PLAYER of the MONTH

The Player for the Month of June 1945 is the Catcher and 4th overall pick in this years draft Bill Salkeld of the Muskegon ThunderDawgs.  Bill is throwing his hat into the ring for ROY consideration with his performance this month.  Bill led the league in Batting Average (.435), On-base Percentage (.505), Slugging Percentage (.685) and RBI (27) for the month of June.  His .435 average consisted of 40 hits in 92 at bats with nine doubles, one triple and four home runs.  Bill scored 17 runs and had a 4:1 walk to strikeout ratio and a stolen base.  He appeared in 26 games in June with at least one hit in 20 of those games and twelve multiple hit games which led to three game winning RBI.  He raised his season batting average from .275 to .335.  His best game came on June 12th where he was 5-5 with five runs scored, two RBI and a home run.  

Other Player of the Month Candidates:

RF	Tommy (Kelly) Holmes of Montgomery the third overall pick in 1942 batted .408 (42-103) in June with a slugging percentage of .583.  During the month Tommy hit seven doubles, one triple and three home runs.  He also knocked in 17 teammates, scored 18 times and was walked 16 times.

CF	Goody Rosen a fourth round pick in 1937 is playing in only his second season since being drafted is taking advantage of his opportunity.  Goody batted .352 (45-128) with a slugging percentage of .477 which included three doubles, two triples and three home runs.  Goody also scored 22 times, knocked in 16 runs, was walked ten times and stole three bases.

2B	Snuffy Stirnweiss on Montgomery who was a runner up last month as well, batted .340 (36-106) with a slugging percentage of .509.  Snuffy hit nine doubles, three triples and a home run in June with 22 runs scored and 14 RBI.

The Pitcher of the Month of June 1945 is the starting pitcher of the Muskegon ThunderDawgs Roger Wolff.  Roger who was a third round pick back in 1941 is starting games for the first time in his career.  Roger was 4-1 in June in six starts with four complete games and two shutouts.  He finished with an ERA of 2.03 allowing only ten earned runs in 44.33 innings of work.  He had a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio (21:7) never allowing more then two walks in a game.  Roger was benefited from his schedule getting three of his wins and two of his complete games facing the three teams at the bottom of the standings so far this season (Pawtucket, St. Louis and Freemont).  His overall record has climbed to 10-2 and his season ERA is 1.86.

Other Pitcher of the Month Candidates:

RP	Ralph (Hawk) Branca of North Dallas who was the 8th overall pick in 1944 was 3-0 with three saves in ten games in June.  His ERA was 1.17 with three earned run in 23 innings.

SP	Nels (Nellie) Potter of North Dallas who was 4-2 in six starts with five complete games and one shutout.  He produced an ERA of 1.73 with ten earned runs in 52 innings.  Nels struck out 23 opponents and only allowed 39 hits.

SP	Runner up for the second straight month was 3-0 in June in six starts with one complete game.  He had an ERA of 2.74 with 14 earned runs in 46 innings with 24 strikeouts.