By Sam Dykstra / MiLB.com | August 15, 2018 10:30 AM

Nineteen days are all that remain on the full-season Minor League calendar.

Last Friday, Toolshed blended some individual accomplishments with team goals to look at which prospects could have a major impact on playoff races across the Minors. This time, the column keeps its focus squarely on the players themselves.

While the Major League landscape focuses on which NL Rookie of the Year candidates will pull away (seriously, how good have Juan Soto and Ronald Acuña Jr. been?) or who might beat out the injured Mike Trout in the AL MVP race, this Toolshed looks at the statistical races happening across Minor League leaderboards. Some are well-known (like a certain Blue Jays prospect’s chase for a special batting average). Others less so. One thing’s for sure — these storylines will add even more excitement over the final three weeks of an already memorable season.

 

ERA
Leader: Alex Fagalde, 1.42
Contenders: David Parkinson (1.51), Osvaldo Hernandez (1.81), Garrett Whitlock (1.85), Ramon Rosso (1.86)

Fagalde was a 30th-round pick out of UC Riverside last year but has made his first full Minor League season a potentially special one. The 24-year-old right-hander has allowed just one earned run over his last six starts (36 innings), good enough for a 0.25 ERA in that span, to claim this spot. Even since moving from Class A Peoria to Class A Advanced Palm Beach, he’s only given up the one earned run in 18 frames, striking out 17 and walking three. Of course, one even OK start could change the leaderboard here, as Parkinson learned when he gave up two earned runs in five innings for Class A Advanced Clearwater last Friday, causing his ERA to “jump” from 1.41 to 1.51 and thus moving him out of the top spot.

 

This isn’t just his level either, he leads the entire minor league system.

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