Trenton to the Gulf Coast

What lower-level minor leaguers are having the best seasons?

For the second-place Trenton Thunder, Jorge Vazquez, the elder statesman of the team (he's 27) is having a great year: .291/.309/.538. The OBP should be higher considering his age, but the BA and SLG are very good.

On the pitching side, highly-touted prospect Zach McAllister (photo) is having a tremendous season. He leads Thunder starters in ERA (1.91), innings (47), WHIP (1.11) and strikeouts (32).

Down in Florida, the fifth-place Tampa Yankees split time between two great catching prospects: Austin Romine and Jesus Montero. Romine's having a solid year, but because he plays in the shadow of Jesus, it doesn't get noticed much. His batting line is .282/.301/.442, and he's thrown out 12 of 36 base-stealers. Then there's Jesus: .327/.384/.526, but he's terrible at gunning down base-thieves (eight in 55 attempts).

Sandwich-round pitcher Jeremy Bleich is having a solid if unspectacular start to his pro career: 56 innings, 3.86 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 38 K, 16 BB.

The Low-A Charleston RiverDogs currently sit in first place, primarily thanks to right-fielder Dan Brewer, who's killing the ball (.350/.441/.513).

6'10" Andrew Brackman leads the team in innings, but has had major ups and downs in his first pro season. After an awesome start on May 22 (8 ip, 1 er, 5 h, 1 bb, 6 k), he utterly fell apart on Tuesday (3.1 ip, 3 er, 1 h, 10 bb, 1 k, 5 wp).

Switch-pitcher Pat Venditte is still toiling away in Charleston despite dominating the competition. He's clearly deserving of a promotion: 20 innings, .90 ERA, 31 K, 1 BB, .80 WHIP. What could possibly be keeping him down there?