Trio of Giants land Trautman Awards

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Gary Brown, Jose Cuevas and Joe Panik, three prospects in the San Francisco Giants system, 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. Panik (2011) and Brown (2010) were both first-round Draft selections of the Giants.

The Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees each had two of their farmhands chosen, and 11 Major League organizations are represented in all.

Brown, an outfielder with the San Jose Giants, led the California League with 13 triples and finished third with a .338 batting average and 49 stolen bases in being named the circuit's Rookie of the Year.

Panik played shortstop for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and was named the Northwest League Most Valuable Player for leading it with a .341 average, 54 RBIs, 92 hits and a .401 on-base percentage.

Cuevas finished among the top three in homers, RBIs, runs, slugging percentage and OPS as a third baseman in winning MVP honors in the Arizona League.

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

Next: Topps Triple-A All-Star Team