The Arizona League Dodgers were the big winners this week by going 6-1. They also scored the most runs this week at 50. The Lookouts continued to struggle offensively. Their pitching has been good (24 runs allowed in seven games), but the hitting has nearly disappeared. The Dominican Summer League Dodgers actually allowed the fewest runs at 23.

Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig continue to impress, as does John Ely. Zach Lee might be coming into his own in Double-A as well.

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Albuquerque Isotopes (4-2)

Runs Scored: 44
Runs Allowed: 48

Player Of The Week

Tim Federowicz – C

Federowicz’s hot week was just enough to unseat Jerry Sands and to take his third honor of the season. He went 8-for-18 (.444) with a home run, three doubles, seven RBI, five runs scored, and five walks. He’s quietly posting a .297/.369/.482 line, but it is Albuquerque, so it must be taken with a grain of salt.

Pitcher Of The Week

John Ely – RHP

Ho hum: 7 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K. It’s his eighth honor of the season.

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Chattanooga Lookouts (3-4)

Runs Scored: 19
Runs Allowed: 24

Player Of The Week

Brahiam Maldonado – OF

Maldonado earns his second award of the season by going 10-for-20 (.500) with two home runs, two doubles, three RBI, and four runs scored. The Lookouts didn’t hit well this week (scoring just 19 runs), so it’s a little surprising to see a guy hit .500 for the week.

Pitcher Of The Week

Zach Lee – RHP

Lee might finally be getting comfortable in the Southern League after a few up-and-down outings. He was pretty solid this week: 12 IP, 12 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 HR, 1 BB, 6 K. His K/9 is down from his California League performance, but it’s all about him making quality pitches against advanced competition right now.

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Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (3-3)

Runs Scored: 34
Runs Allowed: 37

Player Of The Week

Joc Pederson – OF

Pederson is having a great second half and a fantastic July and August. This week was no exception: 10-for-23 (.435) with two home runs, four doubles, six RBI, eight runs scored, and five walks. Pederson is hitting .333/.500/.744 in August with eight of his 13 hits going for extra bases. His on-base percentage on the season is flirting with .400 (.393). He’s a flat-out stud.

Pitcher Of The Week

Yimi Garcia – RHP

This was a tough one. Sanchez had one of his best starts in awhile (6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K), but I went with Garcia here. Why? Well, his first week in the Cal League was pretty awesome: 3 2/3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K. Eight of the 11 outs he recorded were via the strikeout. That’s not a bad debut for a 21-year-old (soon-to-be 22).

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Great Lakes Loons (4-3)

Runs Scored: 32
Runs Allowed: 32

Player Of The Week

Nick Akins – OF

Akins hasn’t made much noise this season (not surprising because he’s not a prospect at this point in his career), but he had a solid week for the Loons: 7-for-22 (.318) with two home runs, two doubles, three RBI, six runs scored, and eight walks.

Pitcher Of The Week

Juan Rodriguez – RHP

Rodriguez, who was suspended for more than a month by the Quakes earlier this season before being demoted, amazingly got into four games for the Loons this week: 6 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K. The 23-year-old has an undeniably electric fastball, but his off-speed offerings aren’t great, just like his control. He had potential heading into the season, but his suspension and demotion raised some eyebrows.

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Ogden Raptors (2-4)

Runs Scored: 34
Runs Allowed: 46

Player Of The Week

Corey Seager – SS

Seager earns his second honor of the season by going 10-for-25 (.400) with a home run, a double, a triple, five RBI, seven runs scored, and two stolen bases. Seager isn’t fairing well defensively (15 errors in 30 games), but he’s definitely coming into his own with the bat. It’d be nice to see him begin next season at Low-A, but the Dodgers don’t have a reason to rush him.

Pitcher Of The Week

Jharel Cotton – RHP

Cotton, the Dodgers 20th-round draft pick out of East Carolina, had a really nice outing this week in relief: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K. He’s off to a nice start in his first 10 professional innings (1.80 ERA, 1.00 FIP, 12.6 K/9).

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Arizona League Dodgers (6-1)

Runs Scored: 50
Runs Allowed: 29

Player Of The Week

Yasiel Puig – OF

Puig had another impressive week in the Arizona League: 7-for-14 (.500) with two home runs, a triple, six RBI, six runs scored, and six walks. His performance was good enough to earn him a promotion to Rancho Cucamonga. It’ll be nice to see him play against more advanced competition.

Pitcher Of The Week

Jhouse Bermudez – LHP

Bermudez made the jump from the Dominican Summer League to the Arizona League and fared quite well: 5 2/3 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. The 19-year-old lefty has a little potential.

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Dominican Summer League Dodgers (4-2)

Runs Scored: 24
Runs Allowed: 23

Player Of The Week

Melvin Santana – 2B

It’s basically Santana vs. Josmar Cordero for this award. Santana had the better week of the two: 6-for-15 (.400) with a double, four runs scored, three walks, and two stolen bases. Santana boasts a nice .396 on-base percentage in the DSL.

Pitcher Of The Week

Jose Agusto Diaz – RHP

Diaz earns his second award of the season by throwing the ball well on August 9: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K. The 21-year-old is a sleeper in the organization.

Quakes 3B C.J. Retherford hits against the Stockton Ports on June 5th. Photo: Dustin Nosler

Someone break up the Quakes. Rancho Cucamonga went 7-0 this week, thanks largely in part to my attendance on Tuesday and Wednesday. All kidding aside, the Quakes got some great pitching and some timely hitting to catapult them into a first place tie in their division with the Lake Elsinore Storm (San Diego Padres) at 34-30. With six games left in the first half, the Quakes are in a good position to win the division. They have the Lancaster Jethawks (Houston Astros) and High Desert Mavericks (Seattle Mariners) this week.

The Isotopes great week is overshadowed by the Quakes performance. The team hit well and pitched exceptionally well (until giving up 11 runs yesterday). Still, 25 runs allowed in seven games in the Pacific Coast League? Yeah, I’ll take that.

The Lookouts were shortened this week by rain. They were rained out on Saturday and a Sunday doubleheader was also rained out.

The Loons allowed the fewest runs this week at 18. The ‘Topes scored the most at 44.

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Albuquerque Isotopes (5-1)

Runs Scored: 44
Runs Allowed: 25

Player Of The Week

Brian Cavazos Galvez – OF

The Isotopes had a nice week at the plate, but no one was hotter than Cavazos-Galvez: 9-for-16 (.562) with a double, a triple, three RBI, and two runs scored. He struggled so much in the Southern League (.167/.233/.359), it’s almost amazing to see him tearing up PCL pitching (.364/.397/.622). This is Cavazos-Galvez’s second award in the last three weeks.

Pitcher Of The Week

John Ely  – RHP

Ely takes his third POTW award by throwing the ball well in one appearance: 6 2/3 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K. Ely has been fantastic for the Isotopes this season, as he’s fourth in the PCL in ERA (3.22, among pitchers with at least 50 IP), leads in strikeouts (78), and is third in K/9 among starting pitchers (9.7).

I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back in the majors sometime this season.

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Chattanooga Lookouts (2-3)

Runs Scored: 20
Runs Allowed: 22

Player Of The Week

Brahiam Maldonado – OF

Signed as a free agent earlier this season, Maldonado just barely beat out Blake Smith for this week’s award by going 7-for-16 (.437) with two doubles, two triples, four RBI, and four runs scored. The 26-year-old is hitting significantly better with the Lookouts (.364/.435/.628) than he did with the New York Mets Double-A affiliate (.094/.147/.094).

Pitcher Of The Week

Aaron Miller – LHP

Miller had the best outing of any Lookouts pitcher this week: 5 IP, 6 , 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K. While his WHIP wasn’t great, he did strikeout more batters than he pitched innings.

Miller has been up and down this season for the Lookouts, but there’s obviously still potential in his left arm. He needs to start throwing more innings per start (only 5 IP in five of his last six starts).

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Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (7-0)

Runs Scored: 39
Runs Allowed: 19

Player Of The Week

C.J. Retherford – 3B

Retherford had perhaps the best week of anyone not named Alex Castellanos this season. He went 13-for-28 (.464) with six home runs, 11 RBI, eight runs scored, and two stolen bases. His triple slash has skyrocketed in the last 10 games and now sits at .337/.369/.631. He was named the California League‘s Player Of The Week. It marks the second week in a row a Quake has won it, as Michael Pericht won it last week.

The only bad thing about this is the fact Retherford is 26 years old in the Cal League, but he hit the cover off the ball this week, regardless. This is Retherford’s second award.

Pitcher Of The Week

Jon Michael Redding – RHP

Redding started on Tuesday and had a fantastic outing. He retired 17 hitters in a row at one point. Redding’s numbers for the week were solid: 14 IP, 11 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 14 K. As a 24-year-old in High-A, he isn’t much of a prospect. He is what he is — a soft-tossing righty who relies on control to be successful.

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Great Lakes Loons (2-4)

Runs Scored: 18
Runs Allowed: 18

Player Of The Week

O’Koyea Dickson – 1B/DH

It was another off week offensively for the Loons, but Dickson managed to put up decent numbers in five games: 6-for-18 (.333), one home run, four RBI, three runs scored, two walks, and one strikeout. On the season, the slugging first baseman is up to .325/.428/.561 on the year. He should get a promotion soon — perhaps after the All-Star break. This is Dickson’s third award.

Pitcher Of The Week

Ryan O’Sullivan – RHP

Last year’s fourth-round pick topped Ralston Cash for this week’s award with two stellar outings: 15 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 9 K.  As a groundball pitcher, he isn’t going to get a lot of strikeouts — and hasn’t this season (6.4 K/9). But he’s been effective against Midwest League hitters and might get a look in Rancho before the season is out.

His 2.77 ERA, 1.05 WHIP .199 BAA lead the team (among starting pitchers with enough innings) and is second to Jarret Martin in innings pitched (65 1/3 to 65). This is O’Sullivan’s second award.