MiLBY: 2008 Best Hitter

The final day of MLB's 2008 Minor League Baseball Yearly Awards (MiLBY).Today they announced their pick for Best Hitter. Once again no Nationals are on the list.

OVERALL: Matt Wieters (Orioles)
Triple-A: Nelson Cruz (Rangers)
Double-A: Lou Montanez (Orioles)
Class A Advanced: Carlos Santana (Indians)
Class A: Michael Stanton (Marlins)
Class A Short-Season: Roberto Lopez (Angels)




This season I saw 3 of the 6 players picked by MLB/MiLB as being the best hitters in the Minor Leagues (Wieters pictured top, Montanez in the middle and Stanton on the bottom). Wieters is by far the best of the bunch, as of right now, so today’s announcement was no surprise to me; more on Wieters later. Stanton is a raw talent, just 18 years old, in the Marlins system that despite 153 strikeouts he still managed to bat .293 with 39 homeruns, 97 RBI’s and 89 runs scored. He has so much talent it is just amazing. He had 26 doubles too. The sky is truly the limit for Stanton. All Montanez did this season is win the EL Triple Crown despite missing the final month of the season for a call up to Baltimore. I am a little less enthusiastic about Montanez then the other two but he is still a decent player. In my opinion Montanez is probably a 4th outfielder, while Wieters and Stanton are future All-Star caliber players.

I saw Matt Wieters play for both Frederick and Bowie this season and in my opinion he was the most polished hitter I’ve ever seen; not to mention one of the best defensive catchers I’ve seen in years. He makes the necessary adjustments DURING the at-bat, he has great plate discipline, and can hit for power and average from both sides of the plate. The Orioles have an extremely gifted player in Wieters.

Schedule for announcing the awards are as follows:
Monday: Best Team
Tuesday: Best Single Game Performance
Wednesday: Best Reliever
Thursday:Best Starter
Friday: Best Hitter