Vote for the BCB Cubs Minor League Player of the Month

I can’t believe it’s July already, but that means that it’s time for us to vote on the BCB Cubs Minor League Player of the Month!

The rules are simple. I pick one player from each of the top five minor league affiliates. (No “wild card” pick this month as the Emeralds have started playing and they take the fifth spot.) You vote for the player who has had the best month. You can pick whichever one you want for whatever reason you want, except that I do ask that you make your choice based on what the player did in the month of June. This is an award for performance, not for how good a prospect the player is.

You can vote on the best pitching performances starting tomorrow.

If you’re reading on Apple News or Google AMP, you need to go to a web browser to vote.

The winner will be announced in Wednesday night’s Minor League Wrap.

Clicking on the player’s name will take you to his milb.com page for more information.

The nominees are:

Iowa Cubs 1B/OF Jim Adduci

Sure, Adduci hasn’t really been a prospect in seven or eight years. He’s a 34-year-old veteran who has over 400 plate appearances in the majors. He started the month of June in the majors. But there are really only three position players on the I-Cubs roster who don’t have major league experience. Also, Adduci was just flat-out terrific in the month of June.

Adduci played 19 games in June and he had hits in 18 of them. (He had one at-bat in the majors on June 1 and grounded out, but that doesn’t count.) Adduci had a 19-game hitting streak snapped when he went 0 for 4 on June 24. He’s hit in five straight games since then.

For the record, the final line on Adduci for the month of June was .392/.430/.554 with six doubles and two home runs. Adduci had 17 RBI and he scored 19 times in just 19 games.

Tennessee Smokies OF Roberto Caro

Caro has been the Smokies leadoff hitter for most of the season and he delivered in the month of June, hitting .330/.381/.423 with five doubles, two triples and nine stolen bases. (Although that’s in 15 steal attempts, so maybe that’s not so good.) Caro scored 12 times and had nine RBI in 24 games.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans 1B Cam Balego

I’m not going to sugarcoat it—the Pelicans had a rough month, going 8-16. (They had to win five of their final six games in the month to even get to that record). But Balego was a bright spot on the team with four home runs and 13 runs batted in. On the month, Balego hit .268/.337/.427 over 22 games. He scored 12 runs.

South Bend Cubs 1B Tyler Durna

While outfielder Brennan Davis made an impressive first month with South Bend, Durna was even better. The 2018 15th-round pick out of UCSD had the best month of his career, hitting .372/.465/.535 with three home runs and 14 RBI over 25 games. He scored 12 times. Durna walked 12 times and struck out only 13 times in June.

Eugene Emeralds OF Fernando Kelli

Kelli is one of the fastest players in the Cubs system, but he struggled to hit last season in Eugene. That hasn’t been much of a problem this year.

Kelli may be repeating Eugene, but he’s still only 20 years old. In his first month of the season, Kelli hit .283/.328/.467 with four doubles, two triples and a home run in 16 games. Kelli stole four bases in six attempts.