Chihuahuas pitcher Daniel McCutchen named PCL Pitcher of the Week
ROUND ROCK , Texas – Nashville Sounds center fielder Jaycob Brugman and El Paso Chihuahuas pitcher Daniel McCutchen are the Pacific Coast League Player and Pitcher of the Week for June 6 -12, the league office announced Monday afternoon.
Brugman’s torrid start to his Triple-A career continued in seven games this past week. He hit an MiLB-best seven doubles and nine extra base hits, while leading all of Triple-A baseball with 27 total bases, tying for the Triple-A high with 14 hits and tying for the PCL high with 12 RBI. Additionally, Brugman batted .467 (14-for-30) with two home runs, nine runs scored and a 1.385 OPS. He had hits in six of the seven games, including finishing the week with three straight games of three or more hits.
Since his Triple-A debut May 21 , a span of 22 games, the BYU product has a PCL-best 33 hits and 14 doubles. Brugman started the year with Double-A Midland and had a .775 OPS in 38 games upon his promotion. The Athletics selected the Arizona native in the 17 th round of the 2013 MLB First-Year Player Draft. In 378 career minor league contests, the 24-year-old has hit .272 with 36 home runs, 205 RBI and a .782 OPS. He was a 2014 Oakland MiLB.com Organizational All-Star. This is his first career Player of the Week.
McCutchen twirled a pair of scoreless outings for El Paso, winning both, in 12 combined innings. He surrendered eight total hits, one unearned run, with two walks, 10 strikeouts, a 0.83 WHIP and .190 batting average against. On June 6 at Fresno, he went 6.0 innings, scattering six hits with no walks and three strikeouts. He capped his week by tossing 6.0 shutout innings, giving up two hits with seven strikeouts in El Paso’s June 12 win against Sacramento. He was one of four PCL pitchers to win both starts this past week, but the only one to not allow any earned runs.
The veteran right-hander, in his second year with the Chihuahuas, is tied for the PCL lead with 13 games started. McCutchen has gone 6.0 innings in each of his last four starts, allowing a single earned run in that time (0.37 ERA). Furthermore, through 18.0 innings in June, his 0.50 ERA is the lowest ERA among PCL pitchers with at least 15.0 innings.
San Diego is the sixth organization McCutchen has been a part of in his 11-year professional career (NYY, PIT, BAL, TEX, CHW), with the Chihuahuas representing the second PCL team he has pitched for (Round Rock – 2014). In 10 minor league seasons, McCutchen has a 3.85 ERA in 979.1 innings. Over 191.0 major league innings, the 33-year-old Texas native has a 4.81 ERA. This is his second career Pitcher of the Week award, with his previous coming in August 2009 with the International League’s Indianapolis Indians. McCutchen is the fourth Chihuahua to win a weekly award this season, but the previous three – Hunter Renfroe, Casey McElroy and Ryan Schimpf – were all honored as the Player of the Week.
