Washington Nationals Minor Leagues: Players Of The Week (6/8-6/14)

(Photo Credit: MILB.com)

Potomac Nationals (28-35)

Hitter Of The Week: 2B Christopher Bostick (.274, 4 HR, 18 RBI’s)

Chris Bostick has been one of the regulars on this slideshow during the early stages of this season. This past week, the 22-year-old second baseman went 12-for-29 at the plate with five RBI’s. He had four multi-hit games, including three three-hit performances. All three of those games came within a five-game period.

This month, Bostick is hitting .412 with two home runs and seven RBI’s. One thing that is interesting about Bostick’s month so far is the amount of walks he has. He has five walks in 13 games. Keep in mind that in the first two months of the season, he did not walk more than eight times. After hitting .203 in the month of April, Bostick has been starting to tear up Carolina League pitching.

Honorable Mention: RF Narciso Mesa (.275, 1 HR, 17 RBI’s)

Coming into Monday night’s game, the 23-year-old right fielder has a six game hitting streak. This past week, Mesa went 11-for-27 at the plate with four RBI’s. While he only had one extra base hit in those 11 hits, Mesa showed that he can rack up the hits. During the six game streak, he has a multi-hit game in four of those six, including a 3-for-4 day on Sunday with two runs scored and a RBI.

This month, Mesa is hitting .391 in 12 games with one home run and nine RBI’s. He has a .423 on-base percentage and a .478 slugging percentage as well. He leads the team in batting average and is top five in the team in hits with 42.

Pitcher Of The Week: SP Lucas Giolito (2-4, 4.08 ERA)

Giolito made one start this week on June 12 against the Frederick Keys (Baltimore Orioles). In that outing, he went 6.1 innings, gave up one run on eight hits, struck out five, and walked one to record his second win of the season. Out of those eight hits, only two of those went for extra bases. Plus, out of the 27 batters he faced, nine of those were retired on groundball outs.

The 20-year-old right-hander has pitched into the sixth inning in each of his last two starts and has given up three runs or fewer in five of his last six outings. The other reason Giolito is pitcher of the week because of where he stands among prospect. With all the prospect promotions in baseball, MLB Pipeline now has Giolito as the top prospect in baseball.

Honorable Mention: SP Nick Pivetta (5-4, 2.58)

As I mentioned before, Pivetta was named to the Carolina League All-Star team this past week. It is the second straight year that he has made the All-Star team in the league that he plays in (last year, he made the team playing for Hagerstown). On June 11, Pivetta went six innings, gave up three runs on seven hits and struck out four batters in a win over the Carolina Mudcats (Atlanta Braves).

While the 22-year-old right-hander has won four of his last five starts with Potomac, he did have some issues with his control this week. In that win over Carolina, he did walk five batters. It is the third time this season that Pivetta has walked four or more batters in an outing. Right now, his total of 25 walks is in the top ten among all pitchers in the Carolina League.

Next: Low-A