Marcus Knecht used one first-star and three second-star selections to capture Player of the Month honours. Daniel Norris rode three first-star selections by our Minor League crew to win Pitcher of the Month.
The votes are in for the Batter's Box Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Month honours for May. The winners are both from the Dunedin Blue Jays, outfielder Marcus Knecht and lefthander Daniel Norris.
Marcus Knecht used one first-star and three second-star selections to capture Player of the Month honours. Daniel Norris rode three first-star selections by our Minor League crew to win Pitcher of the Month.
Scoring for our three-star selections is as follows - 5 points for a first star selection, 3 points for second star and 1 point for third. Knecht earned 14 points in May, one point ahead of Kevin Pillar (who was called up from Buffalo May 13) and four ahead of Bisons outfielder Brad Glenn, who was promoted from Double-A New Hampshire May 16. Norris racked up 15 points, edging out Deck McGuire by a single point and fellow Dunedin hurler Taylor Cole, who had 11 points. Liam Hendriks also finished with double digits on the basis of two first-star selections with Buffalo to help him earn a couple of starts with the big club.
Knecht has bounced back from a bad April in a huge way. The Toronto native, who will turn 24 on June 21, nearly doubled his .181 batting average in the season's first month to .361. Despite no home runs in May, the right-handed hitting Knecht slugged .542 thanks to seven doubles and three triples and knocked home 14 runs. He hopes to keep the arrow pointing upward after two disappointing seasons in the Flordida State League. Entering June, Knecht is batting .271 with a homer and 22 runs batted in.
As good as Norris was in April, he was even better in May as he brought his earned run average down to 0.68 as compared to 0.75 from the season's first month. In 26.1 innings, he struck out 34 batters and walked eight. The 21 year-old Johnson City, Tennessee native surrendered just 20 hits and limited Florida State League batters to a .206 batting average while winning his lone decision to improve to 4-0 on the season.
Overall, Norris has 22 points - two ahead of fellow lefty and April Pitcher of the Month Matt Boyd. The hitting leader is Dwight Smith Jr., the Player of the Month for April, who has 21 points. That puts him up two ahead of Pillar. So far, 63 different players have earned at least a point this season and 53 players received at least one vote this Month.
Congratulations to our winners this month. As the weather warms up, let's see whose performance takes off in June.
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