Five River Bandits alumni named Player or Pitcher of the Month at their respective Houston affiliates
DAVENPORT, Iowa (June 2, 2015) - Catcher and first baseman Jacob Nottingham is the Quad Cities River Bandits Player of the Month for May, and right-handed pitcher Akeem Bostick is the team's Pitcher of the Month, the Houston Astros announced on Tuesday.
The Houston Astros Player Development Department named a Pitcher and Player of the Month at each of their four full-season affiliates. These awards are chosen every month by the field staff of each team. Quad Cities finished May with 20 wins - the most in a single month for the club since August 2013 - and had the most wins (35) of any team in professional baseball through the end of May.
Nottingham, Houston's sixth-round pick out of Redlands (Calif.) High School in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft, led Quad Cities during the month with a .355 batting average (33-for-93), four home runs, 13 extra-base hits, 20 RBIs, a .591 slugging percentage and .997 on-base plus slugging (OPS). The 20-year-old played in 23 May games, including a team-high 17 games as a catcher and five others as a first baseman. Nottingham ended May as the Midwest League leader in slugging percentage (.574) and OPS (.961), while ranking third in home runs (eight), fifth in batting average (.324), and tied for fourth in extra-base hits (20) and total bases (85).
Bostick, acquired by Houston in a trade with Texas on Jan. 21, made his Midwest League and Houston Astros organizational debut May 8 at Modern Woodmen Park, and went five scoreless innings for a win against Wisconsin. In his next outing, the 20-year-old Florence, S.C., native earned his first save since 2013 by pitching four scoreless innings in Cedar Rapids. With four outings, including three starts, in May, Bostick finished 1-1 with a 1.29 ERA, a .125 opponents' average, one walk and 14 strikeouts in 21 innings. He posted a team-best 0.48 walk-plus-hits per inning pitched (WHIP) in May.
For other Houston Astros affiliates, five former River Bandits were recognized as Player or Pitcher of the Month in May. Jon Singleton (2013 River Bandits) was Player of the Month for the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies. Tony Kemp (2013) and Chris Devenski (2013) were respectively the Player and Pitcher of the Month for the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks, as Devenski won for a second straight month. A.J. Reed (2014) and Joe Musgrove (2015) were respectively the Player and Pitcher of the Month for the Class-A Advanced Lancaster JetHawks. Musgrove was the Quad Cities Pitcher of the Month in April.
Every Astros full-season minor league affiliate, as well as the major league club, finished May with a winning record. Houston maintained first place in the American League West for the entire month. Triple-A Fresno, Double-A Corpus Christi, and Quad Cities all finished May in first place in their respective divisions. Class-A Advanced Lancaster finished May in second place in its division.
UP NEXT: It's not too late to sign up for the River Bandits Baseball Camp! For only $80, each child will get two days of professional instruction (June 10-11 or Aug. 5-6), a camp T-shirt, lunch on both days, and a ticket to a River Bandits game. Camps are limited to 100 participants. Individual tickets are on sale at the River Bandits box office and online at riverbandits.com. Ticket plans of 12 to 70 games - which include free parking, reserved seats, merchandise discounts, and guaranteed giveaways - are available by calling 563-324-3000.
