While we still have a month of baseball to go I think it's a good time to start up the discussion as to who the team's MVP has been. To me there's really only 5 options. Simmons, Freddie, Jason, Minor and Kimbrel.
Obviously the last month of the season could change the debate but I'll state the cases for each. I left guys who've been key contributors off like Julio, Justin, Mac, and Johnson because for Julio he's been outclassed by Minor, and the other 3 guys primary asset is offense and Freddie has outhit them.
By any WAR metric Simmons is our most valuable player because of his defense. He doesn't bring much else to the team with poor offensive numbers and averagish in the bases. But he's been amazing with the glove and his glove has saved the 2 guys next to him many times. Not to mention picked up our staff. With arguably 2 of the worst defenders to his left and his right Simmons still puts up insane numbers. One could argue with better defenders (especially at 3B) he wouldn't have the same numbers because that 3B may eat into some of his great plays but regardless he's insane.
Freddie is out best hitter. Not lighting the world on fire but his 141 wRC+ is the best on the team by 8 points (Mac is second, Justin and Johnson are one point behind Mac) Power is a little low but he's spraying line drives everywhere. If he and Jason keep up their K% and BB% (hopefulyl improve on them as well) and add some power we'll have 2 great bats with them.
Jason the best combination of defense and offense we have. 118 wRC+ while not amazing is very good and his UZR of 12.7 is excellent. Heyward was on pace to have as good of a year as he had last year sans baserunning which would have made him if healthy a 5+ WAR player. But alas he's been hurt and now is done for the year potentially. The case that makes Heyward most interesting is our record with him vs without. Could be 100% coincidental, could not. Without him we're a below .500 team, with him we're like a .700 win team or something insane like that. I don't care to do the numbers but IIRC in the 95 games he's played we've won like 64 of them Again may be wrong on the exact numbers but the difference is staggering something like 60 wins when he starts (89 or 90 games IIRC) and then we have like 19 in the remaining 40ish. Again could be coincidental but watching the team play with Heyward vs without is night and day.
Minor is our best starting pitcher, while Julio has been awesome, Minor is his superior in nearly every way (ERA, FIP, xFIP, SIERA, tERA, you name it Minor is best) so if you believe our most valuable player is a pitcher (I don't) then it would be Minor
Kimbrel would be your vote if you believe his ability to shut down games is key. While not a demigod like last year, Kimbrel sports a great ERA, great FIP, and great xFIP. If you're a believer in save stats he's already saved as many games as last year and has the same number of blown saves. A few more saves without a blown save and he has better save numbers than last year.
Should make for an interesting discussion now and should really make for an interesting story to follow the rest of the way.
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