MLB Stat Leaders as of July 4th, 2023

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Batting Leaders

Batting Average (BA)

  1. Luis Arraez (MIA): .388
  2. Corey Seager (TEX): .349*
  3. Ronald Acuña (ATL): .335
  4. Yandy Díaz (TBR): .318

Arraez might have slipped a bit since last month, but if the season were to end today, he would still be finishing with a batting average higher than any other since Tony Gwynn’s .394 batting title in 1994. Aside from that, Corey Seager is doing illegal things to baseballs with the shift being banned. He missed time from April 12th to May 17th with a hamstring strain and waited with a slashline of .359/469/.538 through 11 games, and at 53 games, his average and OBP have barely suffered to allow for his slugging to grow. If he can stay healthy, Seager is a dangerous batter for any pitcher he could face.

On-Base Percentage (OBP)

  1. Luis Arraez (MIA): .438
  2. Juan Soto (SDP): .426
  3. LaMonte Wade (SFG): .414

Welp, it’s the same list as last month…Arraez dropped a touch, the others gained a bit, nothing huge to note. Onto the next!

Slugging Percentage (SLG)

  1. Shohei Ohtani (LAA): .664
  2. Corey Seager (TEX): .604*
  3. Ronald Acuña (ATL): .599
  4. Luis Robert (CHW): .575

This is an entirely new list and a lot of that comes from the fac that both Judge and Alvarez went down to injuries and fell off the list, although Judge’s .674 would still technically keep him atop this list. Seager is again sliding himself in here, and the list is rounded out by the quietest MVP candidate of the year, Luis Robert Jr. He falls just shy of making the homer list as well, but his legs and bat being at the top of their game this year has been a bright light in an otherwise dim White Sox team.

On-Base Plus Slugging (OPS)

  1. Shohei Ohtani (LAA): 1.054
  2. Corey Seager (TEX): 1.017*
  3. Ronald Acuña (ATL): 1.012
  4. Juan Soto (SDP): .926

Same spiel here except Soto’s elite ability to draw a walk gives him the edge over Robert, but we have two qualified hitters over a thousand mark and one fighting for the Abs. While offense wasn’t affected as much overall as some people might expect with the changes made in the offseason, we can certainly see it’s effect in smaller, case-by-case viewing.

OPS+

  1. Shohei Ohtani (LAA): 183
  2. Corey Seager (TEX): 176*
  3. Ronald Acuña (ATL): 168
  4. Juan Soto (SDP): 161

More of the same, there are no fakes for OPS, let’s keep it rolling!

Hits

  1. Luis Arraez (MIA): 119
  2. Bo Bichette (TOR) & Ronald Acuña (ATL): 113
  3. –
  4. Freddie Freeman (LAD): 105

Bichette might’ve relinquished the top spot, but Arraez is simply a difficult man to catch, especially catching fire with hit streaks so easily. Although Bichette is down to a .317 batting average it’s still his career high, and he still has the sole lead of the American League in hits. Acuña continues to be a front-runner for MVP and for good reason, as the 25 year old leads either the NL or MLB in seven different stats that would add to his case.

Home Runs

  1. Shohei Ohtani (LAA): 31
  2. Matt Olson (ATL): 28
  3. Pete Alonso (NYM): 25

Ohtani is hitting homers 8.1% of the time he steps up to the plate this season, that’s pretty nuts. How about the fact that in June, he bumped that up to 11.9% (homering more than once every 10 times he walked up to the plate!) and had an absolutely absurd slashline of .394/.492/.952. As you saw just a few sections ago, a .952 slugging would be third in the league in OPS if he never reached base any other way. You could just about say that the only way that he could lose the AL MVP is to get traded to the NL, and that no longer seems to be in the cards for the third place Angels.

At Bats Per Home Run (AB/HR)

  1. Shohei Ohtani (LAA): 10.5
  2. Pete Alonso (NYM): 11.2
  3. Matt Olson (ATL): 11.6

Alonso isn’t hitting them out quite as well after coming back from injury, but he’s clinging to this list like it’s his birthright to do so, and the new addition of division-rival first baseman Olson is on the list, that could light a fire under him to get him back to form. By the way, for the month of June, Ohtani’s AB/HR was 6.93, a most unsustainable rate that was phenomenal to see for a month of 15 homers.

Runs Batted In (RBIs)

  1. Adolis García (TEX): 69
  2. Shohei Ohtani (LAA) & Matt Olson (ATL): 68
  3. Rafael Devers (BOS): 66

Adolis García’s 69 RBIs (nice) have brought him back to the top of the list of RBI leaders, having a breakout season that few others could boast. He’s currently holding a career high in just about every major offensive stat, even beating out his All-Star 2021 campaign. Shohei will likely have some extra work cut out for him with Trout now going to the IL, so a new sole reliance from the team could potentially bump his numbers up even further next month, assuming he gets the baserunners to drive in.

Runs

  1. Ronald Acuña (ATL): 77
  2. Marcus Semien (TEX): 67
  3. Freddie Freeman (LAD): 66

Another list that’s just about the same with some minor tweaks, Acuña toppled Semien for the top spot, taking the award for most drive-in-able player of the season so far.

Bases on Balls (BB)

  1. Juan Soto (SDP): 77
  2. Kyle Schwarber (PHI): 58
  3. Ian Happ (CHC) & Ryan Noda (OAK): 57

If you’re like me, you probably noticed a few things with this list. Schwarber is now two walks ahead of Juan Soto…if he didn’t play at all the past month. Ian Happ is new and…who the f*** is Ryan Noda? Ryan Noda! The rookie first baseman for the Athletics batting .229 with 8 homers in his 80 games played. How could you not have heard of him!? If his rookie year is showing off walk rates more than double league average, I can only imagine what we’ll be seeing out of this now 27 year old as he develops at the Major League level.

Strikeouts (K)

  1. Teoscar Hernández (SEA): 111
  2. Kyle Schwarber (PHI) & Ryan McMahon (COL): 106
  3.  –
  4. Jarred Kelenic (SEA): 105

We certainly can’t forget about the king of nothing, and that’s still Teoscar Hernández this month, with Schwarber moving up the chain a bit. Kelenic is still having a great season for a player that was just about busted. His .251/.325/.452 slashline is the best of his career across the board by far, leaving him on the positive end of OPS+ at 119. He’s striking out way more than average, but he’s also walking a bit more than the average player as well, and his hard hit percentage going up about 15% since last year, I’m sure the Mariners are content with a couple extra whiffs on top of it all.

At Bats Per Strikeout (AB/K)

  1. Luis Arraez (MIA): 18.1
  2. Keibert Ruiz (WSH): 11.6
  3. José Ramírez (CLE): 9.0

Arraez is still the king here, refusing to strike out just the same as before, while Ruiz is the same exact rate as last month, and everyone loves consistency. JRam has been on a tear lately like he normally does, and his ability to stave off of strikeouts while keeping power in his bat has long been astounding to me.

Stolen Bases (SB)

  1. Esteury Ruiz (OAK): 42
  2. Ronald Acuña (ATL): 40
  3. Wander Franco (TBR): 26

Steals are still definitely up this year at a rate of 0.91 attempts per game, and these leaders of this revived craft are just about solidified in their spots if they maintain any sort of this pace. Ruiz and Acuña are still leading their respective leagues in steals with no close competition. The bases might have only gotten a little bigger, but they’ve made the game a whole lot bigger to players like Ruiz.

Wins Above Replacement (WAR)

  1. Ronald Acuña (ATL): 4.9
  2. Wander Franco (TBR): 4.2
  3. Luis Robert (CHW): 4.0

Franco no longer holds the top spot, but a familiar face in Acuña comes back to take his spot with a pretty enormous lead now. Acuña is doing things that we all knew he was capable of doing, and if he can manage the homers, he can find himself in the hyper-exclusive 40/40 club. Franco continues to give the Rays exactly what they were hoping to pay for, and Robert must be dying to get out of Chicago, but at least he’s making a case for himself to be one of the top center fielders in the league, something he stumbled in proving last year.

Pitching Leaders

Earned Run Average (ERA)

  1. Justin Steele (CHC): 2.43
  2. Bryce Elder (ATL): 2.45
  3. Framber Valdez (HOU): 2.49

Justin Steele is back! After a mild May pushed him down in the list, he bounced back hard to now lead the league in ERA, while last month’s leader Bryce Elder only slid down a spot and is right on his heels. Framber Valdez deserves much more credit than he’s given, especially given that his reputation should be pretty clean, not having debuted for the cheating victors of the World Series in 2017. After being an All-Star and coming 5thin Cy Young last year, Valdez is striking out batters at a higher rate than any time in his career other than the shortened 2020, when he pitched 30 innings fewer (70.2) than he already has this year (105.0).

ERA+

  1. Justin Steele (CHC): 183
  2. Bryce Elder (ATL): 182
  3. Sonny Gray (MIN): 173

I don’t care, Valdez is no fraud! He does actually slip to 5th in ERA+ behind Kershaw as well, but Minute Maid is a pitcher friendly park, especially with the large Green-Monster-like wall in left field to keep some shorter homers in the park for him. Valdez aside, this is the first month that no qualified pitcher has an ERA more than twice as good as league average. Doesn’t really mean too much, I guess, but now you know!

Walks + Hits Per Inning Pitched (WHIP)

  1. Tyler Wells (BAL): 0.902
  2. Joe Ryan (MIN): 0.984
  3. Nathan Eovaldi (TEX): 0.988

Tyler Wells is seriously unwilling to give up his spot, or baserunners overall. His WHIP has slowly been rising month by month, but he still has a commanding lead over number two Joe Ryan, who overtook Eovaldi from last month, but this is otherwise the same list again.

Strikeouts (K)

  1. Spencer Strider (ATL): 155
  2. Kevin Gausman (TOR): 146
  3. Shohei Ohtani (LAA): 127

Strider’s June was…not very good, but he’s still striking out batters at a clip otherwise untouchable. At the rate he’s going, a 300 strikeout season is not out of the question for Strider, which would be the first time since Gerrit Cole did so in 2019.

Strikeouts Per 9 Innings Pitched (K/9)

  1. Spencer Strider (ATL): 14.186
  2. Shohei Ohtani (LAA): 11.990
  3. Kevin Gausman (TOR): 11.982

Last month, all I could tell you was how Hunter Greene was snubbed just above by his lack of innings, but now his trip to the IL will only serve to keep him off the strikeout leaders list, despite his elite rate of 12.273 K/9. With him out of the way for now, Strider now has a commanding 2.2 strikeout lead over Ohtani, a lead which seems almost impossible to relinquish.

Hits Per 9 Innings Pitched (H/9)

  1. Shohei Ohtani (LAA): 5.451
  2. Tyler Wells (BAL): 5.795
  3. Marcus Stroman (CHC): 6.687

Isn’t it funny that Germán got a perfect game last month and still managed to fall off this list, asterisk or no? The only real joke would be if the Yankees offered him a contract, but with Cashman, that’s never out of the cards. Ohtani stays up top again with Wells having gained some ground.

Home Runs Per 9 Innings Pitched (HR/9)

  1. Sonny Gray (MIN): 0.134
  2. Justin Steele (CHC): 0.265
  3. Marcus Stroman (CHC): 0.418

Don’t hold your breath, but the Cubs might be getting their stuff together sooner than expected. They’re 12th in ERA overall with a 4.01, and their starters even combine for a 3.98 ERA, but two big wins out of Steele and Stroman are something they couldn’t have expected to be such big stories for this season. Stroman’s career season continues, as his ERA is the best of his career in a full season and Justin Steele’s pitching stats looking like a perfect inverse graph over the years is exactly what the Cubs needed, now they just need to smooth out the rest of the team of young potential and we might even see the Cubs back in the playoffs this year.

Strikeouts Per Walk (K/BB)

  1. George Kirby (SEA): 9.667
  2. Joe Ryan (MIN): 7.125
  3. Braxton Garrett (MIA): 6.533

Kirby’s second year in the league continues to be just as good as his first, if not better. He came 6th in Rookie of the Year voting last year, losing to his teammate Julio Rodriguez, and has still brought down his ERA and WHIP while leading the league in walk rate and SO/W. He’s a pitcher that you really have to work to get on base off of, since he doesn’t like to give free passes at all.

Walks (Bases on Balls/BB)

  1. Michael Kopech (CHW): 49
  2. Blake Snell (SDP), Jack Flaherty (STL) & Kodai Senga (NYM): 46

Alek Manoah no longer tops this list, leaving both his crown and the MLB behind as he got a serious demotion from the Jays. Manoah was sent down after start on 6/5 and he’s still 6th on the list. Don’t worry Snell, I wouldn’t forget to give you your shoutout for staying on the list, I have truly no idea how you’re maintaining a 3.03 ERA. And of course, welcome back to Kodai Senga! His walk rates were high in Japan, too, so this was expected. Perhaps his 3.53 ERA is still a work in progress that we will see come down in the second half of the season.

Hits

  1. Patrick Corbin (WSN): 120
  2. Miles Mikolas (STL): 119
  3. Logan Webb (SFG): 110

The more things are different, the more they stay the same. Mikolas gave his top spot up to Corbin, which is suiting considering the extra half a run on Corbin’s ERA. Webb has also made his way in here, but as the resident innings eater of the league, I suppose that can be expected at times, and his 3.38 ERA is far and away better than both of the others on this list.

Home Runs

  1. Lance Lynn (CWS): 22
  2. Yusei Kikuchi (TOR) & Tyler Wells (BAL): 21

No more tie for first, as Kikuchi let Lynn slide into first unchallenged, now having given up 22 homers on the season. Lynn has only started 17 games, so he’s averaging 1.29 homers per start, pairing well with his balloon ERA of 6.47. You might also notice an anomaly on the list: our WHIP leader! While Tyler Wells is doing a phenomenal job of keeping players off base this season, when he gets hit, he gets hit very hard, with 21 of the 67 total hits that he’s allowed having left the yard, most of which coming off of his 4-seam or cutter.

Innings Pitched

  1. Logan Webb (SFG): 117.0
  2. Nathan Eovaldi (TEX): 112.1
  3. Zac Gallen (ARI): 111.1

Cole has finally fallen off the list, and a couple new players have arrived, Eovaldi being the only one to remain on the list from last month. Zac Gallen being as good as he is for as many innings as he goes for is a rare talent that I still think that Miami was absurd to give away for Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Saves

  1. Emmanuel Clase (CLE), Jordan Romano (TOR) Alexis Díaz (CIN) & Camilo Doval (SFG): 24

Woah, that’s a big tie. Clase lost a 4 save lead and Romano was one of those to close in on the gap, but Díaz surely benefitted from the Reds’ 12-game win streak, racking up 7 saves in that span alone. His brother might be making Mets fans sad, but at least he’s making the family proud while Edwin rehabs his way back from his injury in the World Baseball Classic.

Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP)

  1. Kevin Gausman (TOR): 2.49
  2. Justin Steele (CHC): 2.81
  3. Zack Wheeler (PHI): 2.83

As you all should know by now, this is by far my favorite pitching stat, and we’ve got a bit shaken up this month! No more Gallen, Gray, deGrom or Springs, we instead get the breakout Cub Steele and Wheeler, who had been doing well so quietly this season that I hadn’t even visited his Baseball Reference page before this blog. Why’s that, you might ask? Well, it’s simple, he’s breaking FIP. While Wheeler himself is facing batters well this season when it’s a matter of homers, walks, and strikeouts, he’s letting small ball hurt him too much. In 17 starts and 98.1 innings, he’s given up only 7 homers and issued 22 walks while striking out 112 (at the second highest rate of his career, behind only 2021, when he came second in Cy Young voting), he’s given up 95 hits. Opposing batters are slashing .247/.297/.369 against him, a rate that is very obviously inflated mostly by the hits against him, leading him to a 7-4 record at this point in the season.

Wins Above Replacement (WAR)

  1. Gerrit Cole (NYY): 3.4
  2. Bryce Elder (ATL): 3.4
  3. Marcus Stroman (CHC): 3.4

Don’t ask me to try to specify why any of these is better than the other, I have genuinely no idea how to calculate WAR and I don’t want to. The only thing that you need to know is that with his combined pitcher and hitter WAR, Shohei tops both WAR lists with a 6.7, having a handy lead of almost two full wins above Acuña, and nearly doubling Cole.

*Player does not have the At Bats necessary to Qualify for Batting Title

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