At the end of the season, a debate is suddenly brewing over the National League (NL) MVP.
Amid the general consensus that Atlanta Braves Ronald Acuña Jr. should be the MVP, different opinions are emerging.
On the 25th (Korean time), MLB.com predicted a fierce two-way match between Acuña Junia and the LA Dodgers’ Mookie Betts in an article titled ‘Who will be the NL MVP?’
Reporter Will Rich, who wrote the article, said, ‘I don’t know if the NL MVP race has ever been as exciting as it was this year.’ Acuña has been the clubhouse leader all season, while Betts has only made his presence known in the past two months. However, Betts is ahead of Acuña in WAR, and he performed well in all the defensive positions the club wanted.’
Reporter Rich continued, ‘Still, Acuña has achieved 40-40, and is also looking at 40-70. Both players are leaders on the best teams in the NL. Who will make the jump in the final week? ‘Will it be as exciting as it has been throughout the season?’
Acuña hit his 40th home run of the season in an away game against the Washington Nationals on the 23rd, achieving 40-40 for the fifth time in history. However, among all players who have achieved 40-40, the only player to be named MVP is Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics in 1988.
However, Acuña’s stolen bases are 68 as of the 26th. In other words, he achieved his first ever 40 home runs and 60 stolen bases on the 23rd. He had previously achieved 30-60 (62 stolen bases at the time) by hitting his 30th home run of the season on the 1st, which was the first time in history that 30-60 was also achieved. If they add 2 stolen bases in the remaining 6 games, they can conquer 40-70. It is bound to be a great record that will be hard to come by in the future.
In addition, Acuña leads both leagues in five categories including runs (143), hits (210), stolen bases, on-base percentage (0.415), and base hits (372), and leads the NL in OPS (1.010) and batting average (0.337). He ranks 2nd in home runs, 4th in home runs, and 8th in RBIs (101).
However, this does not mean that Betts’ performance is declining at all. Until the previous day, Betts had posted a batting average of 0.309 (174 hits in 564 at-bats), 39 home runs, 105 RBI, 125 runs, an on-base percentage of 0.410, a slugging percentage of 0.590, and an OPS of 1.001. He has more RBIs than Betts. Moreover, Betts is ahead of Acuña in WAR. BWAR is 8.1 for Betts and 8.0 for Acuña, and fWAR is 8.2 for Betts and 7.8 for Acuña.
Major League MVP has little to do with the number of individual titles. Team performance and overall performance are important. Achieving a record that will remain in history is the icing on the cake. In 2021, LA’s Shohei Otani was unanimously selected as AL MVP with a double-hitting legend, and last year’s New York Yankees Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs, the most in an AL season, and was unanimously selected as MVP, one vote short of the vote.
From this point of view, it appears that Acuña will easily beat Betts. In particular, his team, Atlanta, reached 100 wins for the first time this season, surpassing the Dodgers and virtually confirming first place in NL winning percentage.메이저사이트
There are also Atlanta teammates who are relatively buried in Acuña’s historic season. This is Matt Olson, who virtually confirmed the combined home run and RBI titles in both leagues. As of today, Olson has 53 home runs, eight more than Pete Alonso of the New York Mets and Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies (45 home runs), who are tied for second place in this category. His RBI was 133, 18 more than Alonso (115) in second place.
However, in an interview with MLB.com, Atlanta general manager Alex Ansopoulos said about the MVP potential of his players Acuña and Olsen, “Without a doubt, I think Olson and Acuña will compete for MVP. I hope so,” and “I will choose one of my two sons.” “It feels like a selection, but basically both players are qualified. How about a co-MVP?”