Powerful performances from prime positional prospects permeate this week’s edition of NoMaas’ MLPW.

Minor League Players of the Week:

Pitcher:
Adam Warren, 22, RHP, A+
12 IP, 5 K, 4 BB, 5 H, 1 ER

This was a bad week for worms. In his two starts this past week, NoMaas interviewee Adam Warren generated a whopping 26 groundball outs (18 of which came in his May 17th start) versus only two outs through the air. While his strikeouts numbers aren’t exactly what you’d want (6.49 K/9 in ‘10), they’re perfectly acceptable given his penchant for limiting walks (2.5 BB/9, 2.64 K/BB) while inducing grounders (2.38 GO/AO). Warren’s work on the year is certainly impressive (6-3, 1.93 ERA, 3.15 FIP) and if he continues on this dominant path, a promotion to Trenton would probably be in the works at some point this summer.

Position Player:
Austin Romine, 21, RHB C, AA
.458/.458/.667 in 24 PAs

Austin Romine was NoMaas’ Positional Player of the Month in April.

Another great week from Romine, whose line on the year is a robust .326/.386/.508. While his numbers aren’t likely to stay that high (.396 BABIP vs. .325 career), he’s not going to fall off of a statistical cliff like A-Jax last year. As you can see from his line, he hasn’t taken too many walks as of late, but his free pass numbers are still up from what they were last year. Romine’s home run total isn’t on 2009’s pace, but his doubles are piling up and as things get warmer, we can probably expect to see some of those two-baggers turn into round-trippers.

Consider this: Baseball America ranked Austin Romine as the 86th best prospect in baseball coming into 2010 after he posted a .763 OPS in Hi-A Tampa. Now, he’s at AA, a level many regard as where the wheat gets separated from the chaff, and he’s got a .895 OPS. If Romine had just repeated his average offense from ’09, he would’ve warranted consideration as a prospect in the upper half of those hundred players. With his work this year, Austin Romine is cementing himself in that top 50 and putting himself in contention for an even stronger ranking.

Honorable Mentions:

Brandon Laird, 22, RHB 3B, AA
.375/.444/.500 in 27 PAs
Trenton’s 3-4 of Laird and Romine is killing right now.

Rob Lyerly, 22, LHB 3B, A
.350/.435/.550 in 23 PAs
Lyerly showing some of the power the Yankes envisioned when they drafted him.

Jesus Montero, 20, RHB C, AAA
.263/.440/.474 in 25 PAs
The Jesus makes his first appearance on MLPW.

Romulo Sanchez, 26, RHP, AAA
6 IP, 7 K, 6 BB, 1H, 0 ER
Sanchez impressed in his 3.2 scoreless innings with the big league team.