The Bradenton Marauders will have two players on the Florida State League Post-Season All-Star team for the second straight year, as Robbie Grossman and Elevyz Gonzalez have been named to the team for the 2011 season.
Grossman has really stepped up this year in high-A, with good all around numbers, including his lead over all of baseball in runs and all of Minor League Baseball in walks with 123 and 102 respectively. He is also first in the Florida State League in games played and on-base percentage, third in hits and fifth in total bases. Grossman is the team’s active leader in homeruns with 13 and has driven in more than 50 runs while hovering around a .300 average. His stolen base total is at 24. He has also shined defensively with nine outfield assists.
Elevys Gonzalez has put up a career year for the Marauders, eclipsing his previous career highs in average, games, at-bats, runs, doubles, triples, RBI, walks, strikeouts, on-base percentage and slugging. He is one shy of his total in homeruns. His 79 RBI rank second in the Florida State League and are more than he’d put up in his entire career combined prior to this year.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
Tim, is Gonzalez maybe turning the corner and becoming more of a prospect? I know coming into this season he was looking like an organizational guy, but his bat really came to life.