Mason Williams Named Player of the Year

Two New York Yankees farmhands have been selected as a league Topps Player of the Year in the annual George M. Trautman Awards, presented in the 16 domestic Minor Leagues by the Topps Company of New York, in conjunction with Minor League Baseball. Mason Williams (New York-Penn League) and Dante Bichette Jr. (Gulf Coast League), each played for the Staten Island Yankees During the 2011 Season.

Williams, an outfielder with the Baby Bombers, led the New York-Penn League with 94 hits and 28 stolen bases, and finished second with a .349 batting average - an All-Star year. Days before Williams played in the 2011 NYPL All-Star Game in Lowell, he was awarded the New York-Penn League player of the week. Offensively, the 20-year-old outfielder Williams provided the spark in the Staten Island Yankees' lineup, helping the Baby-Bombers capture their sixth New York-Penn League Championship in 13 seasons. Following the Season, Baseball America named Mason Williams a Short-Season All-Star.

Bichette Jr., the 51st-overall pick in the 2011 Draft out of Orangewood Christian High School in Maitland, Fla., is the son of longtime Major League slugger Dante Bichette. The 18-year-old grew up with a close relationship to New York manager Joe Girardi and was elated to join the organization in June. Since then, he led the Gulf Coast League in hitting, runs and doubles. During the playoffs, Bichette Jr. hit a game-tying homer and then had a hand in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning to lead the Yankees past the Marlins, 3-1, to claim the 2011 Gulf Coast League championship, the GCL Yankees' first since 2007. A late call-up to the Staten Island Yankees, Bichette Jr. spent the final two weeks of the season with the Baby Bombers.

Topps salutes the top performances throughout Minor League Baseball, including monthly awards and all-star teams in each classification.

2011 Topps Minor League Players of the Year
LEAGUE	WINNER	CLUB/ORG.	POSITION
International	Julio Teheran	Gwinnett/Atlanta	P
Pacific Coast	Collin Cowgill	Reno/Arizona	OF
Eastern	*Chih-Hsien Chiang	Portland/Boston	OF
Southern	Paul Goldschmidt	Mobile/Arizona	1B
Texas	Matt Adams	Springfield/St. Louis	1B
California	Gary Brown	San Jose/San Francisco	CF
Carolina	Ian Gac	Winston-Salem/Chicago-AL	DH
Florida State	Hak-Ju Lee	Charlotte/Tampa Bay	SS
Midwest	Rymer Liriano	Fort Wayne/San Diego	OF
South Atlantic	Brandon Jacobs	Greenville/Boston	OF
New York-Penn	Mason Williams	Staten Island/New York-AL	OF
Northwest	Joe Panik	Salem-Keizer/San Francisco	SS
Appalachian	Eddie Rosario	Elizabethton/Minnesota	OF
Pioneer	Joc Pederson	Ogden/Los Angeles-NL	OF
Arizona	Jose Cuevas	Giants/San Francisco	3B
Gulf Coast	Dante Bichette Jr.	Yankees/New York-AL	3B

*Traded to Seattle on July 31