The Phillies minor league system is stacked with new prospects this season including the likes of Jake Thompson, Nick Williams, Alberto Tirado, Ben Lively, Tom Windle and Zach Eflin. While the new guys have been holding their own, one Phillies draftee, selected in the second round of the 2013 draft has earned himself Double-A Eastern League honors after a tremendous month at the plate.
Reading C Andrew Knapp named Eastern League Player of the Month after batting .404 with 28 RBIs in 25 games #phillies
— Mike Drago (@mldrago) September 4, 2015
Andrew Knapp has been the talk of the Phillies catching depth in the minor leagues, despite the teams' acquisition of Jorge Alfaro. Knapp takes home August's Player of the Month award after hitting .404 (40-for-99) with nine doubles, a triple, eight home runs, 28 RBI's, 23 runs scored, a steal, an ob-base percentage of .469 and a .758 slugging percentage in 25 games. Knapp, 23, started the month of August riding a 15-game hitting streak and reached base in 24 out of the 25 games he played in during the month. He also has 13 multi-hit games.
During the month of August, Knapp led all Eastern League players in batting average (.404), extra-base hits (18), total bases (75), home runs (8), on-base percentage (.469), slugging percentage (.758) and OPS (1.227) and OPS (1.227). He tied for the league lead with 28 RBI's and finished third in both runs scored (23) and hits (40).
Ranked by MLB.com as the Phillies 17th best prospect, Knapp is hitting .364 with 21 doubles, 11 homers, 39 runs scored and 56 RBI's in 53 games with Double-A Reading this season. Knapp earned Player of the Week honors for the week of August 3rd-9th as well.
Back on August 8th, Knapp hit a walk-off three-run home run to lead Reading to a 9-6 win against New Britain and push the team to 13 games over .500.
