Even Mookie Betts Is Impressed With Mookie Betts' Home Run Power
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Mookie Betts may well be the best player in Major League Baseball. At worst, he's in the top five. Yet despite the obvious talent that Betts has been displaying since breaking into the league in 2014, the 25-year-old is still discovering his own game.
With 23 home runs at the All-Star break (in just 78 games played), Betts is just eight homers shy of his single-season high of 31. Still, Betts insists that he's not a power guy, telling ESPN's Jessica Mendoza on Monday, "I'm not a home run hitter. It just happens to go over the fence."
At 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds, Betts certainly doesn't look the part of a traditional power hitter. And even Betts himself struggles to fully grasp the fact that he's on pace for 38 homers this year.
Betts was asked Monday during his All-Star media availability if there's been any point this season where he's done something that even he didn't know he could do.
"Definitely just the home runs, the power," Betts answered. "I didn't know -- I knew I could hit some home runs, but I didn't know I could do what I'm doing."
Despite the home run surge, Betts is far from a one-dimensional hitter. He leads all of MLB with a .359 batting average, a full 27 points better than the next-best hitter (Jose Altuve at .332). Betts' .458 on-base percentage is second only to Mike Trout (.454). And on the strength of 25 doubles, three triples and the 23 home runs, Betts lead all of MLB with a .691 slugging percentage. Teammate J.D. Martinez ranks second with a .644 slugging percentage.
As a leadoff man, Betts also gets the job done. He ranks second in MLB in runs scored (79) despite missing two weeks with a back injury. He's also successfully stolen 18 bases, getting caught just twice.
When Betts belted 31 home runs in his near-MVP season of 2016, he was hitting one homer per every 21.7 at-bats. This year, he's hit a homer once every 13.0 at-bats. That's a rate which he's never maintained before at any level, and it's one that even Betts himself did not know was within his capabilities.