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.