Cleveland Indians Minor League Player of the Week (7/31-8/6)

In a race which went down to the wire, Anthony Santander earned his first player of the week honors last week, just barely beating out Ryan Merritt and Andrew Celica with 31 percent of the total vote.

Despite Francisco Mejia extending his insane hitting streak to 47 games, he wasn't able to crack the top six thus past week due mainly in part to a trio of insanely hot bats for the Triple-A Columbus Clippers.

Without further ado, here are the Tribe's top performers from the past week (July 31-August 6):

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Ben Krauth (A-, LHP) - 0.00 ERA, 12.2 K/9, 0.90 WHIP

A 16th round draft pick this past June out of Kansas, Ben Krauth has been a revelation as a long reliever and has earned serious consideration as a future starter. Krauth tossed 14 straight scoreless innings with the AZL Indians to earn a promotion to Mahoning Valley this past week and continued his run of dominance once there.

The 22-year old made two long relief appearances this week, combining for 6.2 innings total, and he blew away the competition by refusing to allow a run. Krauth struck out eight batters, extending his scoreless innings streak to 20.2 innings to begin his professional career. Not bad for a supposed soft-tossing southpaw.

Triston McKenzie (A-/A, RHP) - 2.61 ERA, 16.6 K/9, 0.87 WHIP

It's not often a starting pitcher goes 0-2 in a week and earns a POTW nomination, but Triston Mckenzie is just that damned good. The 18-year old 2015 first round supplementary pick dominated in Low-A Mahoning Valley hitters so badly this season that he forced the Indians hand with a promotion to Lake County this past week.

In McKenzie's debut for the Captains, all he did was strike out a career-high 11 batters in just 5.1 innings of work. McKenzie's numbers are off the charts this past week, striking out 19 in just 10.1 innings overall. His FIP is a disgusting 1.82 and his K/BB ratio was 9.5. If he can continue torturing hitters at this rate, we could see him in Cleveland significantly sooner than many anticipated.

Mark Mathias (A+, 2B/3B) - .433/.553/.633

Mark Mathias wasn't going to let something like a little old pitch to the face keep him down. The 2015 third round draft pick has really been locked in for a month now, and despite needing taken off the field by an ambulance just two weeks ago and requiring several stitches to his face, he never missed a beat offensively.

After a slow start to 2016 likely caused by skipping Lake County entirely, Mathias now has better season numbers than he put up last year for Mahoning Valley. He torched the ball this past week, socking six doubles in his 13 total hits while reaching base safely at a ridiculous .553 clip. Despite the stitches, he wasn't afraid to keep taking one for the team either, getting hit by two more pitches this past week.

Bradley Zimmer (AAA, OF) - .357/.438/.536

Now all alone as the top Indians overall prospect, Bradley Zimmer had a big week. Most impressively, he had his big week as the trade deadline expired and having recently been promoted to Triple-A Columbus.

The 2014 first round pick for the Indians picked up 10 hits overall this past week, launching a towering home run as well as two doubles. After a bit of a slump in Akron, he's really turned things around since making some small adjustments to his batting stance.

Zimmer benefited from a .500 BABIP this past week but he also did all the little things right, walking four times and stealing a base as Columbus has really caught fire since his promotion.

Yandy Diaz (A+, OF) - .379/.441/.552

Yandy Diaz has commonly been making appearances on FanGraphs' "Fringe Five" article this season as a top player who isn't on many people's prospect lists.

That should all be changing now.

The 24-year old Cuban defector has been a revelation this season, leading the International League in hitting now that he's qualified and is currently riding a 25-game hitting streak. He's done all of this while learning to play the outfield among other utility positions.

Diaz had two doubles and a home run out of his 11 hits this past week, also stealing a base and walking four times. I was shocked the Indians re-signed Michael Martinez instead of simply promoting Diaz to the big league club.

Giovanny Urshela (AAA, 3B) - .545/.522/.864

Poor Giovanny Urshela has been lost in the shuffle this season due to the emergence of Jose Ramirez on the big league club, but he hasn't let that keep him down. Now healthy, he's been tearing the cover off the ball the past month during his under-the-radar 20-game hitting streak.

Urshela has raised his season average to .273 during his hot stretch and this past week, he was on fire to the tune of 12 hits in just 22 at bats. Four of those guys were doubles and he also blasted a home run in his six total games.

If there is one criticism of Urshela, it's his lack of walks, as he had none this past week, but he's not giving people much time to complain with how hot his bat has been.

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Previous Winners

Anthony Santander (31%) - Week of 7/24-7/30
Yandy Diaz (74%) - Week of 7/17-7/23
Juan Hillman (38%) - Week of 7/10-7/16
Triston McKenzie (63%) - Week of 7/3-7/9
Francisco Mejia (41%) - Week of 6/26-7/2
Argenis Angulo (69%) - Week of 6/19-6/25
Taylor Murphy (47%) - Week of 6/12-6/18
Francisco Mejia (71%) - Week of 6/5-6/11
Brock Hartson (64%) - Week of 5/29-6/4
Nathan Lukes (60%) - Week of 5/22-5/28 (goodbye)
Clint Frazier (89%) - Week of 5/15-5/21
Ryan Merritt (52%) - Week of 5/14-5/20

Most Nominations

Francisco Mejia - 4
Anthony Santander - 4
Greg Allen - 3
Tyler Krieger - 3
Bradley Zimmer - 3
Yandy DIaz - 3
Clint Frazier - 2 (farewell)
Ka'ai Tom - 2
Shawn Mormando - 2
Bobby Bradley - 2
Julian Merryweather - 2
Connor Marabell - 2
Taylor Murphy - 2
Matt Esparza - 2
Brock Hartson - 2
Yu-Cheng Chang - 2
Ryan Merritt - 2
Andrew Calica - 2
Giovanny Urshela - 2
Mark Mathias - 2