With about two months of play to go, the National League and American League playoff races are just starting to get interesting. However, the batting races appear to be all but finished thanks to the raking Daniel Murphy and Jose Altuve have done all season (although, we all know there’s still plenty of time for anything to happen).
Entering action on Friday, each second baseman has a stranglehold on their respective league’s leaderboard when ranked by batting average. Here’s how the top five players in the AL shake out at the moment:
Building a 33-point lead at the start of August certainly makes us think Altuve will take home his second career batting title. And if a third consecutive Silver Slugger award doesn’t follow that honor, then this whole thing is rigged.
As for the senior circuit, Murphy’s lead isn’t quite as comfortable as his fellow second baseman, but it’s still pretty nice:
For those who figured his historic run through last year’s postseason was just a hot streak, Murphy has proved everyone wrong. The Washington Nationals are real happy the first two choices they pursued last winter to fill their void at second base (Ben Zobrist and Brandon Phillips) didn’t work out.
So, what’s special about this? Well, I was looking through the box scores this week and kept thinking to myself, “God, these guys are still hitting close to .360? In August? When was the last time the batting champ in both leagues finished with an average over .350?”
As it turns out, this particular scenario isn’t as common as it used to be. Between 1990 and 2004, it happened eight different times:
A handful of batting champs have come close to reaching this benchmark since 2004, but haven’t quite gotten there. Is this .350 benchmark rather arbitrary? Probably, but oh well. This gets more interesting upon seeing the similarities between Murphy and Altuve, both with regard to the season they’re enjoying and the current situation they find themselves in. Here are four that stood out:
Emergence of legitimate home run power
Neither have been known for hitting home runs throughout their big-league careers, but that narrative has certainly shifted in 2016. They each set new personal bests last season (Murphy hit 14, Altuve slugged 15), but have already surpassed those numbers this year.
Murphy is already in the midst of enjoying his first 20-homer campaign with 21 round-trippers and is well on his way to also posting his first 100-RBI season.
Altuve is on the cusp of his first 20-homer season with 19 of his own. He probably won’t get to 100 RBI, but the 64 he’s collected already is just two away from setting another single-season personal best.
The emergence of Altuve’s power has already been touched upon in this space, and it’s more of the same with Murph. He’s swinging less overall (49.4% in ’15, 46.9% in ’16) and is swinging much less at balls in the strike zone (71.5% in ’15, 63.5% in ’16). That’s probably a big reason why his hard-hit rate has increased from 31% last season to 39.4% this season.
The month-by-month slash lines are pretty insane
If you’re the proud owner of a batting average higher than .350, there aren’t going to be many “bad months” to dissect. It’s still fun to look at, though. Here’s Altuve’s month-by-month breakdown:
His worst month from a batting average perspective was April, and he still managed a 1.011 OPS.
On the other hand, Murphy started the year like a house on fire, then cooled off for a minute in June before heating back up:
Hitting .265 is not necessarily a bad thing, but nobody will bat an eye when you hit .400 over the previous two months before. His start to August makes us think it’ll be more of the same this month, too.
Leading the league in more than just batting average
Having the highest batting average is nice, but with advanced statistics playing such a huge part in today’s game, we also know that solely looking at someone’s average can be rather useless. However, when you take a look at the other categories these two are leading in, it’s easy to see their performances are completely legit.
According to Baseball-Reference, Altuve is also at the top of leaderboards when it comes to total hits (151) and OPS+ (168). Murphy’s list is a little longer, as he’s the current leader in total hits (138), doubles (32), slugging percentage (.630), OPS (1.027), OPS+ (167) and total bases (243).
They’re both ridiculous bargains
If Altuve isn’t the biggest bargain in baseball, then I’m not sure who is:
Jose Altuve is still in the midst of the most team-friendly deal in baseball. Making just $3.5M this year, $17M over next three. FA in 2020.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 8, 2016
If this kind of production continues, there’s a pretty good chance the “bargain” part of the conversation will eventually become a fun memory:
Big agent change: Astros star Jose Altuve is now with Scott Boras.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 8, 2016
Meanwhile, Murphy is in the first season of a three-year, $37.5 million deal he signed with Washington after rejecting a $15.8 million qualifying offer from the New York Mets.
It’s been fun to watch these two players dominate at the plate, especially because it’s not normal to see second basemen own the top spots in each league’s batting title race like they’re currently doing. As long as nothing unexpected happens, Altuve and Murphy should be considered frontrunners to win the AL and NL MVP awards.
Even if their batting averages end up dipping a smidge below .350 by the end of September.
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