Atlanta Announces Minor League Award Winners

PEARL, MS --  The Atlanta Braves announced its 2017 Minor League Pitchers and Players of the Year. The honorees will be recognized on Future Stars Night, tonight, at SunTrust Park. Mike Soroka  and Ronald Acuña Jr. received the honors for the Double-A Mississippi club.
Soroka, 20, went 11-8 with a 2.75 ERA in 26 starts for the Double-A Braves this season. The young right-hander posted his best numbers in June and was named by the Braves as June's Pitcher of the Month in Mississippi after going 3-1 with a 0.79 ERA in five starts. Soroka was selected as a 2017 Southern League All-Star and was named to the 2017 SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game. The Braves No. 4 prospect, as ranked by Baseball America, finished the season with the second-best ERA in the Southern League. He ranked fourth among league leaders in innings pitched (153.2) and third in WHIP (1.09). The Canadian was selected by the Braves in the first round (28th overall) of the 2015 draft.
Acuna, 19, lead the Braves organization with a combined .325 average in 139 games this season between three levels. He also led in home runs (21), RBI (82) and stolen bases (44). With Double-A Mississippi, Acuna posted a .326 batting average with 24 extra-base hits, 30 RBI and 19 stolen bases in 57 games (early May through mid-July). He was named Braves Organizational Player of the Month at Double-A Mississippi after posting a .415 batting average with seven doubles, a triple, three homers and 15 RBI in 21 games during the month of May. As ranked by Baseball America, the Braves No. 6 prospect started the season at High-Florida where he hit .287 with three doubles, five triples, three homers, 19 RBI and 14 stolen bases in 28 games. He finished the year with Triple-A Gwinnett, hitting .344 with 14 doubles, two triples, nine homers and 33 RBI. A native of Venezuela, Acuna was signed by the Braves as a non-drafted free agent on July 2, 2014.

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