The Eastern League has named Altoona Curve third baseman Hunter Owen as their Player of the Week for April 22-28. Owen hit .417/.440/1.000 in 25 plate appearances last week. He hit three doubles, a triple, three homers, drove in six runs and scored seven times. His strong week earned him a place in our top performers article (The 21) earlier today. He’s hitting .329/.400/.671 in 22 games this season, which has him ranked fourth in the Eastern League in OPS.
Owen and the rest of the Curve are going to have an interesting time facing the Erie SeaWolves this week. The Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers will be sending out three starting pitchers ranked among the top ten prospects in their system. Tonight they will be facing Casey Mize, who was the first overall pick in the 2018 draft and one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball. He will be followed by Matt Manning, who is the 49th best prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline. He was drafted ninth overall out of high school in 2016. Finally, on Wednesday, Alex Faedo will get the start. He was the first round pick (18th overall) of the Tigers in 2017.
The Curve faced Manning back on April 10th and got dominated. He allowed one hit over seven shutout innings, with no walks and ten strikeouts. The only hit he allowed (only base runner as well) was a fifth inning single by Hunter Owen. Faedo, who was named the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week today, didn’t face the Curve during that first series. Mize is making his Double-A debut tonight, and he’s coming off of winning the Florida State League Pitcher of the Week last Monday.
