Arizona Diamondbacks announce minor league players of the year
By David Coffey
As the regular season is winding down, the Arizona Diamondbacks are highlighting the players who have made #OurSeason a campaign to remember in both the Major and Minor Leagues.
The Arizona Diamondbacks announced the winners of their minor league awards.
Each team names both the best pitcher and position player in their farm systems each year. This year there was one name that may turn a few heads.
Congratulations to INF Kevin Cron and RHP Jon Duplantier, the #Dbacks Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year for 2017! pic.twitter.com/HhEgl7n5Q5
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) September 26, 2017
Best Pitcher
The winner of the best pitcher award in the farm system is none other than Jon Duplantier. Duplantier pitched like a potential Cy Young winner this year.
He spent half of the season in Kane County and the second half in Visalia. Altogether he appeared in 25 games with 24 starts. In these 25 games, he boasted a record of 12-3 earning six wins for each team.
Between the two squads, he had an ERA of only 1.39 and struck out 165 over 139.0 innings. He gave up only 21 runs over his 25 games and did not give up a run in 13 games.
Needless to say, Duplantier was the best pitcher the Diamondbacks have in their system.
Best position player
One could have assumed that the award for the best position player would have gone to Christian Walker, the winner of the Pacific Coast League MVP, but it goes instead to another MVP, Kevin Cron.
Kevin won the MVP award of the Southern League on the back of an outstanding year.
Cron hit for a batting average of .283 with an OPS of .854 which means he not only hit for power but contact as well. Cron also had managed to hit 25 HRs over the entirety of the campaign which was the most in the Southern League and he was only one double behind the lead as well.
He was second in both hits and OPS as well for the league.
The main place Cron shined was in his fielding in which he had a .990 fielding percentage at first base.
So, thanks to the way Cron plays Diamondbacks first basemen could win MVP in three separate leagues.
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