Good year, bad year, it is this week, Friday more precisely, that the last month of the 2023 MLB regular season will begin. How time flies!
The last blitz of the season will determine which formations will take part in the playoffs as well as at what rank they will do so. It will also determine which players will be awarded the various individual honours. Who, through their solo excellence, will have contributed the most to improving their collective?
We can easily agree to say that on the side of the American League, it is not badly settled with regard to the MVP. Barring a major turnaround, Shohei Ohtani should win his second title in three years. In 2022, the Japanese Babe Ruth finished second behind Aaron Judge.
On the side of the National League, things get a little more difficult. Not so long ago, everything seemed to indicate that Ronald Acuna Jr. was slowly but surely heading towards the Holy Grail. However, now another player is now the favorite according to bookmakers. That name: Mookie Betts.
An exceptional month of August
Since the start of the month, Betts is hitting for a sensational .464 batting average! Just this weekend, as the former glory of the Red Sox reunited with fans at Fenway Park for the first time since being traded from the East Coast to the West Coast, the number 50 put the ball to safety seven times in 15 appearances at the plate. In those three games, in addition to his .467 batting average, he hit a long ball, drove in four runs and crossed home plate five times.
As of today, Betts is batting .315, has 36 doubles, 35 home runs, 10 stolen bases and a 7.4 WAR. By comparison, Acuna Jr. is hitting .330, has 30 doubles, 28 bombs, 59 stolen bases and a 6.3 WAR.
Both athletes contribute greatly to the success of their respective teams. There’s a reason Los Angeles and Atlanta are the two odds-one favorites to win the World Series.
Both Betts and Acuna move the crowds and energize their teammates. We are talking about two electrifying players, adored by fans and their brothers in arms. Betts already has an MVP title, acquired in 2018 with Boston.
If he wins it in 2023, he would become the second player in history, after former Expos manager Frank Robinson, to win this prestigious honor in both leagues (1961 with the Reds, 1966 with the Orioles).
Teammates in the fight too
Each of Mookie Betts and Ronald Acuna Jr. has internal competition for the title. Indeed, Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers and Matt Olson of the Braves, also have interesting odds. The two first basemen should definitely get votes.
With 33 more games to play, both for Los Angeles and Atlanta, the game is far from over. Who knows, if one of these two players doesn’t finish the year on a high, what will happen to them? After all, it was a first base player last year who won the title, in the person of Paul Goldschmidt.
- A big hope arrives in Boston.
- There was no chicanery in New York, assures Max Scherzer.
- Chad Green is approaching a comeback.
- More sabotages than rescues this season in Texas.
