MWL1 Burlington Bees

Montgomery Named Royals' Top Prospect

Published on January 12, 2010 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Burlington Bees News Release


Burlington, IA (January 12, 2010) - 2010 will mark the tenth consecutive season that Burlington has been a proud part of the Royals' player development pipeline. If a new Baseball America list proves accurate, that pipeline will soon yield a bumper crop of talented former Bees at the major league level.

According to a list released Monday by the Durham, N.C.-based publication, six former Bees, all of whom spent time with the club over the last two seasons, are among the Kansas City Royals' top ten minor league prospects. Former first round selections Mike Montgomery (No. 1), Mike Moustakas (No. 4) and Eric Hosmer (No. 5) are joined on the list by No. 6 Tim Melville, No. 8 Danny Duffy, and No. 10 David Lough.

Montgomery takes the organization's top spot for the first time since the Royals drafted him in the supplemental first round of the 2008 draft. He earned the organization's pole position with dominant showings at two stops last season. The lanky lefthander carved up Midwest League hitters with a 2.17 ERA in 12 starts, including 52 strikeouts and a.206 opponents' batting average in 58 innings. The effort earned him a promotion to High-A Wilmington, where he continued his dominance to the tune of a 2.25 ERA in nine starts.

Montgomery's scintillating full-season debut was enough to wrest the top spot from 2009 top prospect Mike Moustakas. Moustakas, like Montgomery, earned the honor with a standout season in a Bees uniform. The third baseman and former first-round draft pick continued his ascent toward Kansas City with 16 home runs and 86 driven in at Wilmington a year after leading Burlington to its fourth Midwest League championship, a club featuring fellow prospects Duffy and Lough.

Eric Hosmer and Tim Melville, numbers five and six on the Baseball America list, spent time in Burlington just last summer. Hosmer, the third overall selection in the 2009 draft, batted.254 with 17 doubles and five home runs before a late July bump to Wilmington. Melville, regarded by many as a first-round talent who fell to the fourth round in 2008 due to concerns that he would choose college over pro ball, posted a strong full-season debut with a 3.79 ERA in 21 starts with 96 strikeouts in 97 innings pitched.

Of the four members of the Royals' top ten who have not spent time in a Bees uniform, Baseball America lists No. 3 Wil Myers and No. 7 John Lamb among those likely to begin 2010 in Burlington. No. 2 Aaron Crow and No. 9 Chris Dwyer, according to the publication, are likely to break camp with Double-A Northwest Arkansas and High-A Wilmington, respectively.

COMING UP: Less than twenty tickets remain for this Friday's Burlington Bees/Friends of Community Field Winter Banquet. Tickets for the event, to be held once again this year at the PZAZZ! Convention & Events Center, are $50 each or $350 for a table of eight. The festivities start with a cocktail hour and the opening of the silent auction at 6:00 p.m. A full dinner will be served buffet-style starting at 7:00. 22-year major league veteran Bill Buckner will be the event's keynote speaker, which will include a question and answer session and live auction as well. For more information or tickets, please contact the Bees at (319) 754-5705 or staff@gobees.com.

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Midwest League Stories from January 12, 2010


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