Welcome to Week 19 in our ongoing series highlighting the best hitters and pitchers from the previous week. This week an MVP candidate helps propel his team into first place. A bench player gets more playing time and almost wins the top offensive slot. We also dissect a pair to fantastic pitching performances and ask which is better and why we think that way.
BEST HITTER: Josh Donaldson, 3B, Blue Jays
The Blue Jays finally did it. At the trade deadline (July 31), they were third in the AL East, six games behind the division leading Yankees. Now it’s the Blue Jays on the top of the heap, and a lot of credit has to go to MVP candidate Josh Donaldson. As of right now, he has been worth 7.2 fWAR, tied with Bryce Harper for the most in baseball and just ahead of Mike Trout (7.0 fWAR).
This past week was one of Donaldson’s best. He hit .524/.560/1.143 with three home runs. He led baseball in slugging percentage, wOBA, wRC+, and fWAR. He also drew three walks and struck out only once.
Honorable Mention: This is Mark Canha’s first appearance in this series. He’s mostly been a bench bat for the Athletics in his first major league season but with Ike Davis on the disabled list he’s recently received more playing time. He owns a 110 wRC+ on the season which is decent. But this past week he hit .542/.560/1.000 with a pair of home runs. That was good for a .655 wOBA and 341 wRC+ both of which finished second only to Josh Donaldson.
MLB Leader:
AVG – Mark Canha (.542)
OBP – Miguel Cabrera (.607)
SLG – Josh Donaldson (1.143)
wOBA – Josh Donaldson (.674)
wRC+ – Josh Donaldson (349)
HR – Miguel Sano/Khris Davis (4)
SB – Dee Gordon (5)
fWAR – Josh Donaldson (0.9)
HOUSTON, TX – AUGUST 21: Mike Fiers #54 of the Houston Astros celebrates after tossing a no-hitter en route to the Astros defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-0 at Minute Maid Park on August 21, 2015 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
BEST PITCHER: Mike Fiers, Astros
To the baseball world outside of Milwaukee Mike Fiers probably looked like a throw-in piece in the Carlos Gomez trade. He is rather unassuming when you see he throws his fastball in the 89-90 range most of the time. But the average-ness of his fastball belies his true talent level. And on Friday, we all saw just how dangerous Mike Fiers can be.
Against a very potent Dodgers offense, Mike Fiers tossed the first no-hitter of his career. He did walk three batters but he also struck out 10. It was all the more impressive when you learn his threw a career high 134 pitches. It was also the first time in his major league career that he went 9 innings.
Honorable Mention: No-hitters are fun but I don’t believe they have the importance that they’re generally treated with. Of course they’re still well pitched games but walks matter too. Chris Archer’s game against the Astros gives us a tremendous example of this. He too pitched a complete game shutout, but his performance was not met with the same reverence as Mike Fiers’. Yet Archer struck out 11 (one more batter than Fiers) and only allowed two baserunners (one less than Fiers). The “problem” is that he allowed a hit. But he only walked one batter whereas Fiers walked three. They were both truly fantastic performances. But we’ve grown up being told the no-hitter is more impressive. I’m not sure that’s true.
MLB Leaders:
K% – Chris Sale (53.9%)
BB% – 13 players tied (0.0%)
AVG – Mike Fiers (.000)
WHIP – Chris Archer (0.22)
ERA – 13 players tied (0.00)
FIP – Ian Kennedy (0.29)
xFIP – Chris Sale (0.58)
fWAR – Clayton Kershaw (0.7)
Statistics courtesy of FanGraphs
