Historical Branch Rickey Winners

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 24, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

The Branch Rickey award has a long history that dates back to 1989.  The award itself has as many hits as it does misses, so winning the award does not guarantee major league success. Mike Huff started it all off and Mike Huff should give you fair warning when the winner is older than twenty-four. Huff had a major league career but not a good one.

Player of the Year:

The Golden Hits-  Mike Piazza, Paul Konerko, Corey Seager

The Hits – Eric Karros, Franklin Gutierrez, James Loney, Dee Gordon, Joc Pederson

The misses – Billy Ashley, Andy LaRoche, Jerry Sands, Scott Van Slyke

The whiffs – Adam Riggs, Angel Pena, Chin-Feng Chen, Joe Thurston, Phil Hiatt, Joel Guzman,  Chin-lung Hu, Ivan De-Jesus,

Pitcher of the Year:

The Best Pitcher Ever – Pedro Martinez

The I look like Fernando but that was about it – Dennys Reyes

The guys who broke my heart because I thought were going to be our Sandy and Don – Greg Miller and Edwin Jackson

The All-Stars- Eric Gagne, Chad Billingsley

The Starters –  James McDonald, Rubby De La Rosa, John Ely, Julio Urias

The Bullpen – Jim Poole, Todd Williams, Kip Gross, Luke Prokopec, Scott Elbert, Shawn Tolleson,

The Who?  – Jamie McAndrew, Greg Hansell, Gary Rath, Billy Neal, Carlos Garcia, Ricardo Rodriguez,  Mark Alexander, Zach Lee

Looking at these ages, I think Keibert Ruiz is the youngest prospect to ever win the Player of the Year award. Ruiz entered the season only eighteen years old. Anyone who follows this blog, knows I targeted Ruiz as an up and comer way back in June before he was on anyone’s top ten Dodger list, now he’s the Dodgers best position prospect.  Didn’t expect the Dodgers to reward Ruiz with the Branch Rickey Award, I though that would go to Alex Verdugo.

Branch Rickey Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year: 1989-2017