Saturday evening is Adrian Gonzalez bobblehead night at Dodger Stadium and it feels like the perfect backdrop to discuss the early MVP race in the National League.
It's still May, and the MVP race is a marathon not a sprint. Nonetheless, last week in Los Angeles the early favorites collided in the center of the entertainment capital of the world.
The early NL MVP argument can be narrowed down to two players. On one side of the scale is the reigning Player of the Month for April, Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. Gonzalez finished seventh in the 2014 NL MVP voting, watching teammate Clayton Kershaw take home the prize.
On the other side, is Miami Marlins slugger and Los Angeles native, Giancarlo Stanton. Stanton was the runner-up to Kershaw in 2014, and may have won the NL MVP prize had he not missed the final few weeks of the season after taking a fastball to the face.
Both players are among the league leaders in every major statistical category. Gonzalez is second in the league with a .347 batting average, ninth in home runs (9) and fifth in RBIs (32). Stanton is first in the league in RBIs (40), second in homers (12) and tenth in runs scored (26).
As of now, Stanton is showing nominal power hitting numbers with his 12 home runs and 40 RBIs offsetting his .238 average and league leading 57 strikeouts. Much of that will change for the better with Stanton, who despite striking out in 28.3% of his career plate appearances, has a career wRC+ of 142, which is 42% better than the league average hitter after adjusting for park and league. Right now, 32.4% of his plate appearances this season have resulted in a strikeout. That’s a career high for Stanton but not one that would likely last given he has improved his K% each year from 2012-2014.
Gonzalez on the other hand, is having an offensive tear, hitting .347/.426/.646 with nine home runs and 32 RBI. Only former Dodger and current Marlin Dee Gordon has more hits than Gonzalez and the only a handful of hitters have more home runs.
Sports
Get today's sports news out of Los Angeles. Here's the latest on the Dodgers, Lakers, Angels, Kings, Galaxy, LAFC, USC, UCLA and more LA teams.
Gonzalez has had some help from the pitchers he’s faced so far this season. He has been met with the slider 10.9% of the time, which is down 1.2% from last season. That pitch has been replaced by more cutters, which has went up from 3.6% last season to 5.8% now, but the cutters Gonzalez is facing this season (85.4 MPH) are on average 2.5 MPH slower than in 2014 (87.9 MPH). All of that has led to Gonzalez seeing a 3.1% increase of pitches inside the strike zone, which also helps increase his inside zone contact rate from 87.4% last year to 91.6% so far this season.
Some the averages for both sluggers will level out in time, but by the end of the season, the totals will tell the tale of who is worthy of the National League MVP. So head out to the ballpark, enjoy the mariachi music and grab yourself a Gonzalez bobblehead cause it might end up being the 2015 NL MVP.
