Abraham Toro, le joueur offensif de l’année de Canadian Baseball Network dans le baseball affilié

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By George Farelli, Canadian Baseball Network, le 3 décembre 2019

Abraham Toro had one homer in 33 plate appearances when he came to the plate with two out in the top of the ninth at the Rogers Centre on Sept. 1.

His Houston Astros were in a scoreless draw with the Toronto Blue Jays. Yet, this at-bat with Alex Bregman on base was a make-it-happen at-bat.

Houston starter Justin Verlander had thrown 111 pitches through eight innings. He had one inning left in the tank for his no-hit bid. Toro homered and then Verlander needed only nine pitches to set down Brandon Drury, Reese McGuire and Bo Bichette in order for his third no-hitter.

Amidst the celebrations you could see Verlander looking left, looking right and yelling “Where’s Toro? Where’s Toro?”

It was an hour or two after the game when the Toronto writer emailed the Houston scribe: “Remember Toro is from Canada -- don’t forget to mention Verlander’s name in there somewhere.”

Ah, Canadian humour.

Photo ci-dessus : ABC Academie grad Abraham Toro (Longueuil, Que.) is the winner of the Canadian Baseball Network’s 2019 Randall Echlin award as the top offensive Canadian player in the minors.

Toro (Longueuil, Que.) led all Canadians who played affiliated ball in the minors, independent ball or across the pond in runs scored and RBIs. He shared the lead in batting average with Blue Jays farmhand Otto Lopez (Montreal, Que.) who was with the class-A Lansing Lugnuts, while Toro was second in hits, and home runs in the minors.

Toro was the best hitter of the 132 Canadians in the minors, so he wins the Canadian Baseball Network hitter of the year and winner of the Randy Echlin award. He started in the Astros minor-league system playing 98 games for the Corpus Christi Hooks and was promoted to triple-A Round Rock for 16 games.

The Canadian Baseball Network 12th annual awards saw pitcher of the year honours go to RHP Jordan Balazovic (Mississauga, Ont.), who started the season pitching for the class-A Cedar Rapids Kernals, moved to the class-A Advanced Fort Myers Miracle and toed the rubber for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in the double-A League playoffs. He was 8-5 with a 2.69 ERA in 19 games (18 starts) as he walked 25 and struck out 129 in 93 2/3 innings.

The leading hitter in the foreign or independent ranks was Jamie Romak (London, Ont.) of SK Wyverns in Korea, who was a winner for a third consecutive time. He hit .276 with 29 homers and 95 RBIs in 137 games.

Former No. 1 pick of the Seattle Mariners, RHP Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, Que.) of the Ottawa Champions of the independent Can-Am League was the top pitcher in the foreign and independent ranks. He was 8-4 with a 2.65 ERA in 18 starts. He walked 23 and fanned 145 in 118 2/3 innings.

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Canadian Baseball Network offensive Canadian player of the year in the minors, Randall Echlin award - Abraham Toro (Longueuil, Que.).

Starting the season with the double-A Corpus Christi Hooks, where he had played 50 games the season before, Toro opened going 1-for-8 in the season’s first two games against the Amarillo Sod Poodles. Seven games later, he hit his first homer against the same Sod Poodles against RHP Lake Bachar.

Selected in the fifth round of the 2016 draft by Houston scout Jim Stevenson (Leaside, Ont.),Toro, who played for the Montreal Orioles of the Quebec Elite Junior Baseball League coached by Marc-André Ronda, hit .278 with five doubles, a triple, four homers and 21 RBIs in 23 games in the season’s first month.

The merry month of May was Toro’s second best of the season. In that month, he had 11 multi-hit games, including three, three-hit contests and a four-hit performance against Amarillo on May 21. For the month he hit .340 with three doubles, a triple, six homers, 25 RBIs and registered a 1.029 OPS in 27 games.

He added three more multi-hit games in June, including going 3-for-4 against the Arkansas Travelers on June 17.

In his final month in double-A, Toro had 11 multi-hit games, including three-four hit contests and hit .364 with 11 doubles, two triples, three homers and 15 RBIs in 26 games, before being promoted to the triple-A Round Rock Express at the beginning of August.

He continued his torrid hitting in triple-A in August, putting together 10 more multi-hit games, including a five-hit game against the El Paso Chihuahuas on August 8.

In all, the switch-hitting Canadian batted a combined .324 with 17 home runs and a .527 slugging percentage in 114 games in double-A and triple-A in 2019. For his efforts, he was named Astros Minor League Player of the Year.

We had eight voters and Toro was a unanimous choice followed by Otto Lopez (Montreal, Que.) who was at class-A Lansing Lugnuts and Josh Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) of the Triple A El Paso Chihuahuas. Naylor was in the minors for only 54 games as he spent most of his time with the San Diego Padres.

HONOUR ROLL

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

(Starting in 2011 the award was named after the The Honourable Mr. Justice Randall Echlin, former head of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame selection committee, a lifelong fan of the game and a man with a baseball-shaped heart the size of a box of new Rawlings.)

2008 _ Tim Smith (Toronto, Ont.) Rangers.

2009 _ Tyson Gillies (Langley, BC) Mariners.

2010 _ Brett Lawrie (Langley, BC) Brewers.

2011 _ Taylor Green (Comox, BC) Brewers and Brett Lawrie (Langley, BC) Jays.

2012 _ Oscar Taveras (Montreal, Que.) Cardinals.

2013 _ Sean Jamieson (Simcoe, Ont.) Diamondbacks.

2014 _ Dalton Pompey (Mississauga, Ont.) Blue Jays.

2015 _ Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC) Mariners.

2016 _ Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC) Mariners.

2017 _ Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC) Mariners/Cardinals and Vladimir Guerrero (Montreal, Que.) Blue Jays.

2018 _ Vladimir Guerrero (Montreal, Que.) Blue Jays.

2019 _ Abraham Toro (Longueuil, Que.) Astros.

PITCHER OF THE YEAR

2008 _ Scott Diamond (Guelph, Ont.) Braves.

2009 _ James Henderson (Calgary, Alta.) Brewers and John Axford (Port Dover, Ont.) Brewers.

2010 _ Scott Mathieson (Langley, BC) Phillies.

2011 _ Mark Hardy (Campbell River, BC) Padres..

2012 _ James Henderson (Calgary, Alta.) Brewers.

2013 _ Andrew Albers (North Battleford, Sask.) Twins

2014 _ Nick Pivetta (Victoria, BC) Nationals.

2015 _ Adam Loewen (Surrey, BC) Phillies and Shane Dawson (Drayton Valley, Alta.) Jays.

2016 _ Jameson Taillon (The Woodlands, Tex.) Pirates and Nick Pivetta (Victoria, BC) Phillies.

2017 _ Michael Soroka (Calgary, Alta.) Braves.

2018 _ Jordan Romano (Markham, Ont.) Jays.

2019 _ Jordan Balazovic (Mississauga, Ont.) Twins.

Revue de web publiée par Jacques Lanciault.