Will Smith is having a spectacular season for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 30-year-old catcher presently leads the Nationwide League with a .302 batting common to associate with 15 homers and 54 runs batted-in. For good measure, Smith has additionally thrown out 13 runners aiming to steal a base this 12 months (rating him within the top-10 throughout all of baseball).
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One might make an actual argument that he’s been probably the most constant participant all 12 months lengthy for the crew given the accidents and inconsistency which has been discovered all throughout the roster.
After Saturday’s stellar efficiency, supervisor Dave Roberts had some glowing reward for his catcher. He even went as far to say that he’s higher than the debatable AL MVP frontrunner in Seattle Mariners catcher Cal “Massive Dumper” Raleigh.
“We really feel that Will is the perfect catcher in baseball in totality,” Roberts stated. “And [Saturday night] he confirmed it together with his arm. Basically, they performed 24 outs. And so whenever you take a look at that first inning and the way the pitch depend was creeping up there for Blake [Snell], however to get assist by the use of the caught-stealings was big, and it bought Blake into rhythm.”
The Smith vs. Raleigh argument is a captivating one. Raleigh has much more pop — as he’s clubbed 47 homers as of Aug. 17. He’s additionally pushed in 102 runs within the course of. Each numbers far exceed Smith. Raleigh has additionally thrown out 16 runners (second-most within the sport).
However, Smith is much better in the case of batting common and getting on base. Raleigh’s OBP is .359. Smith’s is .408. Raleigh additionally strikes out at a significantly increased fee. Raleigh’s chase fee can also be far increased as compared, and Smith squares the ball up 77 % of the time (whereas it’s six % for Raleigh).
Whereas each gamers are terrific, it’s not stunning to see Roberts gush over his participant. Smith is a homegrown expertise having been drafted within the first spherical of the 2016 draft. Since then, he’s moved his manner via the system — making three All-Star appearances and serving to the ballclub win two World Sequence.
Whereas Raleigh could also be having a greater 12 months comprehensively than Smith, there’s no questioning from an objectivity standpoint who’s had the higher profession up so far.
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Picture Credit score: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Photos
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