Houston Astros Top Prospect Named Pacific Coast League Player Of Week
Houston Astros Top 10 prospect Joey Loperfido tore the cover off the ball during an epic week for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys.
A top Houston Astros prospect is the Pacific Coast League Player of the Week after an incredible offensive week for the Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys.
Joey Loperfido is coming off an enormous week that has Astros fans buzzing about his potential for being called up as Astros first baseman Jose Abreu continues to struggle at the plate.
Recently, Astros general manager Dana Brown talked about that prospect with SportsTalk 790 in Houston.
"At some point, I think we're going to get him up here for sure, but it's good to see he's off to a good start,” Brown said. “I'd like to see him cut down the strikeouts a little bit... He'll be a nice utility piece for us."
The Astros have had Loperfido playing first base the past several games and his bat has responded.
The Space Cowboys were in Albuquerque all week and the 24-year-old had a hit in all six games, as he went 11-for-26 in 34 plate appearances.
The left-handed hitter slashed .423/.559/1.077/1.636 with two doubles, five home runs, 13 RBI, 14 runs scored, six walks, a stolen base.
Friday’s game caught everyone’s attention.
He hit a career-high three home runs, with two home runs in the seventh inning, with the second homer in the seventh being a grand slam. He set a career high for home runs (three) and RBI (seven) in a game.
Loperfido leads minor league baseball in home runs (10), total bases (51), extra-base hits (12) and runs scored (21) and is second in RBI (24), fourth in slugging (.895) and tied for seventh in hits (19).
Entering this week’s action he is slashing .333/.429/.895/1.324 with two doubles, 10 home runs, 24 RBI, 21 runs scored, nine walks and a pair of stolen bases in two attempts.
