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Offensive Players of the Week

For the week ending July 14
July 15, 2013

Here's a look at the top offensive performers in each league for the week ending July 14:

International League
Danny Dorn, Toledo
(.320/.400/.840, 7 G, 8-for-25, 1 2B, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 5 R, 4 BB, 6 K)
Dorn's fifth season in the International League -- the first three and a half came with Louisville before shifting to Toledo in the middle of last year -- is already his biggest for long balls. The Cal State-Fullerton product, who turns 29 on Saturday, went deep four times last week to give him 19 on the season. From Thursday to Sunday, Dorn homered three times and drove in eight runs over four games while extending his on-base streak to nine games.

Pacific Coast League
George Springer, Oklahoma City
(.450/.560/1.050, 6 G, 9-for-20, 1 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 4 R, 5 BB, 7 K, 1 SB, 1 CS)
Springer was terrifying enough in the Double-A Texas League, where he posted a .297/.399/.579 line with 19 homers in 73 games. His hitting since joining the RedHawks has been little short of insane: in his first 17 Triple-A games, the 23-year-old slugger is batting .404/.507/.842 with seven blasts and 17 RBIs. Last week's outburst was highlighted by a 4-for-5 performance that included two homers, a triple and five RBIs at Round Rock on Tuesday. Another long ball on Wednesday gave him 26 for the season, two shy of the Minor League lead.

Eastern League
Alex Dickerson, Altoona
(.524/.565/.952, 5 G, 11-for-21, 3 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 7 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 SB)
The 2012 Florida State League Player of the Year, Dickerson got off to a miserable start in Double-A this spring, hitting .185 in 25 April games. The 23-year-old outfielder has gotten stronger each month and is hitting .409/.447/.705 through 11 games in July. Dickerson closed out his week by going 4-for-5 with a homer, two doubles and a stolen base in the Curve's 9-4 win at Akron.

Southern League
Ryan LaMarre, Pensacola
(.300/.333/.800, 6 G, 6-for-20, 1 2B, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 5 R, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 SB, 1 CS)
The Southern League's series are longer than most other leagues' -- teams often square off in five-game sets. By the end of this past week, the Montgomery Biscuits had seen more than enough of LaMarre, who homered three times and drove in eight runs as the Blue Wahoos took four of the five contests. The outburst represented a significant chunk of LaMarre's output for the season, as the 24-year-old outfielder had collected just five long balls and 21 RBIs in 82 games before heading to Montgomery.

Texas League
Brett Eibner, Northwest Arkansas
(.444/.500/.963, 6 G, 12-for-27, 3 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 6 R, 3 BB, 7 K)
Eibner captured his second Player of the Week award of the season after opening the week with three hits at Frisco on Monday and closing it with a homer and a single at Tulsa on Sunday. Saturday was the highlight of the week, as the 24-year-old outfielder went deep twice and doubled twice in the Naturals' 7-4 loss to Springfield. Eibner has reached base in each of his last 11 games and scored at least one run in six of his last seven contests.

California League
Michael Snyder, Inland Empire
(.444/.531/.963, 7 G, 12-for-27, 1 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 7 R, 3 BB, 6 K)
July seems to agree with Snyder, a 23-year-old first baseman in the Angels organization. Last year he was Topps' Pioneer League Player of the Month for July after hitting .370 with six homers; so far he's batting .429 with five blasts for the 66ers this season. After going 0-for-3 with a pair of walks on July 1, Snyder has hit in 13 straight games and collected multiple hits four times last week to go along with three long balls. With 20 homers on the season, he trails Stockton's Max Muncy by one for the league lead.

Carolina League
Stefan Welch, Salem
(.542/.552/.708, 7 G, 13-for-24, 1 2B, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 2 R, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 CS)
Welch began the season with Double-A Altoona in the Pirates organization but hit just .149 in 29 games before being dealt to the Red Sox, who assigned him to Salem. The 24-year-old Australian has thrived in the Carolina League, collecting multiple hits in five separate games last week. Though Welch has less power than a prototypical corner infielder -- he's hit one homer and nine doubles in 32 games with Salem -- it's hard to argue with a .427 on-base percentage.

Florida State League
Nick Ramirez, Brevard County
(.526/.571/1.000, 5 G, 10-for-19, 3 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 7 R, 2 BB, 3 K)
In the first 80 games of Ramirez's season, the 23-year-old slugger had no more than two hits in any single contest. After going 3-for-4 on July 5, the floodgates opened as Ramirez collected four hits on both Tuesday and Friday last week, with the latter game including his 17th home run of the season. Ramirez went deep again Sunday and plated at least one run in each of his five outings. He leads the Manatees and ranks fourth in the FSL with 61 RBIs on the season.

Midwest League
Adam Brett Walker II, Cedar Rapids
(.400/.480/.950, 6 G, 8-for-20, 2 2B, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 8 R, 4 BB, 4 K)
Though prized prospect Byron Buxton has departed Cedar Rapids for the Florida State League, the Kernels are 16-7 in the second half behind the slugging of Walker, who is cornering the market on Player of the Week awards. He earned his third of the season by homering in three straight games to take over the league lead with 16. The 21-year-old outfielder ranks second on the circuit with 76 RBIs and scored in each of his six games last week.

South Atlantic League
Ryan Rua, Hickory
(.368/.520/.895, 6 G, 7-for-19, 1 2B, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 5 R, 5 BB, 2 K, 3 SV)
Rua and Crawdads teammate Joey Gallo have been battling for the Minor League home run league for much of the season, with Rua pulling into the lead last week after going deep Tuesday and homering twice and driving in six runs Wednesday night. After homering only seven times in 74 games for Spokane in the Northwest League last summer, Rua is having a breakout season in Hickory with 28 long balls in his first 85 Sally League contests. The battle may continue until the end of the season, however -- Gallo is only two blasts behind.

New York-Penn League
Herschel Powell, Vermont
(.522/.577/.652, 7 G, 12-for-23, 1 2B, 1 3B, 4 RBI, 2 R, 3 BB, 3 K, 4 SB)
A 20th-round pick in 2012, Powell has now played in 56 pro games with the AZL Athletics last summer and the Lake Monsters this year. Though the 5-foot-10 outfielder has no power to speak of -- he's hit two triples and four doubles without going deep -- he's supremely gifted at making contact, having fanned just 18 times. The 20-year-old made all kinds of contact last week, posting a three-hit game Tuesday and wrapping the week by going 4-for-5 at Mahoning Valley on Sunday.

Northwest League
Kyle Von Tungeln, Tri-City
(.318/.464/.682, 6 G, 7-for-22, 3 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 10 R, 5 BB, 4 K)
Von Tungeln has bounced around this season, playing 35 games for Class A Asheville and 14 for Class A Advanced Modesto before returning to Tri-City, where he was a Northwest League postseason All-Star last summer. The familiar surroundings seem to have worked wonders, as the 22-year-old TCU product tripled in his first two games, doubled in each of his next three and scored 11 times in his first six before being kept off the basepaths on an 0-for-4 Sunday.

Appalachian League
Toby Thomas, Bristol
(.423/.444/.769, 6 G, 11-for-26, 3 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 6 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB)
A 21st-round pick out of Pensacola State last month, Thomas has hit the ground running in the Appy League. The shortstop sports a 12-game hit streak -- longest on the circuit thus far this season -- and hit his first two professional home runs in back-to-back games at Elizabethton last week. Though his final two games of the week lacked long balls, Thomas collected three hits apiece in the outings and has fanned just once in his last 10 contests.

Pioneer League
Cal Towey, Orem
(.450/.600/.850, 6 G, 9-for-20, 3 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 7 R, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 SB)
Towey takes Pioneer League honors for the second straight week, as befits a player who leads the circuit in on-base percentage (.505), slugging (.649), walks (24), RBIs (26) and runs (21). The 23-year-old Baylor product, a 17th-round selection in June, had his 10-game hitting streak snapped Sunday against Billings -- if only because the Mustangs walked him three times. The only near-weakness Towey has shown is a susceptibility to left-handed pitching, against which he is just 1-for-9 with four strikeouts -- but he's also drawn nine walks against southpaws for a .550 OBP.

John Parker is an editor for MiLB.com.