Five Reasons Why Red Sox Mookie Betts Is An All-Star

#5 – Good Offense Comes From Great Defense

The native of Tennessee is truly something to see when he’s in the field. He makes so many amazing plays on defense, no matter his position, that he’s worth the price of admission before he even holds a bat.

Last season, the human highlight reel was doing it from right field, center field, and even some second base when four-time All-Star Dustin Pedroia was injured. Not bad for Mookie, considering he was only 21 years old at the time. Now a year older, he’s earned the full-time job as the Red Sox center fielder, and what a display that he’s shown this season.

The numbers don’t even do it justice, here. Betts’ fielding percentage is .995 with six assists for outs, some at home plate. That effort puts him third in the entire American League for all players having played center field this season, with only Leonys Martin (10) and Kevin Kiermaier (7) having more assists.

Those numbers are great on their own, except that they don’t take into account the amount of times that Red Sox Nation and Boston’s pitching staff have roared with excitement over one of Mookie’s tremendous, logic-defying catches. Whether crashing into walls or leaping over them, the ball seems to find his glove when other players would have, once thought justifiably, given up on the hit. Betts has pulled guaranteed home runs away from batters, ran down game-winning doubles in the gaps, and has soared through the air to catch what seemed to be looping singles that nobody would come near.

It seems like every night one of these moments in the field is captured on television, YouTube, Vine, Twitter, Facebook, and other media devices for millions of baseball fans, regardless of team loyalty, to enjoy. When you play for Boston in Yankee Stadium and, yet, you can make New York Yankees fans stand up and applaud your catch, you are a miracle worker. If the greatest and most ancient rivalry in all of sports cannot stifle Mookie-Mania, what else could?

If that’s the case, do we even need four more reasons to justify putting Mookie Betts on this All-Star team?

May 27, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia (15) celebrates his home run with center fielder Mookie Betts (50) in the third inning against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

#4 – The Eye of a Veteran

Well, as defense is only one part of the game of baseball, we should probably still look at the other parts of Betts’ game. A keen eye can tell the strides that Betts has made between the 52 games that he played in 2014 and the 80 games that he’s played in 2015. Much of it has to do with how he has approached the plate and the bases: ruthless aggression in a timely fashion.

A veteran knows when to punish a pitcher and when to take what is given. Last season, Betts walked 21 times and had 31 strikeouts for a .291 batting average. This season, he already has 25 walks, putting him second only to MLB’s golden child Mike Trout for all A.L. center fielders. Betts currently has a .282 batting average and 39 strikeouts, which would, on the surface, seem like he’s regressed. On the contrary, it shows how fast that he’s learning.

It’s very typical for breakout stars to do worse in their sophomore year. The pitchers now have a scouting report on the young hitter’s tendencies, hot-spots, and weak points. They know which pitch the batter loves to hit and which one he prays to the baseball gods to guide his bat to hit.

In April, Betts only hit .230, stumbling out of the gate. In May, he hit .259. In June, he hit .330. And so far in July, he’s hit .421. Picking up on the heat here? Betts was warming up to the sophomore slump, taking it in, re-evaluating his game, figuring out what the pitchers want to do to him and strategizing his own plan of attack. Sounds much like a wily veteran, doesn’t it?

In the last 30 games, no center fielder in the A.L. is as hot as Betts, hitting .366 with four home runs, 16 RBIs, and five stolen bases. He has been fierce, but it’s only after his keen eye developed that he has maximized his talented potential.

Apr 13, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox center fielder Mookie Betts (50) is safe at second base then steals third base against the Washington Nationals in the first inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

#3 – The Power of Youth

Speaking of potential, Betts has also kept his explosiveness, instead of just doing the safe play.

It’s sometimes hard to remember that young Mookie is only 22 years old when he drives the ball as hard and as well as he does. Betts is third for all starting center fielders with a .461 slugging percentage, with only Trout (.579) and Lorenzo Cain (.467) ahead of him.

To put those numbers into perspective, Betts is actually slugging the ball harder than last season (.444), when the pitchers didn’t know what to do with him. He’s driving the ball more squarely on every hit than when he was trying desperately to make an impact and pound every pitch. Betts’ restraint has actually made his power increase, and his muscles are still at a stage where he has growing to do. Maybe he won’t look to have a muscle-bound body like Trout, but maybe he doesn’t even need it.

Betts’ 5-foot-9, 180-pound frame has also been quick on the base paths. The joy that he brings to his own pitchers on defense is almost matched by the anguish he inflicts on opposing pitchers when he arrives on first base. A recent example would be last Thursday against the Toronto Blue Jays. Betts arrived at first base in the first inning and wanted to take a look at rookie lefty pitcher Matt Boyd and his pick-off move. Betts moved so far off of first base, before even taking a secondary lead, he was off of the dirt and was standing on the green turf. Boyd threw to first a few times, each beaten by Betts returning with ease. So easy, in fact, that only the first time did Betts dive back to first, while the other times he came back standing up. It rattled Boyd a great deal. It may not have been the only reason, but Betts and the Red Sox witnessed Boyd allow seven runs without recording a single out in that inning.

Betts has 13 stolen bases, placing him fifth behind Billy Burns with 17. Cain (16), Rajai Davis (14), and the man Betts replaced in Boston Jacoby Ellsbury (14) round out the list. Those are some fast guys, but you will notice that many of them don’t appear in the other categories of the game. Some guys are built for speed, some guys are built for power, but Betts has both.

And the scary thing is that he’s still younger than all of these guys. Most of the other players are at the old side of 20 and even the young side of 30. Trout is 23 years old, putting him the closest to Mookie. The youth movement is here, ladies and gentlemen, and it’s explosive at the plate and on the bases.

Jul 4, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox center fielder Mookie Betts (50) hits an rbi double during the eighth inning of the game against the Houston Astros at Fenway Park. The Red Sox won 6-1. Mandatory Credit: Gregory J. Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

#2 – The R.B.I. Machine

Here, the numbers say it all.

Betts has 41 RBIs, putting him just behind Trout (44). Betts is also third for the home run lead among his peers with nine home runs, although he is far behind Trout (21) and just behind Adam Jones (10).

The man produces; however, the real truth is in what the RBIs meant to the team. While Trout and Jones have a number of players surrounding them who also produce, Betts has had to do it alone in close games on many nights, this season.

With the game late and close with runners in scoring position, Betts has five RBIs which have been the difference in their victories.

Betts also leads the Red Sox with 29 RBIs in games won by the team, a group with big-name hitters like David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, and Mike Napoli. Jones has 26 RBIs in the same situation, placing him third behind Chris ‘Crush’ Davis (35) and Manny Machado (28) on the Baltimore Orioles. Trout has 27 RBIs, placing him third behind Albert Pujols (39) and Kole Calhoun (31). The Orioles have five players and the Angels have six players with 19 or more RBIs in this game situation. The Red Sox have four. Of these sets of players, the Orioles combine for 134 RBIs, the Angels combine for 158 RBIs, and the Red Sox combine for just 96 runs.

If Betts doesn’t show up to play, the chances that the team wins the game is much lower than if Jones or Trout take the night off for their respective teams. With the game on the line, Betts has come through for his team, even when they haven’t come through for him by getting on base enough times. And remember this: Betts has spent most of the season in the leadoff spot. Trout and Jones almost always hit in the three-spot in their lineups. That positioning means Betts often has less opportunity to drive runners home, while the other two players are helped by their spots to have more potential baserunners in front of them every game. Betts is doing more with less.

The fact is that Mookie equals wins. Shouldn’t production be important to the American League team if they want to win home-field advantage in the World Series?

Jun 25, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox center fielder Mookie Betts (50) touches hands with fans after scoring a run during the seventh inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

#1 – The ‘It’ Factor

The name. The flair. The style. The power. The smile.

You can’t hate on a guy named ‘Mookie’. You have to bet on a guy named ‘Betts’. The name, alone, makes him a baseball writer’s dream player. There’s so much you can do with that name, especially when he’s responsible for helping the team win ballgames.

Everyone, from children to adults, are dumbfounded when they see him play defense. The kids replay their YouTube channels and share on social media to watch Betts’ crazy catches again and again. The adults attempt to do the same, if they are tech-savvy enough to remember that they have a DVR and know how to use it.

Whenever Mookie gets a hit, be it a home run or a simple base hit, his smile is infectious on camera. The women want to be with him and the men want to be him.

His power and speed are both tangible and intangible. Offensively and defensively, his numbers rank up with the best center fielders in the game just as much as the pressure that he puts on opposing teams, knowing he could have another Mookie-moment at any time.

He’s not Mike Trout. He’s not Adam Jones. Yet, he doesn’t need to be to make the American League All-Star team. Statistically, he deserves to be on the team, beating out Jones for much of the different facets of game, trailing Trout very closely in the majority of them. If that isn’t enough, let’s just say that MLB executives would be foolish not to put a cash-cow of a star in the making on the one night when the entire baseball world is watching a program not called the World Series. And who knows, maybe Betts can be on that team one day, too.

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