Another week and another Cincinnati Reds minor league player has earned player of the week honors. This week it’s reliever Brooks Crawford getting the recognition, taking home Midwest League Pitcher of the Week honors for his performance against the Great Lakes Loons from July 3rd through 9th.
It’s usually tough for a reliever to win these kinds of awards. They don’t tend to pitch enough, from an innings perspective, to put up a standout line when compared to whichever pitcher had an outstanding start that same week in the league.
That was not the case for Brooks Crawford this past week. On July 4th he came out of the Dayton Dragons bullpen and threw a perfect 8th and 9th inning, picking up four strikeouts along the way. Three days later he returned to the mound against the Loons and was even better, throwing a perfect 4th, 5th, and 6th innings for Dayton. Crawford also had five strikeouts in his outing.
Two games, 5.0 perfect innings, and nine strikeouts. That will look pretty good on the ballot for player of the week, and it seems that the voting contingency took notice.
For the season, all with High-A Dayton, Brooks Crawford has posted a 3.99 ERA in 21 games out of the bullpen. He’s pitched multiple innings in all but two of his outings, throwing 47.1 innings and allowing 36 hits, walking 20 batters, and striking out 45.
Here are the other Players of the Week this season from the farm system:
- Andrew Abbott – Southern League – April 10-16
- Blake Dunn – Midwest League – April 24-30
- Noelvi Marte – Southern League – May 1-7
- Matt McLain – International League – May 1-7
- Noelvi Marte – Southern League – May 16-21
- Tommy Eveld – Southern League – May 22-28
- Christian Encarnacion-Strand – International League – June 5-11
- Connor Phillips – Southern League – June 5-11
- Connor Phillips – Southern League – June 12-18
- Rece Hinds – Southern League – June 12-18
- Esmith Pineda – Arizona Complex League – June 26 – July 2
- Brooks Crawford – Midwest League – July 3-9