The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year Award

The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year Award was presented annually by The Sporting News to a player in Minor League Baseball deemed to have had the most outstanding season. It was awarded annually starting in 1936, and was last known to have been awarded in 2007.

Winners
The first winner of the award, Johnny Vander Meer, subsequently pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) and is best known for pitching back-to-back no-hitters in 1938. Several winners of the award are inductees of the National Baseball Hall of Fame: Johnny Bench, Vladimir Guerrero, Derek Jeter, Pedro Martínez, Tim Raines, Jim Rice, and Phil Rizzuto. Two players won the award twice: Gene Conley (1951, 1953) and Sandy Alomar Jr. (1988, 1989). There was one tie, occurring in 1988 when Alomar Jr. shared the honor with Gary Sheffield. Each winner of the award went on to play in MLB, with the exception of Jason Stokes, who won the award in 2002 while in Class A and later reached the Triple-A level.


 * 1936: Johnny Vander Meer
 * 1937: Charlie Keller
 * 1938: Fred Hutchinson
 * 1939: Lou Novikoff
 * 1940: Phil Rizzuto
 * 1941: Johnny Lindell
 * 1942: Dick Barrett
 * 1943: Chet Covington
 * 1944: Ripper Collins
 * 1945: Gil Coan
 * 1946: Sibby Sisti
 * 1947: Hank Sauer
 * 1948: Gene Woodling
 * 1949: Orie Arntzen
 * 1950: Frank Saucier
 * 1951: Gene Conley
 * 1952: Moose Skowron
 * 1953: Gene Conley
 * 1954: Herb Score
 * 1955: Red Murff
 * 1956: Steve Bilko
 * 1957: Norm Siebern
 * 1958: Jim O'Toole
 * 1959: Frank Howard


 * 1960: Willie Davis
 * 1961: Howie Koplitz
 * 1962: Bob Bailey
 * 1963: Don Buford
 * 1964: Mel Stottlemyre
 * 1965: Joe Foy
 * 1966: Mike Epstein
 * 1967: Johnny Bench
 * 1968: Merv Rettenmund
 * 1969: Danny Walton
 * 1970: Don Baylor
 * 1971: Bobby Grich
 * 1972: Tom Paciorek
 * 1973: Steve Ontiveros
 * 1974: Jim Rice
 * 1975: Héctor Cruz
 * 1976: Pat Putnam
 * 1977: Ken Landreaux
 * 1978: Champ Summers
 * 1979: Mark Bomback
 * 1980: Tim Raines
 * 1981: Mike Marshall
 * 1982: Ron Kittle
 * 1983: Kevin McReynolds


 * 1984: Alan Knicely
 * 1985: Jose Canseco
 * 1986: Tim Pyznarski
 * 1987: Randy Milligan
 * 1988: Sandy Alomar Jr. & Gary Sheffield
 * 1989: Sandy Alomar Jr.
 * 1990: José Offerman
 * 1991: Pedro Martínez
 * 1992: Tim Salmon
 * 1993: Cliff Floyd
 * 1994: Derek Jeter
 * 1995: Karim García
 * 1996: Vladimir Guerrero
 * 1997: Ben Grieve
 * 1998: Gabe Kapler
 * 1999: Rick Ankiel
 * 2000: Jon Rauch
 * 2001: Josh Beckett
 * 2002: Jason Stokes
 * 2003: Zack Greinke
 * 2004: Dallas McPherson
 * 2005: Brandon Wood
 * 2006: Alex Gordon
 * 2007: Jay Bruce

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