Frazier among top prospect performers Monday

Josh Staumont put a bow on his regular season Monday by doing what he does best — miss bats.

The Royals’ No. 11 prospect matched his career high with 12 strikeouts and fired six scoreless innings to pace Double-A Northwest Arkansas in a 7-0 shutout of Arkansas and clinch the Texas League North Division second-half title. He scattered four hits and walked two while throwing 65 of his 91 pitches for strikes.

Staumont struck out the side in three of his six frames en route to fanning 12 of the 23 batters he faced in the outing. It was his fourth start with double-digit strikeouts and third since being promoted to the Northwest Arkansas in the middle of July. The 22-year-old righty was especially dominant down the stretch, racking up 30 strikeouts in just 17 innings across his final three starts for the Naturals.

Staumont finished his first taste of the Double-A level with a 2-1 record and 3.04 ERA in 11 starts, during which he compiled 73 strikeouts against 37 walks in 50 1/3 innings. It was a strong showing for the 2015 second-rounder, who had struggled to the tune of a 2-10 record and a 5.05 ERA with a 94-67 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 73 innings with Class A Advanced Wilmington prior to advancing to the Texas League.

All together, Staumont finished second among all qualified Minor League hurlers with 167 strikeouts and first with 12.2 strikeouts per nine innings. Unfortunately, his 104 walks and walks-per-nine rate of 7.6 were both the worst in the Minors, leading many to believe that the Azusa Pacific product is destined for a bullpen role long term.

The rest of the best performances from top prospects Monday

• After spending a little over a week on the disabled list with a hamstring injury, No. 17 overall prospect Clint Frazier (Yankees’ No. 1) returned to action with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to club his 16th home run in his first at-bat. The 21-year-old outfielder went 1-for-5 at the plate in the contest to finish the regular season with a .263/.335/.447 batting line in 119 games between the Double- and Triple-A levels.

• No. 34 overall prospect Cody Bellinger (Dodgers’ No. 1) made headlines on Sunday by going deep twice in his first start for Triple-A Oklahoma City. The 21-year-old first baseman continued to swing a hot bat on Monday as he went 2-for-5 with another home run, his 26th of the season. Over his final 10 regular-season contests between Double-A Tulsa and Oklahoma …

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