There will be people out there who want to reward the sweet-swinging catcher in our midst. I get it. I respect you all. Just understand that you\u2019d be finding a reason\u00a0not\u00a0to vote for a man unfurling one of the most spectacular seasons ever by a human not named Babe Ruth.<\/p>\n
Behold the season the Yankees\u2019 captain will have if his second half goes roughly like his first half:<\/p>\n
Now here\u2019s the complete list of men who have had that season: Nobody.<\/p>\n
If we drop the home run bar to 59, we add only \u2026 the Babe, 1921. If we dip the batting average and OPS+ bars slightly, to .350 and 225, we loop in \u2026 Ruth again, in 1927. To include anyone other than the Bambino, we\u2019d have to keep dipping. But why? Point made!<\/p>\n
Hold on. There\u2019s more.<\/p>\n
\u2022 He has a 240 OPS+ on the road, a 225 OPS+ at The Stadium, a 235 OPS+ against winning teams and a .230 OPS+ against losing teams.<\/p>\n
\u2022 His average is .347 against starting pitchers, .382 against relief pitchers, .366 with men in scoring position, .356 with the bases empty, .364 in night games, .354 in day games, .371 on the road and .348 at home.<\/p>\n
\u2022 He has even hit more home runs away from Yankee Stadium (18) than in a home park totally contoured for him (16).<\/p>\n
Oh, and one more thing: He leads Raleigh in OPS by nearly 200 points, has reached base 40 more times and has \u201ccreated\u201d 31 more runs if you\u2019re into that sort of metric.<\/p>\n
So look, I understand that Judge never has to wear shin guards, take foul balls off his mask or lock in on 140 pitches a night from four different pitchers. I admire everything about what the catcher for the Mariners is doing. It just doesn\u2019t elevate him over a man towering over everyone in his sport \u2026 again.<\/p>\n
Shohei Ohtani \u2014 just wow \u2014 and well on his way to a fourth MVP. (Patrick McDermott \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
I know. It\u2019s so easy to catch. How many years in a row can you keep giving the same awards to the same dudes? It gets tedious. You\u2019ve heard so many people tell you that this Shohei Ohtani guy is an alien super-being from a galaxy not our own that you\u2019re ready to say:\u00a0Enough already!<\/p>\n
So I, too, went into this process practically looking for reasons to argue that, say, Pete Crow-Armstrong was the real NL MVP in 2025. But sorry. There just aren\u2019t enough of them.<\/p>\n
And again, let me make this clear: I\u2019m as big an admirer of the PCA magic act as you\u2019ll find. If this was the All-Fun to Watch award, we might be having a different conversation. I\u2019d pay just to watch this man play defense. And yes, I got the memo that Ohtani doesn\u2019t play any\u00a0defense, unless somebody hits a comebacker when he\u2019s on the mound.<\/p>\n
But now let\u2019s talk about what separates Ohtani from PCA \u2026 and the rest of the species.<\/p>\n
Whew. Want to see the list of everyone in history who has had a season even in that neighborhood? It won\u2019t take long.<\/p>\n
\n| \n Willie Mays\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1955\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 174\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 51<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 13<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 123\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 24<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n (Source: Baseball Reference \/ Stathead)<\/p>\n So \u2026 if we ignore the runs-scored column, it\u2019s only the Babe and Shohei. If we ignore the stolen-base column, it\u2019s only Willie and Ohtani. And if we don\u2019t ignore any of those columns, then only one man in history would wind up having that season: Shohei!<\/p>\n Plus, this is happening in a season when Mookie Betts hasn\u2019t been himself and Freddie Freeman has hit .200\/.268\/.269 since June 1. So Ohtani\u2019s offense has never been more indispensable for the Dodgers.<\/p>\n And hey, have I mentioned in the last three paragraphs that he also pitches? In case you\u2019re wondering, only one man has ever hit at least 10 home runs in a season and pitched in the World Series that year. You can guess his name. Right. The Babe. In 1918.<\/p>\n So maybe one of these years somebody will come along and truly deserve to win an MVP trophy instead of Ohtani. But this is not shaping up as one of those years.<\/p>\n MY NL MVP TOP FIVE: <\/b>Ohtani, Crow-Armstrong, Kyle Tucker, Zack Wheeler, James Wood.<\/p>\n AL LVP of the half-year: Luis Robert Jr., White Sox<\/b>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2221263417-scaled.jpg\") <\/p>\n Luis Robert Jr. hit below .200 in April, May and June. He\u2019s right at .200 in July. (Geoff Stellfox \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n As I embark on my intensive research to pick these Least Valuable Player awards, I have a few friends in baseball I like to survey. One of them painted the portrait of Luis Robert Jr., runaway LVP favorite, as perfectly as it could possibly be painted.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has one job \u2014 to get himself traded,\u201d my friend said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s failing!\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, the White Sox didn\u2019t ask much of their famous center fielder this year: Just try not to pop any hamstrings \u2026 and try not to be terrible. Oh, well. He went 0-for-2!<\/p>\n The good news is, he\u2019s back from his latest visit to the injured list. The bad news is, if there\u2019s a contender out there who could look at him and say, Yessir, that guy is our ticket to the parade floats,\u00a0that team must be thinking about the Tournament of Roses parade, not a ride through the Canyon of Heroes.<\/p>\n So what makes Robert so Not Valuable? We don\u2019t have enough time or space to rip through all of that. But here are some upbeat highlights:<\/p>\n Not your average masher!\u00a0<\/b>Want to guess who has the worst batting average of any AL hitter with at least 275 plate appearances? Luis Robert Jr. would be a good guess (at .185).<\/p>\n But at least he\u2019s consistent!\u00a0<\/b>If you\u2019re looking to trade for a fellow whose average was below .200 in April\u00a0and May and June, Robert would be your man.<\/p>\n Or if you\u2019re looking to trade for a guy whose home-road splits aren\u2019t a concern, that would be another big selling point \u2014 since this guy is hitting .197 at home and .174 on the road.<\/p>\n He\u2019s a cool breeze waiting to happen!\u00a0<\/b>So maybe he might not keep\u00a0his\u00a0cool, but at least Robert will keep\u00a0you\u00a0cool \u2014 just from all that swinging-and-missing he\u2019s been known to provide. It isn\u2019t every year you can trade for a man with 89 strikeouts and 47 hits. But that opportunity is now upon us.<\/p>\n Whatever you need, he\u2019s been there, done that!\u00a0<\/b>Looking for a guy with experience leading off? Robert has led off 60 innings this year \u2014 and has eight hits!<\/p>\n Looking for a guy who has batted in many big spots? The higher the leverage, the higher you\u2019d need to be to get excited about this dude coming up. His average in high-leverage at-bats this year? An eye-popping .123! And with three times as many strikeouts (21) as hits (seven)!<\/p>\n Better late than never!\u00a0<\/b>Robert has come to bat 28 times in the ninth inning this season \u2014 and has three hits (but 11 strikeouts)! That computes to a mind-blowing .120\/.214\/.160 slash line.<\/p>\n So I always hate to pile on any player when he still has half a season left to steer his ship back to the marina, but yikes! I know that Not Valuable is a quality that\u2019s in the eye of the beholder, but there aren\u2019t enough eye drops in the Walgreens superstore to change the vision of us LVP award beholders.<\/p>\n MY AL LVP \u201cBOTTOM THREE\u201d: <\/b>Robert, Adolis Garc\u00eda, Anthony Rendon (career achievement award).<\/p>\n NL LVP of the half-year: Michael Harris II, Braves![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2217301684-scaled.jpg\") <\/p>\n Michael Harris II, from Rookie of the Year to LVP. (Todd Kirkland \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n It was just three years ago that Michael Harris II won a very different kind of honor. It\u2019s known as the Rookie of the Year Award. And the list of guys who have won a Rookie of the Year Award and\u00a0an LVP award is shorter than Jose Altuve (although Jos\u00e9 Abreu is proof that this can\u00a0be done).<\/p>\n Still, this seems like an excellent time to ask: What the heck happened to Michael Harris?<\/p>\n If you\u2019d asked me to make a friendly wager, as recently as spring training 2024, on which was more likely \u2014 Harris winning an LVP award or turning into a superstar \u2014 I\u2019d have bet my bobblehead collection on \u201csuperstar.\u201d Wouldn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n World-class athletes who put up five-win seasons and a 133 OPS+ at age 21 don\u2019t usually turn into the least productive offensive player in the sport before they even turn 25. But here we are. Does this sound like a big-time LVP candidate to you?<\/p>\n He\u2019s more minus than plus!\u00a0<\/b>Who is last in the major leagues, among all qualified hitters, in OPS+ (52) and Weighted Runs Created+ (46)? Guess who.<\/p>\n Take a pitch!\u00a0<\/b>Would you believe Harris hasn\u2019t drawn a walk since May 18? That\u2019s 43 games and 158 plate appearances ago. In a related development, he\u2019s last in the major leagues in walk percentage (2.8) and on-base percentage (.232). Just so you know, only one Brave in the entire division-play era (1969-present) has had a walk rate and OBP that low over a full season: noted out machine Andr\u00e9s Thomas (2.1 percent, .228 OBP) in 1989.<\/p>\n Shades of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz!\u00a0<\/b>Normally, when we invoke those names, that\u2019s a good thing. It doesn\u2019t seem quite so good when you\u2019re comparing their\u00a0hitting\u00a0exploits to the local center fielder.<\/p>\n Greg Maddux, 1998 \u2014 <\/b>.240\/.278\/.280
Tom Glavine, 1992 \u2014 <\/b>.247\/.272\/.286
John Smoltz, 1999 \u2014 <\/b>.274\/.338\/.387
Michael Harris II, 2025 \u2014 <\/b>.208\/.232\/.313<\/p>\n June rhymes with swoon!\u00a0<\/b>June is supposed to be hitting weather. Somebody tell the center fielder for the Braves. Since June 1, Harris is hitting .144\/.157\/.246. And you know what we call slash lines like that? LVP material!<\/p>\n The Braves have been such a disappointment, I honestly came close to awarding a three-headed LVP trophy to Ozzie Albies, Jurickson Profar and Harris. But Harris out-LVP\u2019d them all. So um, congratulations?<\/p>\n MY NL LVP \u201cBOTTOM THREE\u201d: <\/b>Harris, Albies, Bryan Reynolds.<\/p>\n AL Cy Young of the half-year: Tarik Skubal, Tigers![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2223829354-scaled.jpg\") <\/p>\n Tarik Skubal is making a case for back-to-back Cy Youngs. He leads the AL in WHIP, strikeout rate and ERA. (Jason Miller \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n Should I just give every one of these major awards to the guy who won it last year? That would save so much time. I could just reprint all the same stuff I said about them last year and see who noticed.<\/p>\n But you can call off your conspiracy theories. Sometimes, you just have to recognize greatness when it appears in front of you. That\u2019s true of Judge. It\u2019s true of Ohtani. And out there on that pitcher\u2019s mound, it\u2019s time to recognize that when we watch Tarik Skubal throw a baseball, he\u2019s working at a different level from almost everyone else.<\/p>\n Before I wrote this column, I spent a lot of time digging in on the spectacular seasons of Hunter Brown, Jacob deGrom, Max Fried, Joe Ryan, Garrett Crochet and every other AL pitcher I could make a Cy Young Award case for. They\u2019re all having tremendous seasons, and their teams would be in way worse shape without them. But \u2026<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s Skubal, who is so dominant, he makes me wonder how many hitters would rather rake the infield with a salad fork than hit against him. Here\u2019s what makes me think that:<\/p>\n Nobody hits him!\u00a0<\/b>Opposing hitters have batting averages under .200 against him whether they\u2019re left-handed, right-handed, playing at home or on the road. Opposing cleanup hitters have a .120\/.151\/.140 slash line against him. No. 3 hitters? They\u2019re hitting .170, with a .185 OBP. The 5-6-7 hitters are at .191, .152 and .125, respectively. Is that good?<\/p>\n Left on left crime!\u00a0<\/b>Skubal has faced 90 left-handed hitters this season. Two have scored a run. He has served up one extra-base hit \u2014 and it was a double. He has walked only one of them \u2014 and struck out 30. The slash line: .179\/.189\/.192. Is that good?<\/p>\n He\u2019s getting better!\u00a0<\/b>The Tigers lost the first two games Skubal started this year. In his 16 starts since, they\u2019re 14-2 \u2026 with a 1-0 loss and an extra-inning loss, neither of which was hung on him. He\u2019s 10-0, with a 1.62 ERA, 138 strikeouts and 10 walks. So let\u2019s ask again: Is that good? Whoa. Let me tell you how good.<\/p>\n I spent way too much time burrowing down a Baseball Reference rabbit hole, looking for all the pitchers in the modern era who had a 16-start span with at least 100 strikeouts, no more than 10 walks and an ERA under 2.00. Here are all of them:<\/p>\n Greg Maddux, 1995 \u2014 <\/b>10-1, 1.64, 105 K, 10 BB
Clayton Kershaw, 2016 \u2014 <\/b>10-3, 1.69, 138 K, 7 BB
Tarik Skubal, 2025 \u2014 <\/b>10-0, 1.62, 138 K, 10 BB<\/p>\n Wow. Good group.<\/p>\n He has no fear of the bat!\u00a0<\/b>The same thing blows me away every time I watch Skubal pitch. Nothing \u2014 and I mean nobody \u2014 scares him. He\u2019s like a machine, blowing one pitch after another inside the strike zone and nobody hits them.<\/p>\n I decided to try to document this, with data from Sports Info Solutions. Here\u2019s what I found:<\/p>\n Skubal has thrown the highest percentage of pitches inside the zone (49.8 percent) of any full-time starter in baseball this season. Yet his swing-and-miss rate, on those pitches, is also the highest in baseball (23.5 percent). Who does that?<\/p>\n I went back more than 20 years, as far back as Sports Info Solutions\u2019 data exists. You know who else had an in-the-zone percentage\u00a0and\u00a0a whiff percentage that good in those seasons? If you guessed nobody, you\u2019re an excellent guesser.<\/p>\n The closest of any full-time starter? A guy named Pedro Martinez, in both 2002 and \u201903. That\u2019s excellent company.<\/p>\n And one more thing!\u00a0<\/b>Skubal leads his league in the three categories I always check first when I do these Cy Young research projects: WHIP, strikeout rate and ERA. Over the last 50 years, every qualifying starting pitcher who led his league in all three of those metrics also won the Cy Young, except for \u2026 Pedro, in 2002 and \u201903. (We might need a re-vote!)<\/p>\n On the other hand, the last AL pitcher to win back-to-back Cy Youngs was also a man named Pedro, in 1999 and 2000. So does it feel like these two men are destined to be linked in every possible way? It does to me.<\/p>\n MY AL CY YOUNG TOP FIVE: <\/b>Skubal, Brown, Fried, deGrom, Crochet.<\/p>\n NL Cy Young of the half-year: Zack Wheeler, Phillies![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2216774796-scaled.jpg\") <\/p>\n The Zack Wheeler-Paul Skenes Cy Young Award battle \u2014 and debate \u2014 will wage on. (Thearon W. Henderson \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n Full disclosure: I was an actual NL Cy Young Award voter last year \u2014 and I did not vote for Zack Wheeler. So no need to pound out those snarky You\u2019re from Philadelphia so of course you picked Wheeler\u00a0comments. That had nothing to do with this.<\/p>\n If I was just going to pick That Guy from Philly, why would I be staring at my notebook right now and seeing a Wheeler versus Paul Skenes comparison in 40 different categories?\u00a0The truth is, the Wheeler-Skenes Cy Young debate is as close as it gets \u2014 but also as fun as it gets.<\/p>\n So let\u2019s have that debate.<\/p>\n The case for Skenes \u2014 <\/b>is soooo easy to make. He\u2019s not even The Next Big Thing anymore. He\u2019s already Today\u2019s Big Thing. He\u2019s on his way to a second straight season with an ERA under 2.00. And even if we lower the innings bar to 130, to account for how many he pitched last year, you\u2019ll only find three starting pitchers in the last 75 years who have had sub-2.00 ERAs in back-to-back seasons:<\/p>\n Sandy Koufax \u2014 <\/b>1963-64
Greg Maddux \u2014 <\/b>1994-95
Clayton Kershaw \u2014 <\/b>2013-14<\/p>\n So Skenes leads Wheeler (and everyone else in the sport) in ERA. And Cy Youngs are made for aces with sub-2.00 ERAs. But now let\u2019s turn to \u2026<\/p>\n The case for Wheeler \u2014 <\/b>Wheeler leads Skenes (and the entire NL) in WHIP, strikeouts, strikeout rate and opponent average. The Phillies\u2019 ace also leads Skenes in innings per start, pitches per start, quality starts\u00a0<\/b>and super-quality starts (at least seven innings, no more than two earned runs allowed).<\/p>\n So what does that tell us? Well, since baseball instituted a Cy Young Award in each league in 1967, here are all the qualifying pitchers who had an ERA as low as Wheeler\u2019s (2.17) and led their league in WHIP, strikeouts, strikeout rate and opponent average:<\/p>\n Pedro Martinez, 2000 \u2014 <\/b>won Cy Young
Pedro Martinez, 1999 \u2014 <\/b>won Cy Young
Tom Seaver, 1973 \u2014 <\/b>won Cy Young<\/p>\n And that\u2019s a wrap.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not all \u2014 <\/b>because there is something to be said about the meaning of acehood, and that level of brilliance, when the pitcher doing that dominating is pitching for a team built to win, as opposed to whatever it is the Pirates are trying to accomplish (through no fault of Skenes, obviously).<\/p>\n So what happens when Wheeler tees it up against the best teams in the sport? Thanks for asking. Since the beginning of May, he has made five starts against teams that would be in the postseason if it had started as I was typing this. He has a 1.20 ERA in those starts. The Phillies have won four of them (and got shut out in the other). And those teams have hit .170 against him.<\/p>\n I know this isn\u2019t the Most Valuable Pitcher award. It\u2019s a performance award \u2014 for the guy who pitches the best. But when it\u2019s this close, those big-game ace points can be a separator. And in the end, as I looked over all the numbers scribbled in my notebook, they were the ultimate separator for me.<\/p>\n MY NL CY YOUNG TOP FIVE: <\/b>Wheeler, Skenes, Logan Webb, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Andrew Abbott.<\/p>\n AL Cy Yuk of the half-year: Walker Buehler, Red Sox![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2222773785-scaled.jpg\") <\/p>\n Walker Buehler\u2019s day off \u2014 after this first half, he may need one. (Paul Rutherford \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n It was only nine months ago that Walker Buehler was an official World Series hero, which was a cool way to say farewell to the only team he\u2019d ever pitched for, the Dodgers. But life on the other side of World Series parties comes with no guarantees of future performance. And Boston could tell you all about that.<\/p>\n The Red Sox must have forgotten to send me their internal projections on the kind of season they thought they\u2019d be getting when they signed Buehler for a cool $21.05 million, on a one-year guarantee. But I\u2019m going to use my vivid imagination and say: I\u2019m exceedingly confident they didn\u2019t project this:<\/p>\n A 6.12 ERA! <\/b>That\u2019s the highest of any starting pitcher in the American League who has pitched as many innings as he has.<\/p>\n A 1.56 WHIP and .367 opponents OBP! <\/b>Those would each be the second-worst of any full-time AL starting pitcher, better than only the estimable Jack Kochanowicz.<\/p>\n An .856 opponent OPS! <\/b>That\u2019s not just the worst of any AL starter. It also means that he\u2019s transformed all the hitters he\u2019s faced into a group with a higher OPS than Bobby Witt Jr., Matt Olson or Vlad Guerrero Jr.<\/p>\n An allergy to airplanes!\u00a0<\/b>OK, that\u2019s not an actual medical diagnosis. It\u2019s just a wild conclusion I jumped to based on Buehler\u2019s incredible\u00a08.66 ERA on the road.\u00a0That\u2019s the worst of any full-time AL starter \u2014 by nearly two runs.<\/p>\n Would you believe opposing hitters have a slash line of .342\/.405\/.581 against him away from Fenway? That means he\u2019s essentially turning everyone he pitches against into 1958 Willie Mays (.347\/.419\/.583).<\/p>\n So many stretch marks!\u00a0<\/b>Oh, and one more issue that was hard to miss: When he has had to pitch out of the stretch, Buehler has allowed a .300\/.431\/.534 slash line with runners on base. That computes to a .965 OPS, worst in the AL \u2026 and also pretty much the modern-day equivalent of 1974 Willie Stargell (.301\/.407\/.537).<\/p>\n It\u2019s always tough to hand out these prestigious Cy Yuk honors to guys who once seemed like they were bound for stardom. And you should know I came really close to pointing the president of the Sacramento Fan Club<\/a>, Luis Severino, toward the Cy Yuk podium. But baseball, like life, moves pretty fast. So when you write these columns, you have to stop, look around and make these tough decisions.<\/p>\nMY AL CY YUK \u201cBOTTOM THREE\u201d: <\/b>Buehler, Severino, Bailey Ober.<\/p>\n NL Cy Yuk of the half-year: Antonio Senzatela, Rockies![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2217025433-scaled.jpg\") <\/p>\n Antonio Senzatela\u2019s stats page is not for the faint of heart. (Matthew Stockman \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure if anyone has noticed this, but it seems kinda hard to pitch in Colorado. I stumbled on that shocking fact while trying to decide who the NL Cy Yuk ought to be. Check out this crazy leaderboard:<\/p>\n Highest opponent AVG, NL starters<\/b>
(minimum 85 innings pitched)<\/p>\n Antonio Senzatela \u2014 <\/b>.354
Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez<\/strong> \u2014<\/strong> .314
Kyle Freeland \u2014\u00a0<\/b>.311<\/p>\nYou don\u2019t have to ask: Do those three guys know each other? They\u2019re all teammates \u2014 the three veteran \u201canchors\u201d in the rotation of the 2025 Rockies. And that whole anchor thing is going great. They\u2019re a combined 7-33, with a 5.97 ERA, for a team that\u2019s already 51 games under .500. And the Rockies have already lost a staggering 40 games\u00a0that that trio has started.<\/p>\n So it was really tempting just to turn this Cy Yuk award into a three-headed monster. But that was until I looked more closely at how Senzatela has managed to distance himself from his friends. In fact, he\u2019s heading for one of the (ahem) rockiest seasons in modern history. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n He\u2019s turned the entire sport into a league of .354 hitters!\u00a0<\/b>And that wouldn\u2019t be just the worst opponent average in Rockies history. It would be the worst by any full-time starting pitcher on any team in 95 years \u2014 since Les Sweetland allowed an opponent average of (yikes) .371 for the 1930 Phillies.<\/p>\n There\u2019s not much whiffing going on!\u00a0<\/b>How hittable has Senzatela been? I think this covers it.<\/p>\n Hits allowed per nine innings \u2014 <\/b>13.8<\/p>\n Strikeouts per nine innings \u2014 <\/b>4.8<\/p>\n Almost three times as many hits as strikeouts \u2014 in an era when there are more whiffs at these games than hot dogs? That seemed impossible to me. I had no idea how impossible.<\/p>\n According to Baseball Reference, only one other full-time starter since 1901 has had a strikeout rate that low and a hits-allowed rate that high in a season. And if you\u2019ve been waiting for the last four paragraphs for another Les Sweetland name drop, your dreams have come true.<\/p>\n Les Sweetland, 1930 \u2014 <\/b>14.6 hits, 1.9 strikeouts per 9 IP.<\/p>\n Is this the most attention Les has gotten since the Great Depression? Let\u2019s go with yes.<\/p>\n And none of this seems like a Coors thing! <\/b>Look, when you pitch for the Rockies, everything is sort of a Coors thing. But in the case of Senzatela, he hasn\u2019t been any better on the road (1-7, 6.43 ERA) than at Coors Field (2-6, 6.75 ERA). Opposing hitters are raking at .380 at sea level, versus .332 in the shadow of those mountain peaks. So explain that. Altitude sickness?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve never seen a stats page like this!\u00a0<\/b>It almost seems like one giant typo, but all of this is really happening when Senzatela pitches:<\/p>\n How about\u00a0one quality start in 18 starts \u2026 and the 1-2-3-4-5-6 hitters in the opposing lineup\u00a0all hitting at least .370 against him.\u00a0\u2026 and the heck with third-time-through-the-order issues. How about Senzatela\u2019s first time through the order,\u00a0when the other team hits .389\/.422\/.569 against him?\u00a0(Just for frame of reference, here\u2019s Ty Cobb, 1917: .383\/.444\/.570.)<\/p>\n I\u2019ve handed out these awards for a long time now.\u00a0<\/b>So I know what Cy Yukkery looks like when I see it. And this just in: It has never looked more like this.<\/p>\n MY NL CY YUK \u201cBOTTOM THREE\u201d: <\/b>Senzatela, M\u00e1rquez, Jordan Romano (with way too many honorable mentions to name here).<\/p>\n AL rookie of the half-year: Jacob Wilson, Athletics![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26589581-scaled.jpg\") <\/p>\n Jacob Wilson is hitting his way into history. (Dennis Lee \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n We haven\u2019t seen many rookies like Jacob Wilson. And I mean that as a compliment.<\/p>\n You know the last Rookie of the Year with a batting average of .330 or higher? That would be Ichiro Suzuki, of course, in 2001 (at .350). You know the last before him? That would be Fred Lynn (.331) \u2014 50 years ago.<\/p>\n But in the half-century since, you know how many rookies besides Ichiro have gotten at least 400 plate appearances in a season and had a batting average in the .330s or better? That answer would be zero \u2026until now. (Or at least until Wilson blows past 400 plate appearances at some point this month.)<\/p>\n So there\u2019s that. But in the case of the sweet-swinging shortstop from Sacramento, it isn\u2019t just that average that stands out. It\u2019s how much contact he makes, in an age when \u201ccontact\u201d isn\u2019t the first word you think of when someone asks you to describe modern baseball.<\/p>\n He has 85 more hits than strikeouts! <\/b>That\u2019s the second-most of any hitter in the sport, behind only (who else) Luis Arraez, who is at plus-91.<\/p>\n He\u2019s on pace for 200 hits, 47 strikeouts!\u00a0<\/b>And that\u2019s a feat in any era. Joe DiMaggio got 200 hits and struck out under 50 times as a rookie, in 1936. It\u2019s been done exactly twice since \u2014 by Johnny Pesky in 1942 and Harvey Kuenn in 1953. That\u2019s it, in the last 90 years.<\/p>\n He\u2019s sitting on a 7.3 percent strikeout rate!\u00a0<\/b>A .335 batting average and K\u2019s in only 7.3 percent of all his plate appearances? Unreal. I could find only three rookies since World War II with a strikeout rate that low, an average of .330 or higher and at least 300 plate appearances. You can learn more about all of them in Cooperstown!<\/p>\n Ichiro Suzuki, 2001 \u2014 <\/b>.350, 7.2 percent
Wade Boggs, 1982 \u2014<\/strong> .349, 5.5 percent
Richie Ashburn, 1948 \u2014<\/strong> .333, 4.2 percent<\/p>\n(Source: FanGraphs)<\/p>\n The first thing I look for, in any award winner, is how much historic significance we can attach to his season. In Jacob Wilson, I found way more than I even thought I\u2019d find. Which made this the easiest pick on my board.<\/p>\n MY AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR TOP FIVE: <\/b>Wilson, Carlos Narv\u00e1ez, Cam Smith, Nick Kurtz, Jasson Dom\u00ednguez.<\/p>\n NL rookie of the half-year: Drake Baldwin, Braves![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2222911873-scaled.jpg\") <\/p>\n Can Drake Baldwin hold off Agust\u00edn Ram\u00edrez, Jacob Misiorowski and company? (Edward M. Pio Roda \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n One of the most fun things I do when I construct this column is pore over the list of previous winners of these awards, just for perspective. All right, want some perspective? All these men have won a National League Rookie of the Year Award in this quarter-century:<\/p>\n Albert Pujols<\/b>
Buster Posey<\/b>
Bryce Harper<\/b>
Jacob deGrom<\/b>
Jos\u00e9 Fern\u00e1ndez<\/strong>
Kris Bryant<\/b>
Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.<\/b>
Corey Seager<\/b>
Paul Skenes<\/b><\/p>\nAnd the names I skipped over aren\u2019t far behind. So if Drake Baldwin has a second half to match his first half, and holds off the likes of Jacob Misiorowski, Agust\u00edn Ram\u00edrez and another strong field, to take home this trophy, he has a lot to live up to.<\/p>\n Only nine catchers have won a Rookie of the Year Award. Three of them \u2014 Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk and Mike Piazza \u2014 are Hall of Famers. Posey figures to join them. And Thurman Munson, Benito Santiago and Sandy Alomar Jr. combined to make 18 All-Star teams.<\/p>\n So is that where Baldwin is headed? To the land of perennial All-Stars? It wouldn\u2019t be a shock. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n He could have been an All-Star \u2014 <\/b>Baldwin trails only the two NL All-Star catchers, Will Smith and Hunter Goodman, in FanGraphs WAR (with 2.1). That means he\u2019s ahead of William Contreras, J.T. Realmuto, Carson Kelly and the No. 1 catcher on his own team, Sean Murphy. And that\u2019s awfully impressive, for a guy who has only started 42 big-league games as a catcher.<\/p>\n He\u2019s hanging with the legends \u2014 <\/b>You don\u2019t see a lot of rookie catchers fire up a 133 OPS+ and a .276\/.351\/.486 slash line, especially at a time when it feels as if it\u2019s never been harder to hit. Only three Rookie of the Year catchers in history have slugged .486 or better, and had an OPS+, average and OBP as good as Baldwin\u2019s:<\/p>\n Piazza, 1993 \u2014 <\/b>.318\/.370\/.561, 153 OPS+
Posey, 2010 \u2014 <\/b>.305\/.357\/.505, 133 OPS+
Fisk, 1972 \u2014 <\/strong>.294\/.370\/.538, 162 OPS+<\/p>\nHis pitchers love throwing to him \u2014 <\/b>The ultimate measure of any rookie catcher is how much his manager trusts him, and how much his pitchers trust him. So take a look at this.<\/p>\n Braves ERAs by catcher <\/p>\n \u00a0PITCHER\u00a0\u00a0BALDWINMURPHY<\/tr>\n \n| \n Chris Sale<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 2.23\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 2.80<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Spencer Schwellenbach<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 2.80<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 3.44<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Grant Holmes\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 3.07<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 3.72<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n That\u2019s just a sampling. But\u00a0<\/b>Brian Snitker has divided the playing time remarkably evenly, and has given Baldwin a chance to catch the best pitchers on the roster. You can see why!<\/p>\n Even with all of that, I was conflicted about this choice. Ram\u00edrez has been a team-changing figure for the Marlins. And I almost picked Misiorowski just based on the small-sample Wow Factor. But those guys have a whole second half to catch the leader in the clubhouse. I wish them luck, because \u201ccatching\u201d is what Baldwin does best.<\/p>\n MY NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR TOP FIVE: Baldwin, Ram\u00edrez, Misiorowski, Chad Patrick, Caleb Durbin.<\/b><\/p>\n Managers of the half-year:\u00a0A.J. Hinch, Tigers, and Craig Counsell, Cubs<\/b><\/p>\n Here\u2019s my annual refresher course on how we baseball writers vote on this award. First, we ask: What team was I most wrong about?\u00a0Then we shrewdly conclude:\u00a0That guy must be Manager of the Year!<\/p>\n So guess which two teams have spent the last three months improving their FanGraphs playoff odds more than anyone else in their leagues? That would be the Tigers (up 53.6 percentage points) and the Cubs (up 44.5 percentage points). And there\u2019s your foolproof formula for Manager of the Year picking at work.<\/p>\n Except that\u2019s not all there is to this with Hinch and Counsell, two men who separate themselves from the masses in so many ways, because they\u2019re so next-level good at literally every part of modern managing.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the Tigers\u2019 president of baseball operations, Scott Harris, on Hinch: \u201cIt starts with the trust he builds with our players. Our guys play hard for A.J. because he puts them first, always looking out for their careers and putting them in positions to succeed. He\u2019s the perfect manager for this young team.\u201d<\/p>\n And here\u2019s the Cubs\u2019 president of baseball ops, Jed Hoyer, on Counsell: \u201cI just feel like he\u2019s so complete. I feel like he\u2019s a five-tool manager, in the sense that the players love playing for him. He\u2019s excellent in-game. He\u2019s additive to the front-office process. He just handles every part of the job exceptionally well.\u201d<\/p>\n Obviously, they\u2019re not the only two managers we could say those things about. But this is their time. The Tigers have had one Manager of the Year (Jim Leyland, in 2006) since the days of Sparky Anderson. The Cubs have had two (Joe Maddon in 2015 and Lou Piniella in 2008) since Don Zimmer. Seems like time for that to change!<\/p>\n MY AL MANAGER OF THE YEAR TOP FIVE: <\/b>Hinch, Joe Espada, John Schneider, Kevin Cash, Dan Wilson.<\/p>\n MY NL MANAGER OF THE YEAR TOP FIVE: <\/b>Counsell, Pat Murphy, Bob Melvin, Rob Thomson, Oliver Marmol.<\/p>\n (Illustration: Kelsea Petersen \/ The Athletic. Photos: Cole Burston, Vaughn Ridley, Patrick McDermott, Matthew Grimes Jr. \/ Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hey there. I know you\u2019re busy smoothing out your beach blanket or deciding which frozen drink to order…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":57364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1279,1280,1276,1281,1271,1274,5048,1282,1283,1885,2382,1284,1285,2502,1286,4247,1287,1266,1305,2228,5055,2083,1886,1306,1275,1288,62,3692,1289,1278,1290,67,132,68,1291],"class_list":{"0":"post-57363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles","11":"tag-boston-red-sox","12":"tag-chicago-cubs","13":"tag-chicago-white-sox","14":"tag-cincinnati-reds","15":"tag-cleveland-guardians","16":"tag-colorado-rockies","17":"tag-detroit-tigers","18":"tag-houston-astros","19":"tag-kansas-city-royals","20":"tag-los-angeles-angels","21":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","22":"tag-miami-marlins","23":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","24":"tag-minnesota-twins","25":"tag-mlb","26":"tag-new-york-mets","27":"tag-new-york-yankees","28":"tag-oakland-athletics","29":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","30":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","31":"tag-san-diego-padres","32":"tag-san-francisco-giants","33":"tag-seattle-mariners","34":"tag-sports","35":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","36":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","37":"tag-texas-rangers","38":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","39":"tag-united-states","40":"tag-unitedstates","41":"tag-us","42":"tag-washington-nationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} | |
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