Photo by Ed Delany

Last week was just the latest week in the unfathomably great start Peter Alonso has had to the 2018 season. During the week, Alonso was 12-22 with eight runs, a double, four homers, eight walks, and eight RBI.

During that stretch, Alonso not only registered a hit in all six games, but he also drew a walk in all five of the six games as well. Currently, he is the middle of a seven game hitting streak that has seen him get not only multiple hits in five of the seven games, but he has an extra base hit in six of the seven games. In fact, he has hit a home run in four straight games. Teams are not only having difficulty getting him out, they’re having difficulty limiting him to a single.

With that week, it is of little surprise he was named as the Eastern League Player of the Week for the week ending April 29th. What is a shock is this was the first time this season he has been named as the Player of the Week.

In addition to the Player of the Week honors, Alonso was also named to Baseball America‘s Hot Sheet for the week ending April 22nd. In naming him to the Hot Sheet, Baseball America noted Alonso has made the transition from a slugger with raw power to a more complete and dangerous hitter. In their analysis, Baseball America noted, Alonso “doesn’t strike out excessively and he’s displaying more plate patience than he did a year ago, with 14 walks in 20 games this year compared to 27 in 90 games last year.”

Overall, Alonso is hitting .403/.500/.778 with six doubles, seven homers, and 18 RBI. Those stats make him the league leader in batting average, OBP, SLG, OPS, runs, hits, homers, extra base hits, and total bases. Simply put, Alonso has been dominating the Eastern League.  If he keeps this up, we may very well see him accumulate many more awards this season.