Talking Chop's Minor League Player of the Week: Dustin Peterson

This week was a particularly tough choice as there were several players who had strong weeks including John Gant, Mallex Smith, Christian Bethancourt, Kolby Allard, Matt Bywater (who was probably second and definitely deserves recognition in giving up no earned runs in his first two starts in the Braves organization), and several others. However, we decided this week's minor league player of the week is none other that Dustin Peterson. During the first half of the season, Dustin was a revelation in that he was a power hitting outfield prospect that was hitting close to .300. Then the Mudcats' bus crash happened which took him out of action for a while, and when he returned he looked like close to the same player. However, as we entered the second half of the season, he just flat out stopped hitting and saw his average drop below .250 and he hadn't hit a home run since July 17th.

Luckily for him (and the Mudcats), that all seemed to change this past week. In the past week, he is 9 for 23 with two homers (including a grand slam), 4 BB, and just two strikeouts. Having 3 multi-hit games during that stretch is certainly encouraging as well as his average has jumped up close to 10 points in just the past week. While having multiple hits is good, whats really encouraging are the home runs as much of his value as a prospect comes from his ability to be a threat to leave the ballpark as the Braves have no shortage of left fielders that have doubles power and most are probably better in the outfield than Dustin. Hopefully Dustin can take his performance this past week and sustain it as he finishes the season and begins to look towards starting in AA next season. Congratulations to Dustin Peterson on a great week!