Vote for the BCB Minor League Player of the Month for August

OK, so for one last time you’ve got the opportunity to vote for the Minor League Player of the Month. Don’t blow it.

A quick reminder of the rules. I pick one player from each of the top five minor league affiliates. 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 August. This is an award for performance, not for how highly-ranked a prospect the player is.

The winner will be announced in Wednesday’s Minor League Playoff Wrap. We’ll also have a Minor League Pitcher of the Month Award at 1 p.m. CT today and a Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year Award shortly thereafter.

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

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

With that said, here are this month’s nominees:

Iowa Cubs catcher P.J. Higgins

Higgins earned his first promotion to Triple-A back in July and he’s looked as good in Iowa as he did in Tennessee. For the month of August, Higgins hit .323/.405/.532 with two home runs and 12 RBI over 21 games. He walked nine times and struck out 13 this past month. Plus, he’s a catcher. He played first base twice, third base twice and caught 17 times over the past month.

Tennessee Smokies infielder Vimael Machin

Machin spent two weeks in Iowa in April filling in for injured players. He got sent back down when Iowa got healthy and he’s probably been the most consistent hitter for anemic Smokies offense this past summer. That earned him a September 1 return to Iowa where he’ll be playing playoff baseball this week.

In August, Machin hit .306/.417/.429 over 27 games. He had three home runs in August and ended up tied for the team lead in home runs at the end of the season with Robel Garcia, who got promoted to Iowa on May 8. Both Garcia and Machin had six home runs for the Smokies this season. (Machin has one more with Iowa. Garcia has 21 more with Iowa and four more with Chicago)

Machin scored 14 times in August and had 14 RBI. He stole two bases in two attempts. He also walked 19 times and struck out 19 times.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans first baseman Luke Reynolds

Reynolds was so poor for the Pelicans the first three months of the season that the Cubs sent him down to South Bend. But Reynolds must have figured something out in South Bend because since he returned to Myrtle Beach on August 2, he hasn’t stopped hitting. Reynolds played 25 games in August and hit a robust .300/.382/.489 with six doubles, a triple and three home runs. Reynolds had 15 runs batted in and he scored 11 times.

South Bend Cubs outfielder Nelson Velazquez

Velazquez finally hit his first home run at Four Winds Field in South Bend on August 22 and it was a walk-off blast that beat the Lugnuts. In August, Velazquez finally started to show some of the power that was expected out of him, hitting five doubles, three triples and three home runs over 29 games. His batting line for the month was ,287/.350/.472 with a whopping 22 RBI and 15 runs scored. Velazquez struck out a lot (30 times in 108 at-bats) but he managed to walk 11 times as well.

Eugene Emeralds outfielder Edmond Americaan

Americaan was clearly the heart of the Ems offense down the stretch this year, hitting a strong .301/.340/.419 with one home run and four steals over 27 games. Americaan scored 18 times and had 11 runs batted in.