by Jack Kerwin | ydkjack1@gmail.com Yeah, it’s officially football season. But still … Kinda tough to escape the goings on with Major League Baseball just yet. At least it is for me. Especially with teams pushing for the playoffs down the stretch and individuals stating their cases for individual honors. Thing that really jumps out of late: It looks like reigning American League MVP Josh Donaldson isn’t about to hand over the hardware so easy after all. On pace for a very good season, the Toronto third baseman has gone off recently, super-charging an already-potent lineup with enough juice to carry it past Baltimore and Boston into first place in the AL East. In the last four days alone, Donaldson has five homers, 10 RBIs and seven runs scored. Yeah, no argument here that if you’re going to start a team from scratch, Mike Trout is the most sensible choice. Tremendous talent and just 24. But Donaldson, even at 30, is hardly chopped liver at this point, and, frankly, he’s had a better season than the Angels outfielder again. He leads the AL in runs scored (106), is third in homers (34) and sixth in RBIs (92) and has a better on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS than he did last season when he topped the circuit in runs scored, RBIs and total bases. Oh yeah, he’s also fantastic with the glove. Trout, generally accepted as the best player in the game, shouldn’t even be Donaldson’s biggest challenge to a repeat as league MVP. The stiffest competition right now actually comes in the form of Houston’s diminutive dynamo Jose Altuve (MLB batting average leader), Boston’s Mookie Betts (tied for AL lead with Donaldson on a combined 198 runs and RBIs) and David Ortiz (MLB slugging percentage and OPS leader), and teammate Edwin Encarnacion (AL leader in RBIs). My gut feeling … Donaldson remains hot and runs away with it. HARD TO IGNORE Not for nothing, but one of MLB’s great individual achievements is registering 400 total bases in a single season. It’s only been done 29 times. By 18 different players. Babe Ruth set the standard with 457 in 1921, but it was Yankees teammate Lou Gehrig who really shined over time in the category, doing it a whopping five times. Phillies fans under the impression that their franchise’s history worth considering only stretches back to, oh, say, 1950, may want to take note that Gehrig’s closest colleague in the “400 club” is Chuck Klein, who pulled the trick three times in a four-year span for your team, your town, your Fightin’ Phillies. Anyway, guess what? Betts has a legit, albeit outside, shot to reach that magical mark. Currently, he stands at an MLB-best 307 total bases, well ahead of the 290 Bryant has to top the NL. If Betts maintained his pace, he’d fall shy at 392. But the 23-year-old already has exceeded expectations exponentially this season, so … you never know. HARD TO BELIEVE Sticking with the 400 club, it’s amazing to realize that guys such as Ty Cobb and Ted Williams never reached it. Perhaps even more amazing than guys such as Hal Trosky and Luis Gonzalez getting there once and Todd Helton twice. Even weirder, two years in the history of MLB saw four players pull it off in the same season: 1930 and 2001. Klein, Gehrig, Hack Wilson and Babe Herman did so in the former, while Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Gonzalez and Helton did so in the latter. | WHO YA GOT?With the season winding down, the MVP races are coming into clearer focus. Below are top-5 candidates for the American and National leagues, and, no, Mike Trout doesn't make the cut ... right now: AMERICAN LEAGUE Josh Donaldson Blue Jays 3B ... .294 batting average, 34 HRs, 92 RBIs, 106 runs scored. Mookie Betts Red Sox OF ... .322 batting average, 30 HRs, 96 RBIs, 102 runs scored. Jose Altuve Astros 2B ... .354 batting average, 22 HRs, 88 RBIs, 93 runs scored. David Ortiz Red Sox DH ... .318 batting average, 31 HRs, 101 RBIs, 64 runs scored. Edwin Encarnacion Blue Jays DH ... .269 batting average, 36 HRs, 106 RBIs, 83 runs scored. NATIONAL LEAGUE Kris Bryant Cubs 3B-OF ... .305 batting average, 35 HRs, 89 RBIs, 109 runs scored. Daniel Murphy Nationals 2B ... .345 batting average, 25 HRs, 98 RBIs, 80 runs scored. Nolan Arenado Rockies 3B ... .293 batting average, 35 HRs, 112 RBIs, 96 runs scored. Anthony Rizzo Cubs 1B ... .295 batting average, 25 HRs, 91 RBIs, 77 runs scored. Corey Seager Dodgers SS ... .320 batting average, 23 HRs, 62 RBIs, 87 runs scored. |
0 Comments
by Jack Kerwin | ydkjack1@gmail.com
Glad it’s coming to an end. No issues with occurring. No problem with fans getting their “forever hero” fix. But with the Chase Utley Return Tour entering its final show tonight at Citizens Bank Park, gotta say, little relieved. You know, kinda like, OK, let’s move on … from “world effin champions” and the fantasy that Philly’s favorite second baseman of all time was anything more than a health-hindered average to below-average player the last six seasons of his career here. No offense to Chase, but let’s do just that, put a Pete Mackanin on the deal and move on to focus on more, oh, captivating stuff these days. In Major League Baseball to boot … BIGGER IS BETTER? With all the hyperbole about the monsters roaming diamonds anymore pawned off as a prophetic, “yes, of course” genius accepted by the vast majority, it is quite enjoyable to see the dominance of normal-sized Mookie Betts (5-9, 180) and pint-sized Jose Altuve (5-6, 165) in the American League. The Boston outfielder and Houston infielder pretty much own every offensive category in the junior circuit, aside from home runs and RBIs … and even with that, entering play Wednesday, Betts ranked seventh in the former with 28 and fourth in the latter with 89, not to mention that Altuve ranked second in slugging percentage anyway and Betts third. Yes, Mike Trout, the beefed-up Mickey Mantle 2.0 who stars in center field for the Angels, is the game’s best player, but he’ll be hard-pressed to outdo either of these two for MVP honors this season. THREE FOR ONE To me, the NL’s top individual honor this season will come down to a trio of candidates … with two of them possibly knocking each other off. Indeed, if Anthony Rizzo (.290, 25 homers, 85 RBIs, 71 runs scored) and Kris Bryant (.289, 28, 73, 91) didn’t both play for the Cubs, each would be pushed for MVP, hardcore. Especially with Rizzo being a highlight film over at first base, too, and Bryant being a multi-talented individual who handles infield AND outfield duties with ease. Their combined athletic genius has spearheaded the Cubs’ rise to the top of MLB, and quite possibly opened the door for Washington’s Daniel Murphy (.348, 22, 87, 72) to grab the hardware since he’s pretty much carrying the Nationals toward the postseason solo. BLAST FROM THE PAST Utley’s return to Philly certainly put the spotlight back on some great times for Phillies fans, most obviously the World Series teams of 2008 and ’09, with the core “homegrown” group of Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Cole Hamels leading the charge. Hey, Hamels remains a very good pitcher these days, no doubt the best of that aforementioned group still going now. But, really, he’s not having a better season than fellow lefthander and former Phillies farmhand J.A. Happ, who posted a 12-4 mark for the parent club in 2009. A journeyman since, Happ, now with Toronto, currently leads the AL in wins (17) and tops his far more ballyhooed ex-teammate, now in Texas, in several pitching categories: winning percentage (.850 to .750), opponents’ batting average (.230 to .243) and better WHIP (1.14 to 1.30). GRANDEST FINALE? Obviously, what Boston’s David Ortiz is pulling off in his last season, at the age of 40, is quite amazing, the big fella hitting as well as he did in his prime. He seems to be almost on a record pace for an old guy … only he’s not. Don’t even have to leave Red Sox annals to see that. Check this out: Ortiz, currently, has a slugging percentage of .619 and an OPS of 1.025. Tremendous stuff. Only Ted Williams, at 41, posted .645 and 1.096 during his final go-round in 1960. Also had a higher batting average and on-base percentage that season than Big Papi does in this one. OH, YEAH ... With a quarter of a season left to go, only two games separate the top three teams in the AL East (Toronto, Boston and Baltimore), 1.5 the top two in the NL West (Los Angeles and San Francisco) and 6.5 the top 13 teams in MLB for the four available wild-card spots – and the Phillies ain’t one of them. |
CategoriesArchives
November 2022
Best of 2018Best of 2017Best of 2016Best of 2015 |