Tracy takes award for July
Catcher and designated hitter Chad Tracy of the Spokane Indians was awarded the Allstate Insurance MVP award on Friday night at Avista Stadium for his performance in July.
The in-house award recognizes Tracy for hitting .264 with seven home runs and 18 runs batted in with a .345 on-base percentage last month. Tracy is second in the Northwest League with eight homers and is batting .284.
Spokane center fielder Craig Gentry received the Allstate award for June.
Indians outfielder Chris Davis earned NWL offensive player of the week honors last week. Davis batted .560 (14 for 25) with eight doubles, three homers and nine RBIs. At the time of the award Davis was on a 16-game hitting streak, increasing his average from .151 to .280 in that span, with an RBI in seven consecutive games. Eleven of his 14 hits in the week went for extra bases.
Davis hit safely in 19 consecutive games, but the streak ended Friday night against the Vancouver Canadians when he went 0 for 3. Davis leads the NWL with 12 homers, 24 extra-base hits and a .623 slugging percentage. He is also fourth in the league with 29 RBIs and 12 doubles.
Gerrard, Kemp produce
Spokane outfielder Grant Gerrard and first baseman Chris Kemp were recently moved up to the Clinton Lumberkings and have fit right in.
Gerrard is batting .500 (3 for 6) in two games with an RBI with Clinton. He was hitting .278 when he left Spokane and was tied for third in the NWL with three triples.
Kemp has appeared in three Clinton games, batting .250 (3 for 12) with a home run. He was batting .218 for Spokane when he moved up.
Around the NWL
Vancouver pitcher Andrew Bailey was awarded NWL pitcher of the week honors. Bailey was 1-0 with a 0.00 earned run average in 11 innings. He posted 12 strikeouts while allowing five hits. Bailey has allowed three earned runs over 23 innings this season.
“The Yakima Bears welcomed former Seattle Mariners right fielder Jay Buhner on Monday night with four impromptu barber chairs for “Buhner Buzz Night.” Yakima County Stadium had its second sellout crowd of the season – and third in franchise history – with Buhner’s appearance.
“Minor League Baseball has drawn 31.6 million fans this season with its 176 teams in the 15 affiliated leagues. The Triple-A Pacific Coast League has the highest average number of fans in the league with 6,532.
“The Indians have drawn 107,889 fans this season to lead the NWL. Spokane has averaged 4,691 fans a game.