Roller Wins EL Player of the Week

The Eastern League announced Monday that Trenton Thunder first baseman  Kyle Roller was selected as the winner of the Eastern League Player of the Week Award for the period of April 15th through April 21st.

Roller, a 25-year old  selected by the New York Yankees in the eighth round of the 2010 draft out of East Carolina University, batted .455 (15-for-33) with two doubles, two home runs, seven RBI, six runs scored and a .757 slugging percentage in seven games for the Thunder last week.  

The Rockingham, N.C. native, had at least one hit in each of the seven games he played in last week and had six multiple hit games, including going 3-for-5 with a homer, two RBI and two runs scored in a 10-6 win at Erie on Sunday afternoon.  The 6'1", 250 lb. slugger led all Eastern League players in hits (15) and total bases (23) last week and also ranked among the weekly leaders in batting average (.455-2nd), home runs (2-tied 2nd), slugging percentage (.697-3rd), OPS (1.152-5th), runs scored (6-tied 6th) and RBI (7-tied 7th).  

He is batting .348 in 16 games for the Thunder this season and he currently leads the league in hits (24) and is tied for the league lead in home runs (4).  Kyle, who was a Florida State League All-Star last season after hitting .266 with 18 home runs and 85 RBI for the Tampa Yankees.

Nathan Karns, a right-handed starting pitcher for the Harrisburg Senators, was selected as the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week for the period.