"Obviously, I'm coordinated and whatnot." -- Markus Lynn "Mookie" Betts

· .400/.474/.667 since the break

· .464/.514/.814 in august (aided by an insane .500 BABIP, tbf)

· he's 5'9" and leads the NL in slugging

· comfortable lead in both bWAR and fWAR among national league hitters; at worst this will be his fifth top-five and seventh top-ten MVP finish

· that smile

· gonna finish his age-30 season with over 65 bWAR; JAWS already has him as the 12th-best right fielder of all time

· good guy whom everybody loves; great nickname

(sorry tracer)

There was a nice article in The Athletic the other day about him and all his projects he now has outside baseball, like his podcast (which Alex Cora says is horrible but I like it a lot). Basically that it was a lot easier for him to relax and be himself in Los Angeles where he’s just one famous person among many whereas being a sportsperson - and a black player too, let’s be honest - has you subject to constant pressure and hyper focus on all kinds of bullshit.

“I didn’t know I could talk and be who I am,” Betts said. “I know who I am, but I didn’t know that I could be who I am now. … The opportunities that I’ve gotten for life and off-the-field things, I don’t think happen in Boston. That’s not a shot at Boston or anything, it’s just two completely different markets. L.A. is a completely different place. I mean, it’s huge. The opportunities are endless.”

Clearly the best position player in the game right now, and probably eclipsed Trout two or three years ago. I was wary at first of him moving from Fenway to Dodger Stadium and how that might affect his numbers--the Fred Lynn Syndrome--but he's put all that to rest, especially this year.

135 average wrc+ in his 6 years with the Sox vs. 149 average wrc+ in his 4 years with the Dodgers. The man just gets better and better with age. He makes no sense to the naked eye; how does a man that small hit with so much power?

Mookie is the illest

Very much against sports' new complicity with the gambling industry, but a good MVP measure:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10087514-mlb-mvp-odds-2023-mookie-betts-overtakes-ronald-acuna-jr-as-nl-favorite

Was he actually named after the other baseball Mookie? (Or maybe Do the Right Thing's Mookie? Who may himself have been named in honour of the other baseball Mookie...probably was.)

Ha--didn't even know Markus was his actual name.

Markus Lynn Betts, call him Mr. MLB

Apparently his parents chose his name to make the initials MLB and he's named after Basketball player Mookie Baylock. Source: wikipedia

Forgot about him...I've had my picture taken with Mookie Blaylock!

i do wonder if there are any other kickass bowlers in mlb

The MVP race (from Posnanski):

Mookie created 50 runs in August, which makes it the 34th most productive month in baseball history, behind a bunch of Babe Ruths and Barry Bonds and so on.

Acuña, incidentally, merely hit .353/.432/.574 with 5 doubles, 2 triples, 6 homers, 27 runs, 22 RBIs and 11 stolen bases. What a slacker.

Yeah, this really is turning into an MVP race for the ages. Not to mention that you have Olson and Freeman raking too.

Mix-and-match stuff, but (from Baseball Reference's FB page): Mookie Betts is the first player since Joe DiMaggio in 1939 to record at least 10 home runs, 30 RBI, and 50 hits in a single month.

Wrote this on July 14, when Mookie Betts was at 4.3 bWAR and 14th in JAWS at RF. One awesome August later he’s at 7.8 WAR, 10th in JAWS and… almost 4th in 7-year peak behind the big boys pic.twitter.com/T7Zniy72IS

— Jay Jaffe (@jay_jaffe) September 3, 2023

I probably didn't need to, but I looked up the "big boys" for 7 years: Ruth, Aaron, Musial, and Clemente--and he's just about to pass Clemente.

Betts put up 3.4 WAR in 1.5 months?? Projecting to ... 14-15 WAR for a full season?

Yeah, he's a great player.

Back playing today, happily.

What a start: 4 games, 3 HR, 9 RBI, .571/.684/1.286. 3.80 career MVP shares going into this season (20th all-time); should end up in the Top 10 (Aaron and DiMaggio tied for 10th at 5.45), although probably won't catch Trout (6.53) or Pujols (6.91).

He will not stop. 2-2 and just hit his 5th hr. Unbelievable start to a season

.600 OBP... with 2 strikes.

He gets another hit and is currently in line for a 28.5 war season (move over babe)

He's currently leading the league in

Runs*
Hits*
Triples*
Home Runs*
Ribeyes*
Walks*
Average
On base
Slugging
OPS
OPS+
Total bases*

*yes he has two extra games played but whatever, the man is still nuts

He's now ahead of Trout in bWAR for as long as Betts has been in the league. 2014-today:

Betts: 67.6
Trout: 66.3

The reason I find this interesting...Trout will always, for most fans, be thought of as the best player of his generation--that's been internalized by this point. But for that to be true, you may have to be very specific about the parameters for "generation." Betts and Trout have careers that almost overlap. Trout has a three-year head start in both making the majors and playing full-time. The case for Trout as the better player has to focus on 2012-2019, where he'd lead Betts in WAR by quite a bit. If you narrow that and go 2014-2019, Trout leads 52.5-42.2; reasonably close. But if you step back and treat their whole careers as running more or less parallel, well, it depends what happens from here on out, but I wouldn't be surprised it Betts has compiled more WAR by the time they're both finished. Injuries, I know, but to me, Betts more and more looks like the guy.

betts seems unlikely to catch trout in homers, but so far he's aging awfully well and it's incredible how he can be put at any defensive position and thrive. he never played shortstop in the majors (and only 39 games in the minors long long ago) until he was 30!

also i must stan fifth-round draft picks who make it. what a player

"Thrive" is a bit strong, but I mean cosign all the sentiments hereto posted

are you trying to talk me down re: mookie? wow

While he ain't catching trout anytime soon on home runs, it still blows me away this 5 foot 9, 170pound guy can mash the ball as much as he can. His slug and homers have both ticked up in the past two and a bit years as well

You understand your name means you're resistant to Mookies right? Of course I am!

fair

1/5th of the way into the season and damn Mookie, calm down. His WAR rate is still heading towards best position-player WAR season of all time, which obviously he won't hit. But even if he drops by 5war within that time, he'll still have the highest war season since... Mookie Betts 2018.

He's also stealing far more bases. Already at 8 when he has 14 total last year. Hungry for that MVP

mookie betts was traded to the dodgers five years ago today

Since then, Betts has led MLB in WAR twice, had three top-5 finishes for NL MVP, and been part of two championship teams.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, have had 3 last-place finishes and one playoff appearance.

This sucks btw

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6256111/2025/04/04/dodgers-mookie-betts-white-house/?source=user_shared_article

“I made it about me,” Betts said of not going in 2019. “This is not about me. This is about the Dodgers…Me not being there for them at that time, it was very selfish.”

markus lynn "milquetoast" betts