Blue Jays Announce Minor League Awards

The Jays announced winners of their 'Webster Awards', MVP awards for each of their minor league teams. Here is the press release:

The TORONTO BLUE JAYS are pleased to announce the following players have been selected as this year's recipients of the R. HOWARD WEBSTER AWARDS, recognizing the most valuable players at each of the Club's minor league affiliated teams: C J.P. ARENCIBIA (AAA), OF ERIC THAMES (AA), 1B MIKE McDADE (A), INF SEAN OCHINKO (Low-A), C CARLOS PEREZ (Short-A), OF JACOB MARISNICK (Rookie) and RHP EYERYS GUERRERO (DSL).

PEREZ (DSL - 2008, GCL - 2009, Auburn - 2010) becomes the fourth player in the history of the club to win three or more WEBSTER AWARDS, joining CARLOS DELGADO, LUIS LOPEZ & ADAM LIND. OCHINKO (Auburn - 2009, Lansing - 2010) becomes the 23rd player in Blue Jays history to win two or more awards. The rest are first time winners.

J.P. ARENCIBIA (Catcher) - .301, 32 HR & 85 RBI
6-1, 210, Age-24, Born-Miami, FL
Bats: Right Throws: Right
Las Vegas - Pacific Coast League (AAA)

· Pacific Coast League MVP
· 3rd in the Pacific Coast League in HR (32), Slug (.986) and XBH (70)
· Pacific Coast League mid and year end All-Star selection
· His 32 home runs is the 3rd highest total for a Blue Jays minor leaguer
· Hit two home runs in his ML Debut, Aug. 7 vs. TB, including his first at-bat
· Became just the 5th player in ML history to hit two home runs in his first game and the 1st in the modern era to collect four hits and two home runs in his ML debut

ERIC THAMES (Outfielder) - .288, 27 HR & 104 RBI
6-0, 205, Age-23, Born-Santa Clara, CA
Bats: Left Throws: Right
New Hampshire Fisher Cats - Eastern League (AA)

· Led the organization (minors) with 104 RBI
· Led Eastern League in RBI (104), T-1st in XBH (58) & T-2nd in HR (27).
· Named an Eastern League Mid-Season & Post-Season All-Star

MIKE McDADE (First Baseman) - .267, 21 HR, 64 RBI
6-1, 260, Age-21, Born-Las Vegas, Nevada
Bats: Both Throws: Right
Dunedin Blue Jays - Florida State League (A Advanced)

· Led the Florida State League in HR (21), 2nd in TB (215) & was 4th in Slug (.448)
· Led Dunedin in HR (21), RBI (64), TB (215), Hits (128) & Runs (60)
· Has hit 37 home runs over the past two seasons

SEAN OCHINKO (Infielder) - .311, 8 HR, 65 RBI
5-11, 205, Age-22, Born-Parkland, FL
Bats: Right Throws: Right
Lansing Lugnuts - Midwest League (A)

· Wins 2nd consecutive Webster Award, after winning last year with Auburn.
· Finished 5th in the Midwest League with a .311 average
· Led the Lugnuts in batting (.311) & doubles (37)

CARLOS PEREZ (Catcher) - .298, 2 HR, 41 RBI
6-0, 193, Age-19, Born-Valencia, Venezuela
Bats: Right Throws: Right
Auburn Doubledays - New York-Penn League (A-short)

· Becomes only the fourth player in Blue Jays history to win the Webster Award three times
· Named a New York-Penn League Mid-Season All-Star
· Ranked 3rd in the NY-Penn League with eight triples
· Led the Doubledays in batting (.298), on-base (.396) and RBI (41)

JACOB MARISNICK (Outfielder) - .253, 4 HR & 26 RBI
6-4, 200, Age-19, Born-Riverside, CA
Bats: Right Throws: Right
Gulf Coast Blue Jays - Gulf Coast League (Rookie)

· Combined to hit .253 with four home runs and 26 RBI for the Gulf Coast Blue Jays & Lansing Lugnuts
· Batted .287 with three home runs and 14 RBI for the Blue Jays Gulf Coast entry.
· Selected in the 3rd round of the 2009 draft

EYERYS GUERRERO (Pitcher)- 1-2, 3.23 ERA, 39 IP, 40 H, 6 BB, 11 K
6-3, 208, Age-17, Born-Bani, Dominican Republic
Bats: Right Throws: Right
DSL Blue Jays - Dominican Summer League

· Walked only 1.4 batters per nine innings, starting nine of his 13 games

Other Webster winners on Toronto's current Major League roster include AARON HILL (New Hampshire - 2004) ADAM LIND (3, Auburn - 2004, Dunedin - 2005, New Hampshire - 2006), DAVID PURCEY (Syracuse - 2008), TRAVIS SNIDER (2, Pulaski - 2006, Lansing - 2007), BRETT CECIL (Auburn - 2007) and MARC RZEPCZYNSKI (Lansing - 2008).

Tom back: I can't argue at all about Arencibia. I might have picked Kyle Drabek over Thames at New Hampshire but it is a close one. With Dunedin I'd have gone with Chuck Higgins (11-4, 3.47 in 23 starts) or maybe Joel Carreno (9-6, 3.73 with 173 k and 30 walks in 137.2 innings) over McDade. Can't complain about Ochinko's choice, his competition would have been Brad Glenn (.271/.342/.477, with 17 HR and 69 RBI). At Auburn, Lance Durham had numbers that weren't any worse than Perez but Perez is a good defensive catcher. Casey Lawrence had a good season as well, 6-1, 1.74. Marisnick is a good choice for the GCL Jays. In the DSL, I'd think Richard Rodriguez (3-4, 2.25, 14 walk and 44 k in 64 innings might have been a better choice. 

What do you think?

Congratulations to all the winners.