Blair and Lamb Named Diamondbacks’ Organizational Players of the Year

Jake Lamb was named the D’back Organizational Player of the Year. Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Diamondbacks named its organizational Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year over the weekend. Aaron Blair was named as the top hurler while third baseman Jake Lamb was selected as the organization’s top player. The announcement was made by Arizona Director of Player Development Mike Bell.

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Blair, the 36th pick overall in the 2013 Draft was 9-5 with a 3.56 ERA in 27 starts across three levels of Minor League ball.  He started the season at South Bend in the Midwest League before being promoted to Visalia of the California League at the beginning of May. He was named the South bend Player of the Month for April and Organization Player of the Month for June. Blair made 13 starts for the Rawhide before climbing up the ladder to Double A Mobile. He helped the BayBears get all the way to Game 5 of the Southern League finals going 4-1 with a 1.94 ERA in eight starts. For the year, he pitched a total of 154 1/3 innings allowing only 125 hits and 51 walks while striking out 171, tied for second-best among all Minor League pitchers.

Lamb was taken by the D’backs in the 6th round of the 2012 Draft. He started the year at Mobile and was named as a Southern League All Star. Before being promoted to Triple A Reno at the end of July, Lamb was among the league leaders in RBI’s, doubles, hits, runs scored, on-base-percentage and slugging. He had 119 hits and 60 runs scored with 79 RBI’s and a line of .318/.399/.551. His excellence earned him the Southern League MVP. It turned out his stay at Reno was short-lived as he was promoted to the D’backs during the first week of August. After struggling early, Lamb finished strong collecting hits in seven of his final nine games as he raised his batting average 36 points over the final month of the season.

Congratulations to both men on such well-deserved honors.