Bryant, Paniagua win June Minor League honors

By Daniel Popper and Carrie Muskat

July 6, 2014

WASHINGTON -- The Cubs named Triple-A Iowa third baseman Kris Bryant and Class A Kane County right-hander Juan Paniagua as the organization's Minor League player and pitcher of the month for June, respectively.

Bryant, 22, batted .354 (34-for-96) with 24 runs, eight doubles, 11 home runs and 27 RBIs in 26 games combined between Double-A Tennessee and Iowa. He posted a .781 slugging percentage. The second player taken overall in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft, Bryant twice homered in three straight games, June 7-9 with Tennessee and June 22-24 with Iowa.

His 11 home runs in June led all of Minor League baseball, his 19 extra-base hits were tied for second and his 27 RBIs tied for third.

Paniagua, 24, posted a 3-0 record and a 0.89 ERA (two earned runs over 20 1/3 innings) in four games (three starts) for Kane County in June. He gave up four runs, walked five and struck out 26. Paniagua gave up one home run and limited opponents to a .194 batting average. He recorded consecutive starts of six scoreless innings, June 7 vs. Cedar Rapids and June 12 at Peoria.

This season, Paniagua is 5-3 with one save and a 2.97 ERA (23 earned runs over 69 2/3 innings) in 15 games (12 starts) for Kane County.

Bryant is ranked by MLB.com as the Cubs' No. 2 prospect.

Daniel Popper is an associate reporter for MLB.com. He also can be found on Twitter @danielrpopper. Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. She writes a blog, Muskat Ramblings, and you can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat.