Mookie Betts shines, Dallas Keuchel is King, MLB power rankings and more

Mookie Betts vs. Rickey Henderson, Edison Volquez is unhittable, Dallas Keuchel is Cy Young worthy, and Zack Cozart is better than Aaron Judge, plus MLB power rankings and more.

There is not another more one-sided debate in baseball. Rickey Henderson is, was, and likely forever will be the greatest leadoff hitter of all time.

Henderson posted a .401 career on-base percentage, with help from an ageless body that allowed him to play for a quarter century. He set a major league record with 1,406 stolen bases, which set Henderson up to score an MLB record 2,295 runs. Henderson was a unicorn. If big league clubs had the ability to build a leadoff hitter in a factory, we would have 30 Rickey Hendersons.

Henderson is obviously the first player that comes to mind when I think of the ideal leadoff hitter, but as a child of the 1980s and ‘90s – the golden era of the elite leadoff man – I understand there are different types of No. 1 hitters capable of great success.

New Hall of Famer Tim Raines was probably the closest to Henderson as a total package, but Wade Boggs, Paul Molitor, Pete Rose, Craig Biggio and Brett Butler were all elite at getting on base. Lou Brock, Kenny Lofton, Willie Wilson and Vince Coleman were dynamic runners that put pressure on defenses with their legs. Ichiro Suzuki, Johnny Damon and Jose Reyes all had wildly successful styles as well that fit the mold best in the early 21^st Century.

Today, the range of skill sets among leadoff men is more diverse than ever as the position continues to evolve. Here’s a breakdown of the current leadoff hitters for each major league team. Note: lineups change regularly, so leadoff hitters vary often, but the players listed have either spent the majority of the 2017 season at the top of the lineup or were penciled in the No. 1 spot in their club’s batting order primarily over the last two weeks:

• Angels: Yunel Escobar/Cameron Maybin
• Astros: George Springer
• Athletics: Rajai Davis/Matt Joyce
• Blue Jays: Kevin Pillar
• Braves: Ender Inciarte
• Brewers: Jonathan Villar/Eric Sogard
• Cardinals: Dexter Fowler
• Cubs: Kyle Schwarber/Ben Zobrist/Ian Happ
• Diamondbacks: A.J. Pollock/Gregor Blanco
• Dodgers: Logan Forsythe
• Giants: Denard Span
• Indians: Jason Kipnis
• Mariners: Jean Segura/Ben Gamel
• Marlins: Dee Gordon
• Mets: Michael Conforto
• Nationals: Trea Turner
• Orioles: Seth Smith/Joey Rickard
• Padres: Manny Margot/Allen Cordoba
• Phillies: Cesar Hernandez
• Pirates: Adam Frazier/Josh Harrison
• Rangers: Carlos Gomez/Shin-Soo Choo
• Rays: Corey Dickerson
• Red Sox: Mookie Betts
• Reds: Billy Hamilton
• Rockies: Charlie Blackmon
• Royals: Alcides Escobar/Alex Gordon
• Tigers: Ian Kinsler/Andrew Romine
• Twins: Brian Dozier
• White Sox: Leury Garcia
• Yankees: Brett Gardner

Is there an ideal leadoff hitter among them? Another Rickey Henderson?

If we’re drawing comparisons to the all-time greats, Hamilton is a Willie Wilson/Vince Coleman type with blinding speed but far from Henderson’s elite on-base percentage. Maybin has a Rickey-like 16.0 percent walk rate, but is hitting just .242.

Brett Gardner, Dee Gordon, Dexter Fowler, Denard Span, and Ender Inciarte have all flashed prototypical leadoff skills in the Kenny Lofton mold at times, but none are perfect. Conforto has gotten on base at a Wade Boggs pace this year, while he, Corey Dickerson, Charlie Blackmon, Kyle Schwarber and George Springer all bring a more powerful presence to the position. Turner looked pretty Henderson-like (.342/.370/.567 with 33 steals) as a rookie, but is hitting .260/.287/.415 in his sophomore season.

The closest? A part-time leadoff man in his four MLB seasons, Mookie Betts has all the skills.

Though he doesn’t walk enough (yet) and doesn’t steal enough (nobody, not even Hamilton, does) to compare to Henderson exactly, Betts hit a well-rounded .310/.352/.544 with 23 home runs, 74 RBI, 87 runs scored and 18 stolen bases in 21 attempts in his first 109 games last season – all while hitting first in the Red Sox lineup. The 24-year-old was dropped to third and fourth in August, and though he began the 2017 season hitting third in the Boston batting order, Betts was put back on top May 6 and has hit there in every game since.

A career .299/.353/.468 hitter in four major league seasons, Betts currently compares more closely to Molitor (.306/.369/.448), the Hall of Famer and current Twins manager, who hit leadoff early in his career, but (like Betts) proved to be such a run producer he was forced to hit in the middle of the order later.

Truthfully, the closest we’ve got to Rickey in terms of overall skillset is Mike Trout, who hit leadoff in all 138 games in which he started in 2012, but hasn’t done it since June 18, 2013. But, given his skills at the plate and on the bases – as well as the fact is actually hits first in the order right now – Betts is the closest thing to a Rickey Henderson caliber leadoff hitter in the majors today.

Four things we learned this week

1. Edinson Volquez can be unhittable

Edinson Volquez has had an up-and-down career. In 13 major league seasons, Volquez has pitched for seven clubs. He was an All-Star as a 24-year-old rookie in 2008, but has a 4.41 career ERA. Volquez has twice led his league in earned runs (2013 and 2016), and in separate years, led his league in hit batters (2008), wild pitches (2014), and he once led all of baseball in walks (2012). He currently leads the big leagues with seven losses.

Volquez can be wild. However, the 33-year-old right-hander can also be unhittable, as he proved with a no-hitter June 3 against the Diamondbacks. Volquez needed just 98 pitches, and faced the minimum 27 hitters in a dominant performance. He struck out 10 and allowed just two walks.

After the game, Volquez dedicated his performance to the late Jose Fernandez and Yordano Ventura, on what would have been his countryman Ventura’s 26^th birthday.

2. Dallas Keuchel is the new AL Cy Young favorite

Red Sox starter Chris Sale jumped out to an early lead in the American League Cy Young race, but the new favorite to win the award is Astros lefty Dallas Keuchel.

Keuchel, who won the Cy Young in 2015, improved to 9-0 and lowered his ERA to 1.67 after tossing six scoreless innings against the Rangers June 2. That same day, online sports book Bovada listed Keuchel ahead of Sale as the odds-on favorite to pick up his second piece of hardware.

Keuchel ranks fourth in the American League and No. 9 in the majors among qualified starters with 1.9 Wins Above Replacement according to FanGraphs (fWAR). The 29-year-old leads the majors with a 0.872 WHIP, having allowed just 48 hits and 18 walks in 75.2 innings across 11 starts. Keuchel also leads all big league pitchers with a 230 ERA+.

Perhaps most importantly, the Astros are 10-1 in the games Keuchel has started this season.

3. Zack Cozart is better than Aaron Judge (in fWAR)

Heading into Tuesday, Reds shortstop Zack Cozart led the National League with 3.1 fWAR . That ranks second in the major leagues behind injured reigning AL MVP Mike Trout (3.4), and is slightly better than AL MVP candidate Aaron Judge (3.0), who has spent the majority of the first two months as the talk of baseball.

Cozart, a 31-year-old in his seventh major league season, is hitting .344/.432/.622 through 48 games. That’s an incredible increase over his .253/.300/.402 career line and a better batting average and on-base percentage than Judge. Cozart ranks among the top six in the majors in all three categories. He also has nine home runs with 33 RBI and 33 runs scored. Cozart has struck out in 17.5 percent of his plate appearances this season while walking 13.8 percent of the time.

He also plays great defense (Cozart’s glove is largely what got him to the major leagues), and ranks No. 1 in the NL and second in the big leagues among shortstops in FanGraphs’ overall defensive metric (Def), with a 6.9. Simply put, Cozart has been a great all-around player but his offense has made him a likely All-Star, and potentially a wanted man.

Cozart is scheduled to become a free agent after the season, and with Cincinnati in rebuilding mode, it seems likely he would be a candidate to be traded this summer.

4. Scooter Gennett is a person that plays Major League Baseball

Cozart’s teammate, utility man Scooter Gennett, became the 17th player in MLB history, and first since Josh Hamilton in 2012, to hit four home runs in a game Tuesday. Gennett also became the first player in Reds franchise history to hit four home runs in a game.

Gennett, who was 5-for-5, drove in 10 runs in Cincinnati’s 13-1 win over St. Louis – joined Mark Whiten as the only players to hit four long balls with 10 RBI in a game since 1913, as well as the only two players in history to hit a grand slam as part of a four-homer game.

Oddly, the game came on the heels of a 0-for-19 stretch that ended in Gennett’s final at bat Monday. Also of note, the Reds claimed Gennett off waivers from the Brewers in spring training.

Quotable

"“My honest answer to that would be no because of a couple of things. First of all, it’s a language barrier. Because of that, I think he can’t be a guy that would sort of sit in a circle with four, five American players and talk about the game. Or try and learn about the game or discuss the inner workings of the game. Or come over to a guy and say, ‘Man, you gotta run that ball out.’ Just can’t be — because of the language barrier — that kind of a player.”"

–Phillies legend Mike Schmidt, when asked whether or not a team can build around a player like Venezuela native Odubel Herrera, during an interview with a Philadelphia radio station Tuesday.

Mike Schmidt may have been a Hall of Famer player, but he has a bush league outlook when it comes to the dynamics of a modern major league clubhouse.

In an interview with the 94WIP Morning Show Tuesday, Schmidt was asked whether or not a team could build around a player like Herrera. A 25-year-old Gold Glove-caliber outfielder with great speed and a propensity for bat flips, Herrera is, in fact, one of the players the Phillies have chosen to build around. After all, the team signed the Venezuela native to a five-year, $30.5 million deal through 2021, which includes options for 2022-23.

In his full comments, Schmidt, who serves as a TV analyst for Phillies games, made mention of Herrera’s struggles and inconsistency at the plate this season (Herrera is hitting .243/.283/.403 in 53 games this year after he earned All-Star recognition in 2016) and also alluded to his flamboyant playing style, as reasons why it would be unwise to build around Herrera. But Schmidt focused more on the fact that Herrera is not a native English speaker as a reason why he isn’t an ideal franchise cornerstone or clubhouse leader.

Schmidt has since apologized (sort of), and Herrera downplayed the comments. Nevertheless, Herrera played his first minor league season in the United States in 2010, when he was 18 years old (he spent the previous season, his first “official” minor league season, in the Dominican Summer League).

Based on my experience in four seasons working for a minor league club in the Brewers organization, I can almost guarantee the Rangers (with whom Herrera played until the Phillies selected him in the Rule 5 Draft prior to the 2015 season) put Herrera and his teammates in English classes.

Even if they didn’t, Herrera has surely picked up enough English over the past seven years living in the U.S. while working with dozens of English speakers every day, to communicate effectively with his coaches and fellow players.

If not, I guarantee quite a few English speakers in the Philadelphia clubhouse have picked up enough Spanish over the years of working next to and playing alongside a significant portion of native Spanish speakers that players can communicate with one another in Spanish.

If not, Herrera has plenty of Spanish-speaking teammates with which to communicate. Nine players on the Phillies current 25-man active roster were born outside the U.S. in a traditionally Spanish-speaking country.

Simply put, (even though he speaks to the media through an interpreter) I am confident Herrera can communicate effectively with 100 percent of his teammates and coaches in some combination of English, Spanish, or “baseball.” As a young, elite defensive centerfielder with both speed and pop, Herrera is the ideal baseball player to build a team around, and his actions will dictate what kind of leader he can be. Language has nothing to do with it.

In other words, Mike Schmidt said a dumb thing.

Play of the Week

Brewers prospect Brett Phillips made his major league debut Monday night in Milwaukee and marked the occasion by gunning down Denard Span trying to stretch a single into a double.

Also of note, rumor has it Phillips strode to the plate for his first career at bat to the 2001 hit song “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton.

League Leaders

Most common baseball fans now understand that errors and fielding percentage are not great ways to measure whether or not a team (or player) is good defensively. Yes, bad fielders make errors on plays that should be made, but good fielders also make errors – and if a defensive player has great range, he has an opportunity to almost make more plays, which often leads to a higher number of errors.

Fortunately, brilliant baseball minds have come up with better ways to measure defensive success. Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) and Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) are great, but for a quick and dirty look at which players are best overall, Defensive Runs Above Average (Def) at FanGraphs, is a fine tool.

Def is available for both teams and players, and by position. Read more about it here.

Def (Team)

• Cincinnati Reds (23.1)
• Minnesota Twins (19.1)
• Kansas City Royals (14.4)
• Colorado Rockies (14.0)
• Boston Red Sox (13.7)

If only the Reds had a competent starting rotation. Cincinnati has a good offense, intriguing bullpen and the best defense in baseball, which has combined to make the club competitive through the first one-third of the season.

Likewise, the Twins have spent a large portion of the season in first place largely because of the most improved defense in baseball, which is currently the best in the American League.

Def (Position players)

• Ender Inciarte, CF, Atlanta Braves (9.2)
• Odubel Herrera, CF, Philadelphia Phillies (9.1)
• Yasmani Grandal, C, Los Angeles Dodgers (8.4)
• Nolan Arenado, 3B, Colorado Rockies (7.9)
• Alcides Escobar, SS, Kansas City Royals (7.8)

As for individual players, the highlight-reel catches Ender Inciarte and Odubel Herrera produce in the outfield on a regular basis, it’s no surprise the pair is the best in baseball defensively (and the same can be said for Nolan Arenado and Alcides Escobar in the infield).

However, the common fan may be surprised to learn Yasmani Grandal is the best defensive backstop in the game today. Where’s Yadier Molina, you ask? He ranks No. 7 among catchers at 4.8, just behind Manny Pina.

Random MLB Power Rankings: Top 10 leadoff hitters

1. Mookie Betts, OF, Boston Red Sox
2. George Springer, OF, Houston Astros
3. Charlie Blackmon, OF, Colorado Rockies
4. Corey Dickerson, OF/DH, Tampa Bay Rays
5. Billy Hamilton, OF, Cincinnati Reds
6. Ender Inciarte, OF, Atlanta Braves
7. Cesar Hernandez, 2B, Philadelphia Phillies
8. Michael Conforto, OF, New York Mets
9. Brett Gardner, OF, New York Yankees
10. Dee Gordon, 2B, Miami Marlins

Rickey Henderson will always be the gold standard, and Mookie Betts has the closest overall skill set. Therefore, I would draft him first overall in a leadoff hitters fantasy draft. That said, Springer, Blackmon, Dickerson and Conforto are changing the game with their ability to hit for average and power at the top of the order.

If only we could combine Betts’ hitting ability, Springer’s power, Hamilton’s speed and Inciarte’s defensive capabilities, we’d have the perfect baseball player: A slightly faster Mike Trout.

Useless Info

Gennett, who played left field in his four-homer game, had more homers Tuesday than Giants left fielders (3) have hit all season.

As Jayson Stark pointed out on Twitter Monday, George Springer has six leadoff home runs this season, becoming just the second player since 2000 to do so by June 5. The other? Teammate Jose Altuve, who did it as Houston’s leadoff man in 2016. Also, Stark noted that Rickey Henderson never hit six leadoff homers by June 5 during his career.

With their win Monday, the 11^th in a row for the club, the Astros improved to 42-16. The last team with at least 42 victories through its first 58 games was the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who won a record 116 games. Seattle actually started 47-12 through 59 games with the help of a 15-game winning streak.

Freddie Freeman set a Braves franchise record when he reached safely in 12 straight plate appearances earlier this season. Ender Inciarte came close over the weekend, and ran his streak to 10 straight plate appearances during Monday’s game with the Phillies.

In that same game, Odubel Herrera became the first Phillies player in the live ball era to record two or more doubles in three straight games (as pointed out by Ryan M. Spaeder).

Yadier Molina stole his fifth base of the season Monday, which is more than he recorded in a season since 2012 when he set a career high with 12. Molina not only leads all major league catchers in stolen bases (three are tied with two steals apiece), he is also tied with Randal Grichuk for the team lead.

The San Diego Padres have yet to have a pitcher throw a no-hitter – the only major league franchise without one. The club’s no-hitter drought is now in its 49^th season. The second longest drought for an MLB franchise belongs to Milwaukee. Brewers starter Juan Nieves tossed a no-no in 1987.

Jeff Samardzija has started seven games for the Giants since May 3, and has since faced 190 hitters in 48.1 innings. Over that span, Samardzija has struck out 59 hitters, and has walked one. He also hit one batter.

Next: Top prospect for every MLB team

Kenley Jansen has been even better. Jansen has yet to walk a hitter in 23 innings this season – setting a major league with 39 strikeouts before issuing his first walk of the season. Jansen, who set the mark Saturday, was also part of a Dodgers pitching staff that tied an MLB record with 26 strikeouts in a 3-0 win over the Brewers in 12 innings.

Starter Clayton Kershaw struck out 14 in the game, which put the lefty over 2,000 K’s for his career, becoming the second-fastest pitcher in history to do it, behind Randy Johnson. Finally, the 42 combined strikeouts in the game set a National League record.