Jermaine Mitchell leads the league with a 1.085 OPS thanks mainly due to an insane 13 triples and 51 walks. Despite his speed he is 11/12 SB/CS on the basepaths. The Cardinals slugging 1B prospect Matthew Adams is second with a 1.074 OPS. James Darnell (1.071), Tim Wheeler (1.004), Mike Trout (.995), and Vincent Belnome (.984) follow Mitchell and Adams on the OPS leaderboard. Jaff Decker leads the league in both walks (54) and strikeouts (78). After an OPS of 1.208 in April he hit .593 in May and is at .721 in June. Padres third base uber-prospect James Darnell ranks in the top 3 for hits (85, 2nd), doubles (23, 1st), home runs (14, T3rd), walks (41, 3rd), and runs (54, 3rd). His 51 RBI are only good for a pedestrian 4th place. Pfft, why does he even bother, right?
On the bases Mike Trout leads the way with 23 swipes. Jimmy Paredes (22), Derrick Robinson (21), and Blake Tekotte (20) are chasing after him.
Jose Altuve, this year's breakout player, is now hitting .405 between A+ and AA. He is hitting for good power (.631 SLG) while stealing 22 bases, although he has been caught 12 times.
Martin Perez (3.30), Garrett Richards (3.55), Casey Kelly (3.72), Trevor Reckling (3.86) and Christian Friedrich (4.22) have the best ERAs among noteworthy prospects.Martin Perez leads the way with 73 strikeouts. Anthony Bass was able to leverage his 3.86 ERA and 62 Ks in 67.1 innings into a AAA promotion. Shelby Miller continues to dominate after being promoted to the TL and has a 1.35 ERA with 22 Ks in 20 innings in 3 starts.
Wilin Rosario - Rockies C DOB: 02/23/89 .256/.296/.446
Rosario has been in a June slump and is batting only .212/.255/.288 in 12 games. He appeared to be over the knee injury that ended his season last year by posting OPS' of .884 and .773 the first two months. Devin Mesoraco has widened the gap between him and Rosario as the best catching prospects in the minors. Rosario is capable of hitting 20 home runs in the majors and could win a silver slugger one day.
Wil Myers - Royals RF DOB: 12/10/90 .287/.354/.419
Myers has returned from a knee infection and is picking up where he left off. I would like to see more power out of him now that he is in the outfield. Still, he is one of the youngest players in the Texas League and is by no means in over his head.
Grant Green - A's SS DOB: 09/27/87 .273/.322/.372
Green's value has taken a nosedive this year. After hitting 65 extra base hits last year he has managed only 19 so far, only 2 of them home runs. He is still striking out way too often and with no speed and questions whether he will stick at SS his value is in free-fall until he starts hitting them over the wall. It may be wise to sell if you can find a taker who still believes in him. He certainly has the skills to turn things around but it may be better to let someone else chance it if you can get a decent return.
Christian Friedrich - Rockies SP DOB: 07/08/87 4.22 ERA, 70.1 IP, 57 K, 19 BB
After an April in which he allowed a 7.65 ERA, Friedrich is looking like the top prospect he once was by posting ERAs of 2.78 and 3.00 in May and June. He isn't striking out an obscene amount of batters like he did earlier in his career but he is starting to show the ability with 18 strikeouts in his past 18 innings. Injuries derailed his season last year and may have been to blame for his slow start. Now that he appears healthy he is using his plus plus curve to buckle the knees of Texas League batters. Since he is back on track he may be able to work his way to the majors this year, perhaps as a September call-up.