Arráez and Shine
Well, good morning..
I’m sure some digital content specialist is cringing that I would send out a Saturday morning newsletter, but ya know, this thing is free and if you don’t want to open it, that’s fine by me. By all means, enjoy your coffee and your weekend.
But if you want to read on, let’s have some fun, because the Padres have acquired the guy who has won two straight batting titles—he hit .316 for the 2022 Twins to lead the American League and then .354 (!) for the 2023 Marlins to lead the National League, for which he was presented the Tony Gwynn Award.
The guy, of course, is Luis Arráez.
The news broke just before last night’s game began and Tony Jr. and I had a wonderful time sort of weaving in our thoughts about how Luis fits and what he brings to the table over the course of the 7-1 win over the Diamondbacks here in Phoenix.
If you aren’t familiar with what the 27-year old brings, just know that when the Twins visited Petco in July of 2022, a few months before he won his first batting title, Tony and I were having legitimate conversations on the air about how much Arráez reminded him of his dad.
With Gwynn Sr. winning eight batting titles over the course of his 20-year career, it’s not a totally fair apples-to-apples comparison, but the fact that we were even able to invoke Tony’s name while discussing Arráez probably tells you about all you need to know.
I’m guessing after you see him take a few at bats you’ll understand why.
Anyway! Some Luis Arráez fun facts:
He is one of only three guys ever to win the batting title in both leagues:
DJ LeMahieu did it for the 2016 Rockies and the 2020 Yankees.
Hall-of-Famer Ed Delahanty did so for the 1899 Phillies (where he hit .410, lol) and 1902 Senators.
Obviously, LeMahieu winning the 2020 AL batting title is a little bit of a funky one because of the shortened season and Big Ed did so in a very, very, very different era of baseball. So you could argue Arráz’s accomplishment is singular, especially because he did so in consecutive seasons.
Speaking of that! Luis is one of just two guys to ever win back-to-back batting titles with two different teams:
Benny Kauff pulled the trick for the 1914 Indianapolis Hoosiers and the 1915 Brooklyn Tip Tops, both of which were Federal League teams.
No one, btw, in any Major League, has ever won three straight batting titles for three different teams, so a chance to make some marvelous history here in 2024.
Last one: while Arráez comes into the day with a .299 average, it’s worth remembering he’s a .324 career hitter. And the Padres have not had a qualified batter hit .300 in a normal season since 2008 (!) when Brian Giles hit .306 (Manny Machado did hit .304 in 2020).
Anyway! The point is…this should be a lot of fun. And watching Arráez join this lineup should make for some very entertaining baseball as well as some exhaustion from opposing pitchers, which can only lead to good things. Can’t wait to see him in brown and gold.
Running Wild
One other random thing I think is worth passing along…
With last year’s new rules, we’ve obviously seen a major uptick in the running game all around baseball. And with the Padres having just seen the Reds, who have been running like crazy this year (though not against the Pads, who did a great job controlling the threat) and now facing the D-backs, who ran their way to a pennant last year (but who have not been running as much this season), this story is particularly well-timed.
It comes from The Athletic and is written by Ken Rosenthal and C. Trent Rosecrans and is a deeeeeep dive into the stolen base landscape across Major League Baseball.
If you’re at all interested in how the running game really works and how teams can really stop/control it, it’s more than worth your time. I learned a lot from reading it.
One neat thing is the discussion about pitchers calculating the risks of using their third disengagement to try and pick off a speedy runner and when it makes sense to do so. Fascinating stuff.
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Enjoy the rest of your weekend, we’ll see if Luis is in the lineup for the Padres tonight a little bit later on today. Marlins are in Oakland, so the travel shouldn’t be too difficult. Tune in to find out…