started the season off red-hot. In the first ten games, he has gone 16 for 43, good enough for a .372 batting average, and with those 16 hits, he has 2 doubles, 2 triples, and a home run, all good enough to give him a slugging percentage of .581. His split of .372/.400/.581 is not really all that earned him this honor however, it’s the fact that he knocked in a farm system high 10 runs in those 10 games, helping the Joes keep their record at .500. Ruben is not all about driving the runs in however, as he also had 3 stolen bases in the sim, and he is carrying a perfect fielding percentage and a zone rating of +1.4 into the last part of April. Keep it up Rubén, we always could use another good middle infielder up at the top of the franchise. As a note, he was acquired with the first pick in the 4th round of the 2010 draft by the Bison, and this is just his 3rd year of professional ball.
Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Sim
AAA SP Ramón Cabrera : This kid from the Big Apple is only 22 years old, and sitting in AAA, could well find himself in Buffalo soon if he keeps pitching the way he did this sim. Now, don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of good performances by our starters down in the system, but Cabrera’s starts stand out. First of all, he was 2-0, winning half of the games won by Winnipeg this sim. But that is not enough, he only allowed 4 hits and 5 walks in 14.0 innings pitched, and had an ERA of just 1.29. He struck out 12 batters, and dominated in both of his starts. This second round pick in the 2008 draft was just named the #59 prospect in the MBBA, and while he may not be a starter when he lands in Buffalo, he certainly will be one of the guys we are happy to give the ball to in the pen. Keep it up Ramón and you won’t be living on that minor league contract for long!
Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Sim
A MR Duane Perkins : The rap on Perkins in the Bison minor league and scouting department is that his control is what keeps him at a low level of our system. More sims like this, and the native of Sioux Falls, South Dakota will be traveling west to Winnipeg soon. While he did not have a decision or a save in the first sim, in 5 and a third innings pitched, he did only allow 2 hits, 2 walks, while striking out 4. His 0.00 ERA and 0.75 WHIP look very nice together. Stamina is not an issue for Perkins, so if he continues to pitch this way out of the pen, he might fight his way into one of the 15 starting pitching slots in the system, a valuable place to be indeed. The other side of this story is that if Perkins does not perform at this level all season, and finds himself still in A ball at the end of his 5th season in the Bison system, he likely won’t be protected, and while he is only 22, he won’t have endless chances. A repeat of last seasons 3.42 ERA might not be good enough.
