Chicago White Sox outfielder Luis Robert has been catching everyone’s eye this year both locally and nationally, and it working towards making a case for MVP in this shortened season.
I mean… look at this absolute BOMB:
Mercy! The A.L. Rookie of the Month showed off his power last night with a 458 ft. home run.#WhiteSox x @budweiserusa pic.twitter.com/Db9w0qTp7w
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) September 4, 2020
Aside from the deep ball, he’s also been reliable defensively. Thank God he’s so good at covering the outfield so he can creep over into Eloy’s territory in left since Eloy has been uhhh, less than reliable defensively.
Luis Robert steals a routine fly ball from Eloy Jimenez, Statcasted
Eloy's distance needed: 39 feet
Robert's distance needed: 103 feet pic.twitter.com/qxCCAcUQGd— David Adler (@_dadler) August 18, 2020
Let’s look at the numbers though. Robert is currently slashing .278/.331/.586 and a .918 OPS and 2.0 WAR. He also has 8 HRs and 27 RBIs. His WAR among position players currently ranks 6th overall, and 2nd in the AL. You know who’s ahead of him in the AL? Jose Abreu.
For comparison, let’s look at some other high profile players (not looking at pitchers since in the past 20 years only 2 pitchers have won an MVP):
- Mookie Betts: .299/.378/.604 and an OPS of .982 and 2.8 WAR, 12 HRs and 28 RBIs.
- Fernando Tatis Jr.: .305/.392/.636 and an OPS of 1.028 and 2.3 WAR, 13 HRs and 34 RBIs
- Bryce Harper: .276/.431/.533 and an OPS of .964 and 1.1 WAR, 7 HRs and 21 RBIs
- Mike Trout: .267/.353/.603 and an OPS of .956 and 0.7 WAR, 13 HRs and 34 RBI
- Aaron Judge: .292/.343/.738 and an OPS of 1.081 and 1.2 WAR, 9 HRs and 20 RBIs
We can go on and on listing players, but the point is, he’s up there with the big boys. The stars of the game. Going back to the defense again real quick. Robert leads ALL of those guys in dWAR. In fact, he’s third in the entire MLB only behind Nolan Arenado and Enrique Hernandez. And you know what? That means he has the best dWAR in the AL. Don’t forget that the MVP award is divided up between AL and NL. A lot of those guys above are in the NL as well who have better offensive numbers. Find out who the public is betting in everygame and every bet type with BetQL’s consensus picks for the remainder of the season.
Winning the MVP in his rookie season, isn’t going to be an easy task though even if he does put it all together. You know how many rookies have won an MVP award in the history of baseball? Two. Yeah, two. Fred Lynn in 1975 and Ichiro Suzuki in 2001. I guess Robert has the fact that he’s an outfielder working in his favor like Ichiro and Lynn were? It would be awfully impressive for him to win the honor, basically without a Spring Training no-less.
Luis Robert may not end up winning the MVP, but he definitely belongs in the running. Between defense, especially needing to cover more ground for the Sox, and his offense, he’s really the complete package. I feel ike we haven’t even gotten to see his speed on the base paths this season either. If he doesn’t win it this year, it’s looking like he’ll be in the conversation year after year. Sure glad La Pantera is on the White Sox.
One last thing… I know this is about Robert, but I didn’t want to finish this off without giving Tim Anderson some credit here. He may end up stealing the MVP talk on the South Side from Robert when it’s all said and done. Dude is slashing .347/.389/.610 with an OPS of .999 and 1.9 WAR, 7 HRs and 13 RBIs all while missing 10 games due to injury. Not to mention he may win his second straight batting title. One thing that won’t show up on the stat sheets with him is the energy he injects into this ball club. It’s “off-the-charts”…… ok, sorry. Anyway, keep an eye on Anderson as the season winds down, he may be right there in it.
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