September 8, 2011 at 1:29 AM
Players of the Week, 8/29-9/4: Christian Vazquez & Alex Wilson
With the close of the Minor League 2011 regular season on Monday, the time has come to hand out our final SoxProspects.com Player and Pitcher of the Week awards, this week to Greenville's Christian Vazquez and Pawtucket's Alex Wilson.
Vazquez closed out his season in style, smacking five of his eight hits for extra bases with three home runs and two doubles, and putting up a .381/.480/.905 line, scoring six runs while also batting in six, taking four bases on balls, and even managed a stolen base in six games last week. He was also named South Atlantic League Player of the Week for the same period. Vazquez's final 2011 line is .283/.358/.505 with 18 home runs, 27 doubles and three triples in 392 at-bats over 105 games. This is his second Player of the Week award this season, having previously won for June 20-26.
The one statistic that jumped off the page from Alex Wilson's solid two start performance last week, and very likely the stat that won him the honor was his 12.27 K/9, as he struck out 15 batters in 11 innings of work. In his first start Wilson worked five shutout innings, allowing five hits, one walk, struck out nine and earned the win on the road at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (NYY). His second start came against Rochester (MIN) on the final day of the regular season September 4, in which he allowed three runs, all earned, on five hits in six innings of work, striking out six and walking none. This is his second Pitcher of the Week Award in 2011 winning the poll for May 23-29. Wilson finished the season with a combined 10-4 record, the bulk of which he played at Portland (making 21 starts) before being promoted to Pawtucket, with a 3.11 ERA, allowing 46 earned runs on 122 hits in 133.0 innings pitched over 25 starts, striking out 123 while walking only 44, and holding opposing batters to a .244 average. He is currently the twelfth-ranked prospect in the organization by SoxProspects.com.