Rays Prospect Brody Hopkins Named Triple-A Pitcher of the Week

The Tampa Bay Rays farm system continues to gain the praise it deserves. 

After another solid week from the organization's prospects, one of the team's up-and-coming pitchers was acknowledged among some of the best in all the minor leagues. On Monday, MILB announced that Rays right-handed pitcher Brody Hopkins was named the Triple-A pitcher of the week. 

He takes the honors as a member of the Durham Bulls for the International League. Hopkins has carried a 1.77 ERA in May and brought it in his last start on the road against the Norfolk Tides. The 24-year-old pitched five innings of shutout baseball and picked up nine strikeouts in the process. He was near perfect on the mound, with the only blunder to the stat sheet being one walk on the evening. He now has 55 strikeouts over 48 innings pitched this season. 

His top-end performance comes at a great time for one of the Rays' top prospects, as he was trending in the wrong direction before the month started. Earlier in May, MLB Pipeline released its updated Top 100, and Hopkins was one of the list's biggest fallers, moving down 18 spots to 86th overall. 

One of the biggest concerns entering May was his walks, and other than his shutout performance last time out, May 29 against Norfolk, it still seems to be a problem. He now has 43 walks in those 48 innings this year, but hopefully this past start moves him trending in the right direction. 

In other news around the Rays' minor leagues, the High-A Bowling Green Hot Rods are still the best show in town when it comes to watching some of the best future potential big leaguers in one spot. 

Catcher Caden Bodine, the Rays' #12 prospect, moved his home run total to seven over the weekend after hitting a multi-homer game Sunday against Hudson Valley. 

Other top prospects in the organization, such as Theo Gillen (Rays #1 prospect) and Nathan Flewelling (#3), are also on the Hot Rods Roster. 

In Montgomery, right-handed pitcher Michael Forret (#8) continues to have great outings on the mound and picked up another quality start over the weekend. He went seven innings and recorded eight strikeouts against the Rocket City Trash Pandas, moving him to 5-0 on the season and recording an astonishing 54 strikeouts and 19 walks across 49 innings of work.

Forret and Bodine are proving to be valuable pieces to the Rays organization after being acquired from the Baltimore Orioles this past winter in the Shane Baz trade.