Will Ronald Acuña Jr make history before the All-Star Break?
Ronald Acuña Jr, 2023 All-Star, is having a heck of a year.
Batting .331/.408/.585 with a NL-leading .993 OPS, he's got a MLB-leading 71 runs, a NL-leading 36 steals, and the 2nd-highest OPS+ in baseball at 164.
Just because it's fun to clown on them, Ronald Acuña Jr, by himself, has more 1st inning runs (26) than the entire Miami Marlins (25) or New York Mets (22) do as a team.
But he's also close to setting a historic MLB mark.
In baseball history, no player has ever recorded 20 homers, 40 stolen bases, and 50 RBIs before the All-Star Break.
And Ronald's in shooting distance of all three.
He's one homerun away from the twenty homer mark, sitting on nineteen thanks to hitting two solo shots on Tuesday against the Twins.
He's four steals away from the stolen base mark, thanks to swiping one in Wednesday's series finale against the Twins.
And he's already surpassed the RBI milestone, hitting his 50th and 51st on Tuesday with those solo homeruns.
With Atlanta having ten games left before the All-Star break, it's doable. Only one home run could happen at any time, and his longest stretch in June without a homer was six games.
The steals is a little harder to do, as it's essentially a steal every other game pace. He's just over that pace now, with 36 steals in 80 games, although he did have a five game stretch against Philadelphia and Cincinnati where he stole one in every single game, so it's absolutely doable. He also had a stretch of six steals in seven games back in April, although that was helped by three in one game against the Houston Astros.
The stated goal for Ronald Acuña Jr this season is to go 40/40, with 40 stolen bases and 40 home runs. He might have the stolen base part of that done by the All-Star Break.
And as far as the homeruns... well, per Fangraphs, he's on pace for 38. One timely power binge is all it takes to put Ronald on pace for only the 5th 40/40 season in baseball history.
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