It’s Postseason Award Season
With a long weekend to get the hell of out of Dodge enjoy, league offices aren’t waiting until the regular season is over to churn out the postseason accolades.
Well, two can play at that game. Here’s a look at the how the Nationals have been honored thus far this week…
SYRACUSE
Steve Souza was named the International League’s MVP and Rookie of the Year (an award that meant more prior to expansion) while necomer Billy Gardner took home Manager of the Year honors. Souza was also named to the postseason All-Star team along with teammates Emmanuel Burris and Brandon Laird.
HARRISBURG
Amid the worst season the Senators have had since the Expos became the Nationals, Michael Taylor was a bright spot until his callup to Syracuse (and briefly, Washington) as he was named the Eastern League’s MVP and Rookie of the Year as well as a postseason All-Star.
POTOMAC
The full list has not yet been announced, but should be soon as former National Michael Burgess was named to the C.L. Team and the Frederick folks have been quick to publicize the exploits of a 25-year-old in his fifth year at the High-A level.
UPDATE: Tripp Keister was named the Manager of the Year while IFs Stephen Perez, Shawn Pleffner, Tony Renda, and Oscar Tejeda were named to the Carolina League Postseason All-Star Team.
HAGERSTOWN
Lucas Giolito was named both Most Outstanding Pitcher and the Most Outstannding Prospect for the Sally League while Wilmer Difo was the third Nationals farmhand to garner an MVP title. Joining them on the All-Star team is outfielder Rafael Bautista, who leads the league with 66 steals.
The GCL, which finishes today, and the NYPL have not yet announced their postseason teams/awards.
They sure did collect a lot of hardware this season.
A lot of standout performances to go around this year, though it’s a bit worrying that of the 11 players honored, only 1 was a pitcher.
I actually find that encouraging, as I had thought that the Nats minors were thin on position players. Obviously this year has been a tough one for injuries, etc. with a number of the notable pitching prospects (Solis, Rivero, Purke, Garcia, etc., etc.). However, Giolito & Cole continued strong and there were several breakout performances across both starting and relief pitchers (e.g., Voth, Rey Lopez, Rafael Martin, Matt Grace, etc.), so I’m not too worried about the pitching pipeline. Overall, nice to see Nats position players getting some recognition.