Royals name Triple-A Players of the Year

The Kansas City Royals announced their Minor League Players and Pitchers of the Year today. They name one player and one pitcher from each respective level. Each player who was chosen will be invited to Kauffman Stadium for Futures Night on Friday, September 20.

Left-handed pitcher Chris Dwyer was named Omaha Pitcher of the Year. He finished the regular season with a 3.55 ERA in 159.2 innings pitched, making 29 regular season appearances (28 starts - 17 of which were quality starts). He led Omaha in starts, innings, wins (10) and starting pitcher ERA. The 25-year old, who finished the season 10-11, held opponents to a .234 batting average and ranked 10th in the Pacific Coast League with 112 strikeouts.

He represented Omaha at the 2013 Triple-A All-Star Game, pitching 1.1 scoreless innings. He is scheduled to be the Game 5 (if necessary) starter for the Storm Chasers in the PCL Championship.

Infielder Christian Colon was named Omaha Player of the Year. The 24-year old batted .273 with 12 home runs, 58 RBIs and 15 stolen bases in 131 games. Colon had an impressive second half, hitting .335 (56-for-167) while posting a .406 on-base percentage. He hit safely in 21 of his final 22 games. He led all active Storm Chasers in at-bats (512), RBIs, multi-hit games (41), hits (140) and runs (72).

Colon split time in the field between second base (72 games) and shortstop (54 games). He's hit second all season and was called upon 15 times during the regular season to drop down a sacrifice bunt. He dropped down two more in Game 1 of the PCL Championship Series on Wednesday.

Early in the season Colon was pressing, saying the pressure was getting the best of him. But he finally decided to focus solely on doing whatever he needed to do to help the team win rather than being concerned about his individual production and that seemed to relax him enough to increase his production.