MLB: NL Sabermetric All-Stars

First Base: Freddie Freeman (Atlanta Braves)

We’ll start by noting that this spot is going to be transferred over to Paul Goldschmidt by the time the actual All-Star Game comes around because of a fractured left wrist for Freeman, but for now boy is he ever deserving.

In the 37 games he played before the injury in 2017, Freeman was the only player to ascend into the Mike Trout/Bryce Harper tier of hitters. Freeman had 14 homers and a wRC+ of 204, making his injury all the more frustrating. Freeman has been percolating the last few seasons, improving his walk rate while increasing his power and even cutting down on his strikeouts in 2017.

In the past calendar year, only Trout and Joey Votto have a higher wRC+ among all MLB players, and no one has a higher isolated power. His 40 home runs in the past calendar year are “just” top five, but no one has more extra-base hits in that time. His line drive rate trails only Adrian Gonzalez, and no one has a higher hard hit percentage since May 24, 2016. Simply put, he’s been of the truly best players in baseball in 2017, and really the past year as a whole.

Of course, he won’t be available for the All-Star Game so the NL will have to settle for Goldschmidt, a 12-win player over the past two seasons who is hitting the ball even better in 2017. Goldy already has 11 homers and 12 steals, making him the only 10/10 player in baseball this season – again, this is a first baseman we’re talking about. He’s played 49 of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 50 games this season, a season in which the club is surprising folks with a .612 winning percentage. The NL first baseman position is stacked, as Joey Votto, Eric Thames, Ryan Zimmerman, and a glut of others don’t even qualify in this two-horse race right now.