Spikes Notebook: Team racking up more awards in 2017

STATE COLLEGE — The State College Spikes continue to rack up awards this season. The latest honor has been bestowed to outfielder Scott Hurst, who takes home NYPL Player of the Week honors for the week ending Aug. 20.

The award was the third for the Spikes this season, and the most for the team since the club earned three Player of the Week and two Pitcher of the Week awards in 2010.

The Cardinals’ 2017 third-round draft choice out of Cal State-Fullerton, Hurst is now sixth in the NYPL in hitting with a .309 average, and his .463 slugging percentage ranks fifth-best in the league.

The scouting report on Hurst is one of contradictions. Scouts feel he will not develop much power, yet his hit tool rates at 60 on the 20/80 scale. One scout I spoke to for an opinion on Hurst described him as a “Scooter Gennett type,” suggesting that he could eventually grow into his power.

With a 60 grade in speed and a 70 grade with his arm, there will undoubtedly be a place for Hurst in the majors one day, but his ceiling is still very much in question.

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Major League Baseball has taken great strides in curbing the scourge of performance-enhancing drugs over the past decade, and the game’s minor leagues are no exception.

State College Spikes catcher Tyler Lancaster, a 2016 16th-round draft choice, has been suspended for 76 games by for his use of a performance-enhancing substance.

All told, Major League Baseball handed out 100 suspensions to minor leaguers in 2016, 108 in 2015, 63 in 2014, 60 in 2013 and 105 in 2012. That 2017 figure clocks in at 66, as of this writing. Of note is that 25.8 percent — 17 in total – of these suspensions were for drugs of abuse such as marijuana or cocaine.

Those figures are surprising, given that there has been a concerted effort to communicate the dangers and consequences of PEDs. Still, players give in to temptation more than common sense would dictate. That axiom is especially true for players such as Lancaster, a fringe prospect hoping to make enough of a mark to continue his professional baseball career.