Rymer Liriano named Topps Player of the Year for the Midwest League
Rymer Liriano named Topps Player of the Year for the Midwest League
Gary Brown, Jose Cuevas and Joe Panik, three prospects in the San FranciscoGiants system, have been selected as a league Topps Player of the Year in the annual George M.Trautman Awards, presented in the 16 domestic Minor Leagues by the Topps Company of New York, inconjunction with Minor League Baseball. Panik (2011) and Brown (2010) were both first roundselections of the Giants.
The Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees each had two of their farmhandschosen and 11 Major League organizations are represented in all.
Brown, an outfielder with the San Jose Giants, led the California League with 13 triples and finishedthird with a .338 batting average and 49 stolen bases in being named the circuit's Rookie of the Year.Panik played shortstop for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and was named the Northwest League MostValuable Player for leading it with a .341 average, 54 RBIs, 92 hits and a .401 on-base percentage.Cuevas finished among the top three in homers, RBIs, runs, slugging percentage and OPS as a thirdbaseman in winning MVP honors in the Arizona League.
Topps salutes the top performances throughout Minor League Baseball, including monthly awards andall-star teams in each classification.
Padres OF Rymer Liriano was selected as the Topps Player of the Year for the Midwest League in 2011.
The 20-year-old outfielder ranked among Midwest League leaders in nearly every offensive category, including batting average (3rd, .319), hits (5th, 145), runs (6th, 81), triples (T5th, 8), total bases (6th, 227), stolen bases (2nd, 65), on-base percentage (8th, .383), slugging percentage (6th, .499) and on-base plus slugging percentage (5th, .882). His 66 stolen bases on the season ranked third-most in all of professional baseball in 2011. A native of the Dominican Republic, he was also named the 2011 Most Valuable Player and Prospect of the Year by the Midwest League, as selected by the field managers of the 16 league member clubs. His 2011 campaign was one of just three in the last 20 seasons of minor league baseball to feature 30-or-more doubles, 10-or-more home runs and 60-or-more stolen bases.
| League | Player | Club/MLB Organization | POS. | AVG-HR-RBI | W-L-ERA |
| International | Julio Teheran | Gwinnett/Atlanta | P | 15-3-2.55 | |
| Pacific Coast | Collin Cowgill | Reno/Arizona | OF | .354-13-70 | |
| Eastern | *Chih-Hsien Chiang | Portland/Boston | OF | .340-18-76 | |
| Southern | Paul Goldschmidt | Mobile/Arizona | 1B | .306-30-94 | |
| Texas | Matt Adams | Springfield/St. Louis | 1B | .300-32-101 | |
| California | Gary Brown | San Jose/San Francisco | OF | .336-14-80 | |
| Carolina | Ian Gac | Winston-Salem/Chicago-AL | DH | .279-33-96 | |
| Florida State | Hak-Ju Lee | Charlotte/Tampa Bay | SS | .318-4-23 | |
| Midwest | Rymer Liriano | Fort Wayne/San Diego | OF | .319-12-62 | |
| S. Atlantic | Brandon Jacobs | Greenville/Boston | OF | .303-17-80 | |
| N.Y.-Penn. | Mason Williams | Staten Island/New York-AL | OF | .349-3-31 | |
| Northwest | Joe Panik | Salem-Keizer/San Francisco | SS | .341-6-54 | |
| Appalachian | Eddie Rosario | Elizabethton/Minnesota | OF | .337-21-60 | |
| Pioneer | Joc Pederson | Ogden/Los Angeles-NL | OF | .353-11-64 | |
| Arizona | Jose Cuevas | Giants/San Francisco | 3B | .337-9-46 | |
| Gulf Coast | Dante Bichette Jr. | Yankees/New York-AL | 3B | .342-3-47 |
*Traded to Seattle organization on July 31
(Statistics provided by Major League Baseball Advanced Media and do not reflect players' performances in other leagues.)