Let’s take one last stroll through the minor league batting leaderboards before we say our final goodbyes to the ’09 season. Here you’ll find full-season minor league leaders (to 15 places) in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, home runs, doubles, stolen bases, strikeouts and plate appearances per strikeout, a measure of contact ability. We’ll follow up with the pitching version next week.

Note that players are listed with the teams for which they finished the season. Ages are as of Sept. 1. Primary position is listed. As always, (*) denotes a lefthanded batter and (#) a switch-hitter. Make use of our Player Finder to learn more about players’ schools or countries of origin.

Alex Liddi and Tyson Gillies thrilled spectators at the Futures Game, while Jamie McOwen hit in more consecutive games, 45, than any minor leaguer had since the mid-1950s. All three are Mariners farmhands, of course, but more significantly, all three played for high Class A High Desert. The Mavericks hit .298 as a team this season and scored a minor league-best 860 runs, 49 more than runner-up Midland, the Athletics’ Double-A affiliate. High Desert batters particularly enjoyed their time at home, where they hit nearly 60 points higher (.328) than they did in the other California League parks. Liddi (.382 at home), Gillies (.348) and McOwen (.381) were not exceptions to the rule.

Three Padres ’08 draft picks ranked in the top 10, which is especially impressive when you consider one of them was precocious teenager Jaff Decker, the 42nd-overall pick out of a Peoria, Ariz., high school, who nearly took the top spot. That’s not to diminish the accomplishments of third basemen Logan Forsythe and James Darnell, who acclimated quickly to pro ball after standout college careers . . . For an organization not exactly renowned for churning out big league bats, the Giants have to be encouraged by the progress of John Bowker, Thomas Neal, Brock Bond and Buster Posey. A year ago, Bowker sputtered out as a Giants rookie, finishing at .255/.300/.408 with 10 homers in 326 at-bats, but he rebounded nicely with Fresno, posting one of the better all-around seasons in the minors. He batted .342/.451/.596 with 21 homers, 22 doubles and a 74-to-64 walk-to-strikeout ratio.

Park and league factors drove the composition of this list. Look closely and you’ll find that every player, with only one exception, spent most of the season in either the California or Pacific Coast leagues—the two most homer-happy circuits. Acquired by the Rays in the Scott Kazmir deal, Sean Rodriguez did most of his damage not with Durham but with the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate in Salt Lake. And while Kiel Roling played for Asheville, the hitter’s oasis of the South Atlantic League, he homered more frequently (12 to 8) and slugged more (.626 to .558) on the road.

Mike Stanton hit 16 of those home runs as a teenager in Double-A . . . One year removed from the Southeastern Conference, Pedro Alvarez connected for 13 of his bombs at the same level . . . Thanks in part to Mike Bianucci and Mauro Gomez, Bakersfield out-homered every Cal League team except for High Desert, and ranked seventh in the minors.

Note that Scott Van Slyke spent all but the last week of the season with high Class A Inland Empire . . . C.J. Retherford continued to pace the Birmingham offense after the Barons lost Gordon Beckham, Brandon Allen and Tyler Flowers as the season wore on . . . Kyler Burke enjoyed a breakthrough in the Midwest League, batting .303/.405/.505 with 15 home runs in 132 games. His struggles with Fort Wayne (as a Padres farmhand in ’07) and with Peoria last year necessitated demotions to the short-season Northwest League. Not so this year.

It’s jarring to see the Blue Jays, the organization that developed Adam Lind and Travis Snider, with two of the minors’ top basestealers. A Southern Indiana product, Darin Mastroianni led Division II with 64 stolen bases during the ’07 season, while Tyler Pastornicky’s father Cliff played in the big leagues for the ’83 Royals, where he did not manage a stolen base in 10 games . . . Eric Young Jr. established Colorado Springs franchise records for steals (58) and runs scored (118), in the process winning his third league stolen base title. He finished third in the Texas League last year, but he won Cal and Sally titles in the two years previous. His minor league tally: 303 over six seasons.

Greg Halman lost his chance at 200 whiffs when he missed time in June. Despite the odd shape to his season—.210/.278/.420 with 25 homers—he finished with just about average production for a Southern League batter . . . With another season along the lines of this one, Mike Hessman will be pushing 2,000 strikeouts for his minor league career. While it’s unclear where the minor league record stands, we do know that just four big league batters have topped the 2K mountain—Reggie Jackson, Jim Thome, Sammy Sosa and Andres Galarraga . . . Born in Edmonton, Brock Kjeldgaard signed with the Brewers in ’06 as a draft-and-follow from Indian Hills (Iowa) CC. Back then he was a righthander; now he’s a first baseman. In his first season as a position player last year, Kjeldgaard set a Pioneer League record with 113 whiffs. He didn’t set a Midwest League record this year, but 172 is nothing to sneeze at.

Unsurprisingly, this list is dominated by older, bat control-oriented veterans. From the organization that brought us Cuban imports Yunel Escobar, Brayan Pena, Francisley Bueno and Barbaro Canizares, the Braves introduce Donell Linares, a third baseman who signed last June and hit well for high Class A Myrtle Beach—.287/.328/.444 with 15 homers in 130 games—considering he got only a tune-up in the DSL in ’08.