Jimmy Paredes Named PCL Player of the Week
ROUND ROCK, Texas - Jimmy Paredes of the Omaha Storm Chasers and Kyle Hendricks of the Iowa Cubs have been named Pacific Coast League Player and Pitcher of the Week for the week of May 12th-18th, the league office announced today.
Jimmy Paredes collected a career-high eight RBIs on May 12th against New Orleans and produced his first-ever cycle. The third baseman hit a fourth-inning grand slam followed by a triple in the sixth and a double in the seventh, before completing the first cycle in Werner Park history with a single in the bottom of the eighth. The cycle was the first for a Storm Chaser since Lorenzo Cain accomplished the feat on May 14, 2011. Paredes finished the week with a PCL-high 12 RBIs, while also accumulating seven runs scored, two stolen bases, and ten hits including five for extra-bases. In six games played he compiled a .400 batting average and .483 on-base percentage, helping Omaha to four wins.
Paredes, 25, is playing in his eighth professional season since signing with the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 2006 out of the Dominican Republic. He was acquired by the Royals on Feb. 17, 2014 when Kansas City selected him off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles. He has played in four games this season with the Royals, contributing two stolen bases and two runs. The Player of the Week accolade is his second in the PCL, with the previous coming on July 23, 2012, when he was a member of the Oklahoma City RedHawks.
Kyle Hendricks earned his fourth win of the season when he tossed eight scoreless innings and limited Round Rock to three hits, in Iowa's 2-0 shutout victory on May 15th. The 24-year-old struck out a career-high 11 batters, while not surrendering a walk in his 100-pitch outing. The right-hander lowered his ERA that night to 3.06 and now has 54 strikeouts this season, the third-most in the PCL. The California native holds the league's fourth-best strikeouts per nine innings ratio with a 9.72 mark.
The 2014 season is Hendricks' fourth in professional baseball since being drafted by the Texas Rangers in the eighth round of the 2011 First-Year Player Draft out of Dartmouth College. He joined the Chicago Cubs on July 31, 2012 in a three-player trade that sent Ryan Dempster to the Rangers. Hendricks now owns two Pitcher of the Week awards in his career, and is the third member of the Iowa Cubs' starting rotation to receive the honor this season.