We had the final batting leaderboards last week.

Note that players are listed with the teams for which they finished the season. Ages are as of Sept. 1. As always, (*) denotes a lefthanded pitcher. Make use of our Player Finder to learn more about players’ schools or countries of origin. In most cases the Acquired column provides draft year and round, e.g. 2007 (5).

Fine work by Madison Bumgarner, who last year led the minors with his 1.46 ERA. This season, he survived five starts with San Jose in the California League (1.48 ERA) and then made four big league appearances in September (1.80 ERA) . . . In comparison with his Double-A showing, Travis Wood appeared mortal in Triple-A, going 4-2, 3.14 in eight starts for Louisville. For Caroilna he was 9-3, 1.21 in 19 starts . . . As college draft picks from ’08, the quintet of Brett Lorin, David Phelps, Christian Friedrich, Kenn Kasparek and Jeff Kaplan took full advantage of A-ball competition to finish with miniscule ERAs.

Tim Murphy starred as a two-way athlete at UCLA, moving gradually from outfielder to Bruins ace in ’08. The Angels had drafted him as a position player in ’05 . . . Sam Runion has made 37 appearances (33 starts) in the Midwest League in the past two season. The results: 7-16, 6.40 with 3.7 strikeouts, 2.8 walks and 1.2 home runs per nine innings  . . . The Twins selected Jason Jones as a big league Rule 5 pick from the Yankees with the thought that he might contribute in long relief. They traded Charles Nolte to New York to retain full rights to Jones, who lost his spot in the Rochester rotation for a time at midseason. So in one sense he did make it as a long reliever.

The Rockies typically make a strong showing in the innings category even with all their pitchers working in inhospitable league and/or park conditions. Cory Riordan and Brandon Durden join Keith Weiser, Jhoulys Chacin, Alan Johnson and Brandon Hynick from last year and Hynick, Johnson and Weiser from ’07 . . . The Blue Jays took Long Beach State senior righty Andrew Liebel in the third round a year ago thinking that he could provide instant value as a durable, effective starter. In going 6-13, 3.51, mostly in the Florida State League, he checked in as an essentially league-average hurler.

And the category to feature the most first-round picks is . . . walks. Naturally. Sprinkle in Evan Frederickson, the 35th overall pick a year ago, and a full five of the 15 wildest pitchers entered pro ball as first-rounders . . . Andrew Brackman endured just a miserable year in his first regular season work, going 2-12, 5.91 with 6.4 walks per nine innings in low Class A. He hadn’t pitched since signing in ’07 because of Tommy John surgery . . . An ’04 first-rounder, David Purcey’s walk rate soared back to five per nine innings after showing control gains in each of his past two minor league seasons . . . Jack McGeary didn’t accumulate all those walks in the short-season New York-Penn League, of course. He began the year with low Class A Hagerstown by going 0-6, 6.79 in 13 starts, compiling a 44-to-45 strikeout-to-walk ratio, a ratio that remained largely unchanged upon a demotion to Vermont—45-to-41 in 13 more starts. This season McGeary opted to focus on baseball during the first half of the season, rather than attend Stanford on the Nationals’ dime. He’ll return for classes this fall and winter . . . Strong-armed but wild, Dan Cortes netted the Royals shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, while emerging lefty Alex Torres headed to Tampa Bay in the Scott Kazmir trade . . .

Pitchers at the lower levels have a distinct advantage here. Batters in low Class A strike out in about 20 percent of their plate appearances, whereas Triple-A batters do so in just 17 percent of their PAs . . . At the time, the ’08 Appalachian League appeared to be the domain of shortstops Tim Beckham and Wilmer Flores. But one year out, it’s teenage pitchers Matt Moore, Jordan Lyles and Randall Delgado who had the finest full-season debuts. All three had fine seasons in the South Atlantic League.

If told during the first half that a Tulsa pitcher would win the Double-A Texas League’s pitching triple crown, then smart money would have been on Esmil Rogers. As it turned out Samuel Deduno went 12-4, 2.57 with 123 strikeouts in 133 innings to take the crown. He missed all of last season with injury, so it was a strong comeback for Deduno, whom the Rockies signed out of the Dominican in ’03 . . . Both Dan Hudson and Carlos Torres enjoyed bust-out years and finished the season in the White Sox’ bullpen . . . Evan Anundsen tossed the season’s first no-hitter on April 28 and didn’t let up. He finished 10-8, 2.69 with a career-high 118 strikeouts in 130 1/3 innings.

A Tulane product, Brandon Gomes led all minor league relievers with 65 appearances. He fanned an even 100 batters over 72 innings, earning a spot in the Arizona Fall League.

For a pitcher who bombed out of the Sally League a year ago, Dan Runzler really had a remarkable year, stopping at all four of the Giants’ full-season clubs on his way to San Francisco. In all, he went 5-1, 0.76 with 83 strikeouts, 24 walks and two home runs allowed in 59 innings. Runzler didn’t let up in the big leagues either, allowing one run in 11 appearances while striking out 11 in 8 2/3 innings. Lefthanded batters at the big league level went 1-for-17 (.059) against Runzler. But at the minor league level, Runzler showed no platoon split, handcuffing both lefties and righties alike.