Here are all the Mookie Betts statistical comparisons you could possibly need
Trying to find a similar historical player to the Red Sox' dynamic right fielder has been a challenge — but say, are you familiar with Willie Mays?
COMMENTARY
I’m not quite sure what to make of one Markus Lynn “Mookie” Betts, and I mean that in all of the good and utterly mesmerized ways.
Until recently — say, sometime after he was named the American League Player of the Month for July and began making his case for August — it was almost as if the Red Sox’ 23-year-old right fielder’s astonishing performance over the past year …
Mookie Betts’ last 162 games
48 doubles, 6 triples, 37 homers
132 runs scored, 114 RBI
25/30 stolen bases
.328/.371/.574#RedSox— High Heat Stats (@HighHeatStats) August 30, 2016
… was unheralded or taken for granted or didn’t generate a level of national buzz to match his level of achievement. I don’t know, maybe he was unsung because he’s so unassuming, so mortal-looking , so normal.
That is especially true of his spectacular season in the making. Entering the Red Sox’ 132nd game of the season on Tuesday night, he was slashing .322/.361/.566 with 30 homers, 21 stolen bases, 35 doubles, 96 RBIs, 102 runs, 178 hits, and a league-best 331 total bases.
This is shaping up, without a hint of hyperbole, to be one of the greatest individual seasons in Red Sox history by a player under 25 years old. Now that he is reaching certain milestones — wait, Mookie has 30 homers? — he’s getting recognition as a genuine Most Valuable Player Award candidate in the American League, a neat feat even if it’s kind of overdue.
Entering play on Tuesday, he was second in the AL in WAR (7.5 per B-R.com), trailing only Mike Trout (a ridiculous 8.9). Presuming the Red Sox don’t replicate September 2011, that probably means Betts is the AL MVP frontrunner, since Trout will be punished by voters for being surrounded by lousy teammates.
But that best player vs. most valuable player debate is one for another day. This is about Betts, and trying to compare the incomparable.
I’ve been searching for a while — probably since last summer, when his star rapidly ascended — for a historical player comparison to Betts that is as accurate as one of his laser throws from right field. And the more (and better) he has played and accomplished, the harder it has become.
Before this season, I was hesitant to suggest that he might be the Red Sox’ version of Andrew McCutchen, given the Pirates superstar’s excellence, grace and cool charisma through his first seven seasons, one of which ended with an NL MVP award. Now I wonder if Betts will be his superior. McCutchen has never had a single season that will match what Betts is doing this year, presuming he continues producing at these rates.
Betts’s most similar comp through age 22 is Grady Sizemore, which is a decent one — but what it doesn’t take into consideration is what Betts has accomplished this year, in this superb age-23 season. Betts already has more homers and RBI this year than Sizemore had as a 23-year-old. He’s going to outclass Sizemore after this, and the start to his career is superior to that of the No. 2 player on that list, Carlos Beltran, and greatly surpasses No. 3, Ellis Valentine.
http://cinesport.boston.com/boston-globe-sports/finn-mookie-betts-al-mvp/
(I’m not certain why, but his career Baseball-Reference comps entering this season are mostly old-timers whose legacies are in black and white rather than color, and I don’t think names like Bill Howerton, Len Koenecke and George Puccinelli are going to resonate with modern Red Sox fans.)
So the search continues for the perfect Betts comp, even as we acknowledge that he is a singular force right now. Based on his achievements so far, here are a few others, some facetious, some serious, and one utterly staggering.
He’s the new Manny Ramirez: Betts and Ortiz are the first Red Sox teammates since 2006 to each hit 30 homers in a season. That year, Ramirez hit 35 and Ortiz (of course) hit a franchise-record 54. Also: If this isn’t confirmation that Betts is the power hitter that the Red Sox thought they were going to have to search for and pay in the offseason, I’m not sure what else would do the trick.
He’s the new Jim Rice: The 1978 version that is, when Rice was living his best baseball life. Betts has 313 total bases — no other major leaguer has reached 300 yet this season — and is one hellacious September away from matching the 406 Rice put up 38 summers ago.
He’s the new Matt Nokes: Betts hit his 30th home run Monday night, putting him one behind David Ortiz for the team lead. According to Elias (and the Red Sox game notes), the Red Sox are the only the second team in MLB history to have a player older than 40 years old and a player younger than 25 each hit 30 homers in the same season. The 1987 Tigers, with 40-year-old Darrell Evans (34 homers) and the 23-year-old Nokes (32 in a career year), was the first.
He’s the new Jody Reed: No, he didn’t turn down a huge contract only to end up with a puny one a few months later. Betts has been worth the same number of wins above replacement (15.7 WAR, per the Baseball-Reference version) over the course of his career as Reed, the former Red Sox second baseman (among other destinations). The catch is that Betts has compiled his WAR over less than three full seasons. Reed compiled his over 11 years.
He’s the new Ted Williams: OK, no one in American life is, or will ever be, the new Ted Williams. Hell, pardner, even John Wayne was a cheap replica Ted Williams whose real name was Marion. But Mookie does join him in this heady regard: He and Tony Conigliaro are the only other players besides Teddy Ballgame to hit 30 homers in a season before their 24th birthday. I’ll refrain from calling him the next Tony C., as dazzling as he was in his youth. You understand.
He’s the new Darryl Strawberry:
https://twitter.com/MilesGrant/status/770415603437928448
Hmmm. The funhouse-mirror, condensed version of the Straw, maybe? Actually, wasn’t Strawberry supposed to be the new Ted Williams, way back when? I think he was. He wasn’t.
He’s the new Nomar Garciaparra: Now here’s a semi-serious one. Betts is the fourth Red Sox player to tally at least 30 homers and 20 steals in a single season, joining the 1970 edition of Carl Yastrzemski (wait, Yaz could run?), 2011 Jacoby Ellsbury (when he should have been the AL MVP), and 1997 Nomar Garciaparra. The comp to Nomar immediately jumped out at me when I saw Betts’s homer and RBI totals; they were instantly reminiscent of the 30 homers and 98 RBI Nomar put up during his rookie season, primarily from the leadoff spot. Betts’s apparent knack for hitting the ball on a line virtually every time up is also very Vintage Nomar. We should remember Nomar well, you know. He was a joy in the early years.
Now here’s the aforementioned staggering revelation, a mind-boggling confirmation of the company Betts is keeping, and the exclamation point on this whole quest for context of his greatness:
He’s the next Willie Mays: Baseball blasphemy, right? Maybe. Mays has an argument as the greatest player of all time, especially if you dock the players who played in the segregated era a few Greatness Points for their limited quality of competition. But dig this: We’ve established that Betts has been worth 15.7 WAR over his young career. That puts him 37th all time for players through their age-23 season. Thirty-eighth on that list? Barry Bonds, at 15.6. Thirty-sixth: Barry Bonds’s godfather, Mays, at 15.8.
What we’re seeing from Betts now — and what Angels fans are seeing from Trout, too — is not too far off from what New York Giants fans saw from Mays in 1954. Imagine that? We don’t have to imagine. Like Betts’s performance over the past year, that is a comparison worthy of marveling.
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