Reds Announce Minor League Award Winners.

[kinsm]

RHP Ben Lively (26gs, 13-7, 3.04 at Bakersfield/Pensacola) received the Sheldon "Chief" Bender Award as the organization's Minor League Player of the Year.

The hitter of the Year recipient is OF Kyle Waldrop (131g, .338, 37 2b, 14hr, 67rbi, 14sb at Pensacola/Bakersfield).

And the pitcher of the Year recipient is RHP Nick Travieso (26gs, 14-5, 3.03 at Dayton).

[redsfanman]

It's nice that some of the lesser known guys got some attention.  Winker was obviously wasn't a candidate after only playing 74 regular season games.  Robert Stephenson didn't deserve any of those awards, despite often being listed as #1 in the system.  I'm a little surprised that Mike Lorenzen was left out though, he probably deserved to be runner up for Pitcher of the Year.  Even if Lorenzen's numbers weren't particularly remarkable the step forward he took - establishing himself as a credible starting pitching prospect (rather than a closer) - seems huge, perhaps with repercussions on Nick Howard and others.  Although Lorenzen probably gets a lot more attention on his own than Travieso, while they have to work to get Reds fans to recognize that Travieso (soon to turn 21) is more than a failed prospect, despite not exceeding Single A Dayton during his first three professional seasons.

Lively, Waldrop, and Travieso... and Lorenzen... all deserved awards.


They also gave a Community Service award to 23 year old outfielder Jon Matthews.  I don't know much about him but he had a good season (.396 OBP), mostly in Dayton.  I guess doing community service was a good use of his time.