Nice article. tl;dr: His superpower is that he’s this good but still young, and producing like this in the majors at only 20 isn’t normal.
I love Ben Clemens’ work, both on the site and when he’s on “Effectively Wild”. This was a super fun read as a Brewers fan, too.
That damn smile.
the end is by far my favorite.
Since July 1 — just so you know, I’m not using one arbitrary endpoint, I’m using two — Chourio’s hitting .331/.378/.517, good for a 150 wRC+. He’s tied with Seager with 1.5 WAR, in the top 25 among position players over that stretch. He’s striking out far less and still hitting for power. He’s 11th in the majors in steals, too. He’s batting at the top of the order for a playoff team and looks right at home there.
I’ll say it one more time: This isn’t normal. Players aren’t this good this young. Baseball at this level is a grown-up’s sport. Hitters need time to develop; even the guys we think of as phenoms mostly didn’t hit the majors before 21. We’re watching a meteoric talent establish himself in the major leagues. By next season, we’ll have more of an idea what Chourio’s best skill is. For now, it’s enough to marvel at how quickly he’s figuring it all out.
Does anyone know how to look up stats for other age 20 seasons this century to compare?
5 comments
Nice article. tl;dr: His superpower is that he’s this good but still young, and producing like this in the majors at only 20 isn’t normal.
I love Ben Clemens’ work, both on the site and when he’s on “Effectively Wild”. This was a super fun read as a Brewers fan, too.
That damn smile.
the end is by far my favorite.
Since July 1 — just so you know, I’m not using one arbitrary endpoint, I’m using two — Chourio’s hitting .331/.378/.517, good for a 150 wRC+. He’s tied with Seager with 1.5 WAR, in the top 25 among position players over that stretch. He’s striking out far less and still hitting for power. He’s 11th in the majors in steals, too. He’s batting at the top of the order for a playoff team and looks right at home there.
I’ll say it one more time: This isn’t normal. Players aren’t this good this young. Baseball at this level is a grown-up’s sport. Hitters need time to develop; even the guys we think of as phenoms mostly didn’t hit the majors before 21. We’re watching a meteoric talent establish himself in the major leagues. By next season, we’ll have more of an idea what Chourio’s best skill is. For now, it’s enough to marvel at how quickly he’s figuring it all out.
Does anyone know how to look up stats for other age 20 seasons this century to compare?