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Cubs give minor league awards to Moisés Ballesteros and Brandon Birdsell

The Cubs today announced that catcher Moisés Ballesteros was named the Buck O’Neil Minor League Player of the Year and that right-hander Brandon Birdsell was honored as the Vedie Himsl Cubs Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Both started the season in Double-A Tennessee and finished the year with Triple-A Iowa.

Ballesteros, 20, has won the Minor League Player of the Year Award two years in a row now. This season, Ballesteros started the year in Double-A and in 56 games, hit .299/.372/.495 in the offensively-challenged Southern League. Had Ballesteros gotten enough plate appearances to qualify, he would have ranked third, fifth and first in the Southern League in those three categories respectively.