Welcome to Week 17 in our ongoing series highlighting the best hitters and pitchers from the previous week. This installment features players from 3 out of 4 likely playoff bound teams. One hitter’s performance has rocketed his team from borderline Wild Card contender to a legitimate threat to the division leader. One pitcher is playing for a team that’s out of the playoff hunt altogether but isn’t letting that stop him from crushing his career projections.
BEST HITTER: Andrew McCutchen, OF, Pirates
The Pirates finally broke their playoff drought back in 2013 only to lose to the Cardinals in the NLDS. Then last year they got crushed in the Wild Card play-in game. This year they’re probably going to have to win the Wild Card game to get in again. They have a commanding hold on the first W.C. spot but they’re still 5 games back of the first place Cardinals.
If they’re going to get in the regular playoffs and further than the NLDS a week like the one McCutchen just had will go a long way. He hit .563/.652/1.063 and led MLB last week in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, weighted on-base average, and weighted runs created plus. That is incredibly impressive.
Honorable Mention: Just a week ago I would have told you it was likely the Blue Jays were going to have to go the same route as the Pirates to get into the playoffs. Here they are now just 1.5 games back of the division leading Yankees after winning 8 in a row. Josh Donaldson was a big part of that. He led all of baseball with a 1.0 fWAR last week hitting .385/.484/1.038 with 5 home runs (most in MLB).
MLB Leader:
AVG – Andrew McCutchen (.563)
OBP – Andrew McCutchen (.652)
SLG – Andrew McCutchen (1.063)
wOBA – Andrew McCutchen (.662)
wRC+ – Andrew McCutchen (342)
HR – Josh Donaldson (5)
SB – Carlos Correa/Christian Yelich (4)
fWAR – Josh Donaldson (1.0)
OAKLAND, CA – AUGUST 09: Chris Bassitt #40 of the Oakland Athletics pitches against the Houston Astros during the first inning at O.co Coliseum on August 9, 2015 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)
BEST PITCHER: Chris Bassitt, Athletics
Chris Bassitt is a name you might not have heard much of. He was acquired by the A’s in the Jeff Samardzija trade and only just passed his rookie eligibility this season. He has split time between AAA, the bullpen, and the rotation this year. In FanGraphs evaluation of the A’s minor league system, Bassitt ranked 16th and was projected as a back-end starter. Last week he was much more.
He faced two pretty solid offenses in the Orioles and Astros. He kept the Astros off the board in 7 innings allowing just 5 hits plus 2 walks. He also struck out 7. In 6.2 innings against Houston he did allow a single run off 5 hits and 2 walks but he notched 10 strike outs in the process.
Honorable Mention: There are plenty of pitchers that deserve an honorable mention but I like strikeouts so I’m going with Stephen Strasburg. In 7 innings he faced 24 Rockies and struck out half of them! That’s pretty darned impressive. He did allow a solo home run but that was the only real blemish. He only gave up 2 other hits and walked no one.
MLB Leaders:
K% – Stephen Strasburg (50.0%)
BB% – 10 players tied (0.0%)
AVG – Carlos Carrasco (.037)
WHIP – Carlos Carrasco (0.22)
ERA – 9 players tied (0.00)
FIP – Madison Bumgarner (0.65)
xFIP – Stephen Strasburg (1.09)
fWAR – Chris Bassitt (0.6)
Statistics courtesy of FanGraphs
