YGY Staten Island Yankees’ Top 5 Players Of The Week (7/28-8/4)

Honorable Mention: SS Vicente Conde (.243, 0 HR’s, 5 RBI’s)

It has been a long season for Conde. He came to Staten Island in early July after being a part of the Vanderbilt Commodores team that won the College World Series this past June. One of the aspects of Conde’s game that puts him on this list is his defense. In the seventh inning on Monday, he made a leaping catch to take away a base hit. In 19 games, the shortstop has three errors this season, but just one error this past week (Thursday, July 31). Plus, he has turned 15 double plays, which leads the team at that position (Jose Javier has seven), according to Baseball Reference.

The average has been low for Conde, but he may have found his groove over the weekend against the Auburn Doubledays. In the three-game series, he went 4-for-9 with a RBI (two RBI’s this past week). He is not an extra-base hitter, with 16 of his 17 hits resulting in a single. However, it’s the walks that stand out. The shortstop has 11 walks this season, five of them coming in the past week and three of them in the loss on Monday. With the walks starting to pile up, the pitch selection improvement could lead to better offensive strides from the 20-year-old going forward.