MLB: Most Interesting Man in Baseball – Part I
By Jim Turvey
The Next Big Thing (?): Trea Turner
This player is the trap we all fall into every year. He’s the player that either goes four rounds too early or four rounds too late in your fantasy baseball draft. He’s all risk/all reward. He’s the player we’re praying will become the next Mike Trout (and if not, we’re all secretly kind of hoping he’ll be the next Rocco Baldelli). There are dozens of these players every season, but this season none is more interesting than Turner. Turner did his best Heath-Ledger-as-the-Joker impression in 2016, just watching the world burn in his 73-game rookie season (he played 27 not very memorable games in 2015 as well). Turner hit 13 home runs and stole 33 bases, as he put together the better half of an MVP season (3.5 bWAR) in his rookie season. Now the expectations are through the roof for the 23-year-old, which makes him all the more interesting.
Other potential nominees: Bryce Harper (Is he a first-ballot Hall of Famer or just an All-Star?), Alex Bregman, Trevor Story, Gary Sanchez.
The Just So Damn Good: Mike Trout
You can make a pretty strong case Trout is the most vanilla player in the league. In his five full professional seasons, he has basically posted the same numbers each year. He hasn’t once been involved in a scandal or even said anything really all that controversial to the media. His favorite hobby outside of baseball is meteorology for crying out loud. All that said, you can’t deny that a man with more bWAR through his age-24 season THAN ANY OTHER PLAYER IN MLB HISTORY is capital-I Interesting. You can’t deny that a man whose career arc currently pegs him as “Mickey Mantle but without all the nagging injuries” is Interesting. This is a player who has deserved the MVP each and every one of his seasons. He’s LeBron James but for baseball.
By the way, you could replace the word “Trout” with “Kershaw” in the entire previous paragraph and have the same outcome.
Other potential nominees: Clayton Kershaw, Miguel Cabrera, Buster Posey.
The He’s One of Us: Glen Perkins
Perkins literally wrote the book on baseball advanced stats. Well, ok, he didn’t write the book, but he did write the introduction to this year’s Baseball Prospectus, which is as close as any baseball player has ever gotten to writing the book on the sport’s advanced stats.
Within his introduction, Perkins mentions that he used the same advanced metrics (strikeout rate, groundball rate, FIP) that you and I use to improve himself as a pitcher. He makes us forget about the 500 other players who totally write off the advanced metrics we love so much and for one shining moment revel in the fact that “one of them” thinks just like “one of us.” Perkins has appeared on just about every knowledgeable baseball podcast in the last few years and is a cult hero among baseball fans for it.
Other potential nominees: Brandon McCarthy, Dan Haren (well, when he was active), Zack Greinke.
Yoenis Cespedes: Yoenis Cespedes
You are Yoenis Cespedes.
Other potential nominees: Hunter Pence, Hanley Ramirez, Tim Lincecum.
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- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
Next: Players Who Could Swing AL East Race
There you have it. Your cast of characters for the 2017 “Most Interesting Man in Baseball” production. If you think anyone was missed (and I know you do), please say so in the comments! We’ll be back soon to determine the winner.