PEORIA, IL – Minor League Baseball and the Peoria Chiefs have announced that second baseman Brendan Donovan was named the Uncle Ray’s Midwest League Player of the Month for July. Donovan joins former pitcher Tommy Parsons, now in Double-A Springfield, as Chiefs players to win the award this season as the hurler won the April award.
Donovan hit .390 in 21 games in July with 30 hits, 24 runs scored, 14 extra-base hits, 14 RBI and 11 walks. He led the Midwest League in Batting Average, On-Base Percentage (.489), Slugging Percentage (.675) in the month and was the only MWL player to record an OPS over 1 at 1.164. He also led the league in extra-base hits, finished second in runs scored, fourth in total bases (52) and third in doubles (9). Donovan has reached base safely in 22 straight games dating back to the July 7 game in Burlington in which he was 0-for-4. Since that game he has raised his average from .218 to .270, thanks in large part to a 12-game hit streak from July 8-21 that saw Donovan bat .468 with 10-extra base hits and 10 RBI.
Donovan leads the MWL in every slash category in the second half of the season batting .373 with a .500 OBP, .657 SLG and 1.157 OPS. He has a league best 19 extra-base hits since the All-Star game, ranks third with 32 runs scored, fourth with 13 doubles, fifth with 67 total bases and seventh with 22 walks despite missing seven games with an ankle injury from June 26 through July 5.
Donovan enters Tuesday’s doubleheader in Wisconsin with 53 walks on the season, the sixth highest tally by any Chiefs player this decade. He leads the Chiefs with 59 runs scored, the 15th highest tally by a Chiefs player this decade. Donovan is tops among all Chiefs players with at least 250 at-bats in AVG, OPS, SLUG and OPS. He is first or second on the Chiefs roster in total bases, extra-base hits, RBI, home runs, doubles, triples and hit by pitches while also ranking third in hits.
