Charles Announced as Eastern League Player of the Week

Reading Fightin Phils first baseman Art Charles has been selected as the Eastern League Player of the Week for the period of May 4th-May 10th. With the award, Charles becomes the third Fightins player to take Player of the Week or Pitcher of the Week honors this season, joining Zach Eflin and Ben Lively.

Charles hit .632 (12-for-19) with four doubles, four home runs, eight RBIs, seven runs scored, two walks, and a 1.474 slugging percentage in five games for the Fightins last week. The 24-year old slugger recorded three hits in each of the four games he started in last week, including going 3-for-5 with a pair of home runs in a losing effort to Erie on Saturday night.  

Among Eastern League hitters last week, Charles led all players in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage (.667), OPS (2.140), extra-base hits (8), and total bases (28). He was also tied for the lead in runs scored (7) and finished among the weekly league leaders in hits (12-2nd), RBI (8-2nd), and doubles (4-3rd). 

Following his torrid week, Charles improved his batting average to .400 and his slugging percentage to .800, both tops in the Eastern League. A native of Bakersfield, California, Charles was acquired by the Philadelphia Phillies in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays on February 23, 2013. He was originally selected by the Blue Jays in the 20th round of the 2010 draft out of Bakersfield College.

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