Fist Month of Baseball Stat Leader
We are officially one month into the 2019 season of baseball and we are already taken by surprise. The fans and writers throwing around the, “It’s early.” argument can only take in what their team is doing as a whole. For now, what I plan on putting the primary focus on are the best position players through the first month of baseball statistically. This will also take into consideration what the players are doing via fantasy baseball and what their stats are there. Be aware that this list will NOT contain All-Stars you see on highlight real from your phone notifications, but we will give you an update on how some of those players are doing. Let’s go ahead and dive into the list:
Catcher: Yasmani Grandal, Milwaukee Brewers - Grandal is the newcomer to this ball club, but he is no spring chicken to the high octane competition that this team got a taste of last season. Grandal is sitting at a .333 batting average with .623 slugging percentage and having more at bats than any other catcher in the majors, except Yadier Molina. He is also has hit 6 home runs and is tied with Wilson Contreras in leading all catchers. His edge factor where he is leading the competition is leading with 23 hits and 15 runs, the most among all other catchers. We will see if he holds the commanding position as the season continues to move on through summer.
First Base: Cody Bellinger, Los Angeles Dodgers - Bellinger would also be qualifying for best in the outfield due to the platoon role he shares the position with Max Muncy. Bollinger is leading the majors entirely in batting average with a .424. He is also leading all first basemen in hits (36), home runs (11), and RBIs (28) with the advantage of more plate appearances than his entire teammates get to experience on a regular basis. Bellinger is well on his way to challenge reigning MVP Christian Yelich for his title, who is more than happy to be his competition as they have gone back and forth on the home run leader board in the same game! In his age 23 season, Bellinger continues to display great team leading statistics and will be even a bigger star playing two major positions for the Dodgers.
Second Base: Jose Altuve, Houston Astros - Coming off of a year of reigning as MVP and the first franchise World Series, Jose Altuve immediately got to work in the 2019 campaign. He is leading all second basemen with 8 home runs and 17 RBIs so far through the first month of baseball. He is collecting just as many hits, but remains in the top five behind Whit Merrifield, Jeff McNeil, Jonathan Villar, and Dee Gordon. Altuve had a hard time being at this pace early in the season last year dealing with injury in his right knee; but after bringing attention to it during the offseason, he is the same lethal ball player we all know well. If the Astros are going to be in the heat of the competition, have the expectation that Altuve will be the head of it all.
Third Base: Anthony Rendon, Washington Nationals - Fun fact: Anthony Rendon was the first overall draft pick in my fantasy baseball league this season after the keeper pics were locked in. Rendon is leading a tight knit group of third basemen with a batting average at .371. He is tied along side Maikel Franco and Yoan Moncada for the same amount of RBIs with 18. Rendon is only trailing behind home run leader by one (6) with Hunter Dozier leading the pack with seven. Dozier and Rendon are the only two third basemen in the league that have an OPS statistic over one. The competition at this position is very thin, so expect a new name to be taking over for Rendon as we progress further along in the season.
Shortstop: Tim Anderson, White Sox - All hail the man about causing a ruckus on the South Side, bat flips and all! Tim Anderson is finally coming into the mold of being a star player for the franchise. He is leading the American League with a .403 batting average, that is second only behind Cody Bellinger. He is also leading all shortstops by swiping the most bags in steals with 9, all successful attempts as well. Anderson is a guaranteed man on base, with his OPS calculated at 1.052. Anderson gained a great deal of attention last week after a bench clearing tussle with division rival Kansas City Royals. Anderson hit a home run off Royal’s pitcher Brad Keller and celebrated with a bat flip, in his defense, it was his first ever hit off of Keller which led to the pitcher hitting Anderson his next at bat. As much as we love the heated drama in baseball, let’s just hope Anderson stays on the right side of it moving forward.
Left Field: Joc Pederson, Los Angeles Dodgers - Welcome back to being a big part of the Dodgers primary arsenal, Joc Pederson. The 27-year old was the first of many talents brought up from the Dodgers next generation of youth and took some time to get back from a lethal rookie once before. Pederson is leading all left fielders in home runs with 10, the highest slugging percentage with .716, and the highest OPS of all left fielders in the league with 1.105. Pederson is in the top three in WAR for 2018 behind Ronald Acuna, Jr. and Eddie Rosario. Along side Bellinger, Pederson makes this Dodgers team a lot more fun to watch this season.
Center Field: Austin Meadows, Tampa Bay Rays - There is only one man doing extraordinary things at the plate (and his name is NOT Mike Trout) and that is Austin Meadows. Meadows is leading the majors with .351 batting average and 19 RBIs this season. He is currently tied with Trout in hitting home runs with 6, and that is only one behind the leader, George Springer. Meadows is also right behind Trout in OPS almost by one whole tenth of a point with 1.097 adjacent Trout’s 1.211. Meadows is the focal point of the Rays’ success on offense this season, the team plays even better together when this man is in the starting line up.
Right Field: Christian Yelich, Milwaukee Brewers - The only man that was a part of my top draft list has come out of the gate hot and running with his official MVP reign. Yelich is crushing it leading the majors overall as home run leader with 13. He has the highest OPS out of all right fielders with 1.259, along side having the most RBIs in the majors, and leading the position in slugging with .820. Yelich has made himself personally into a “Cardinals Killer” with having 8 of his 13 home runs come from the St. Louis Cardinal’s pitching staff. If that does not strike fear into the rest of the National League Central’s pitching staff, then they are going to learn fast.
ERA Leader: Max Fried, Atlanta Braves - Fried has recently joined the Braves rotation from the bullpen to a starter and has been displaying some amazing stuff on the mound. Starting in 4 of his 6 games, he has an ERA at 1.38. The 25-year old is slacking in the strike out column amongst pitchers in the majors, however he remains perfect with 3 wins under his belt and has not loss a game yet. As Mike Foltynewicz will ease his way back into the the starting rotation for the Braves, Fried looks to hold a strong presence in the back end of the rotation.
Strikeout Leader: Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals - Before I continue with the praises to Max Scherzer, it is to be known at the time of writing this that Gerrit Cole is tied with Scherzer in strikeout in the American League; however, Cole’s statistics are not as impressive at Scherzer’s. Scherzer is seeing more innings and his ERA is lower, a reasonable statistic that could be measured with veteran leadership. In his age 34 season, Scherzer has commanded this statistic over the past few seasons and has always qualified him in the talks to always be nominated for a Cy Young. Scherzer is having difficulty sealing the win in his match ups only going 1 for 3, but is holding up his end with having 4 quality starts in his 5 total appearance this season.
Best Closer: Shane Greene, Detroit Tigers - Greene has been dealing some filth in the close games for the Tigers and is leading the league in saves with 10. He also has the best WHIP statistic for closers at 0.58, just behind the leader Robert Osuna with 0.21. Greene is not leading too much into the strikeout category for closers (12), but he makes up for it giving out the second least amount of hits with 4, only behind Osuna who has given up 2. Greene is a fan favorite that escaped the New York Yankees system of over saturated relief pitching that was replaced by All Star relief pitching….but hey, a “fully operational” Death Star has a weakness somewhere, right?
These are some strong leaders through our first month of the 2019 season. It will be far more than impressive if we can see any of these names hold these leading spots down as the season progresses further more into summer. We can only hope some of these new names become future All-Stars of their clubs and are the part of the next generation of legends of the game. There is plenty of baseball left to be played and we are not even through our first third of the season. We will wait to see what is left to unravel and see if there are brand new leaders at their positions, so stay tuned!
