Congratulations to the Savannah Sand Gnats outfielder Brandon Nimmo for being awarded with the MMN Player of the Week honors.  Brandon just tore up the South Atlantic League pitching over the past week.

When a player is considered a Top Prospect, he is looked at as an athlete capable of moving up the levels of the minor league system and developing into a bona fide major league player one day. There is never a guarantee that the prospect will live up to his full potential, but the hope of any organization is that his development through the minor league levels will allow him to grow into an everyday major leaguer.

Brandon Nimmo is # 5 on the Mets Top 20 Prospect Watch list.  He was drafted by the Mets in the 1^st round (13^th overall) of the 2011 draft at 18 years old. He is one of those rare athletes that actually bats left and throws right. In 2011, Brandon played rookie ball between the Gulf Coast League Mets and the Kingsport Mets and batted a combined .211 in only 10 games.  In 2012, he was moved up to the Brooklyn Cyclones where he batted .248, 6 home runs, 40 RBI’s in 69 games.  This season, he is batting .272 and only 2 home runs and 33 RBI’s in 86 games.  For an outfielder he hasn’t shown much power with the Sand Gnats yet, but he compensates by being a consistent hitter when it counts.

This past week from August 5 – August 11, Brandon turned it up a notch, and showed why he is on the Top 20 Prospect Watch list. On Monday August 5, he went 3 for 4, 1 run, double, home run and 2 runs batted in, and he was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.  During the week, Brandon had 3 hits in three separate games and overall he had 4 multi-hit games.  He finished the week batting .444, 12 for 27, 3 runs, 2 doubles, a home run, 5 runs batted in, .464 OBP and .630 SLG.

The Sandgnats are currently in 3^rd place at 25-21 in the second half of their season, but overall they are 68-47 and in first place of the Southern Division.  They are 6-4 in their last ten games and 4-3 this past week during Brandon Nimmo’s hot streak.

Brandon was picked to play in this years Futures Game at Citi Field during the All Star Break.  It was a chance for him to visit the stadium where he hopes to make his home one day.

Brandon came into this season scouted as a player with remarkable potential and with the hopes that he would realize his full potential. During an interview in July with the NY Daily News at the Futures Game he noted his success and struggles in Savannah, “I feel really, really good about the first half – I did what I wanted to do and in the second half, people adjusted,” said Brandon. “We lost some people on our team. I’m being pitched to differently and it’s an adjustment I have to make. I have to start being better. It’s a learning curve right now and I’ll have to overcome it.”

Well from this past week, Brandon has made some major adjustments and has put himself back on the map as a bona fide prospect worth watching. As with his twitter name @You_Found_Nimmo, I think this past week we have all found Nimmo again.

Honorable Mentions

Binghamton Mets – RF – Cory Vaughn

After moving up to B-Mets on August 6, Cory had a good week, he batted .375, 9 for 24, 5 R, Double, 3 HR’s, 11 RBI’s, 2 BB. He started off strong with a double header on August 6 where he batted 4 for 6, 2 R, Double, HR, 6 RBI’s. He slacked off a bit but picked it up again on Sunday when he went 2 for 5, R, HR and 4 RBI’s. He has also hit safely in 8 out of last 10 games. He was probably my favorite by the middle of the week to win the PotW honors, but three non-productive at bats towards the end of the week took him off my radar, overall, he has a potent bat and plays a pivotal position that requires power on the big club.

Brooklyn Cyclones – SS – Gavin Cecchini

Gavin is #8 on the Mets Top 20 Prospect Watch list. He was drafted by the Mets in 2012, 1^st round (12^th overall). This past week he batted .400, 10 for 25, 2 doubles, 2 RBI’s. Gavin started his professional career with the Kingsport Mets and batted .246 in 53 games. He was moved up to Brooklyn in 2012 and played in just 5 games and didn’t record a hit in 5 at bats.  But in 2013, he has come into his own and is looking comfortable at the plate and that shows with how he produced this past week. He also currently has a 11 game hit streak with 4 multi-hit games within the streak. He is a player worth watching for a future MMN PotW consideration.

St. Lucie Mets – INF – T.J. Rivera

T.J. has not let up.  After being named last week’s MMN player of the Week, he has pretty much continued where he left off.  Because St. Lucie had two games that were cancelled this past week due to rain, T.J lost some needed at bats to be considered for the award again. But in his brief at bats he went .389, 7 for 18, Double, 2 RBI’s.  He is currently on a 9 game hit streak with 4 multi-hit games within the streak.