Bobby Witt Jr. recently was anointed the AL Player of the Month after hitting .489, with an OPS of 1.353, seven home runs, 22 batted in and 26 runs scored. Overall, having just turned 24, he is having an incredible season, among one of the best in Royals history.
The best season in franchise history, of course, is George Brett’s 1980 MVP masterpiece, where he hit .390, the highest batting average in the majors since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941 when the Splendid Splinter was just 22.
What many people don’t know about that season is that Brett played in just 117 games. He hurt his ankle in mid-June and missed a month, and he missed several games in early September.
From July 18 through Aug. 18, Brett went on a 30-game hit streak. He had one 51-game stretch where he batted .433. In mid-September, he went through a seven-game, mini-slump when he went just 4-27, for a .148. That stretch dropped him from .400 on September 19th, to .384 on Sept. 27. He finished the season strong to get his average to .390.
So after 117 games, how does Witt match up to Brett’s 117 games? It’s probably closer than you might imagine.
- Average – Brett – .390, Witt – .346
- At Bats – Brett – 449, Witt – 468
- Hits – Brett – 175, Witt – 162
- Doubles – Brett – 33, Witt – 33
- Triples – Brett – 9, Witt – 10
- Home Runs – Brett – 24, Witt – 22
- Runs – Brett – 87, Witt – 99
- RBI – Brett – 118, Witt – 84
- On-Base Percentage – Brett – .454, Witt – .392
- Slugging Percentage – Brett – .664, Witt – .600
- OPS – Brett – 1.118, Witt – .993
- Total Bases – Brett – 298, Witt – 281
- Stolen Bases – Brett – 15, Witt – 25
- Walks – Brett – 58, Witt – 35
- Strikeouts – Brett – 22, Witt – 79
- WAR – Brett – 9.4, Witt – 7.6
These stats are from Baseball Reference. Fangraphs has Witt’s WAR at a league-leading 8.0
There are some amazing stats for each player, but some things really stand out for Brett. The .664 slugging percentage was by far and away the highest of his career high. It’s the only time he ever topped .600. In fact, he set personal records for all of the slash line stats.
Two other stats draw the attention. Despite only playing 117 games, he drove in 118 runs, also a career high. The other is Brett struck out 22 times — all season! Total! He had two more home runs than he did strikeouts. In today’s baseball culture, that is just unheard of.
In homers, doubles, and triples, the two are nearly identical. Witt clearly has more speed and is the better fielder, and his playing style emulates Brett’s hustling, hard-nosed approach to the game.
Witt currently leads the majors in runs, hits, batting average, total bases, and WAR. Unlike Brett, who missed a lot of time, Witt has played in every game for the Royals this year at short. Witt’s having a tremendous season, but it still pales ever so slightly to Brett’s mindboggling, albeit abbreviated, season. It will be very interesting to see how Witt’s numbers will look at the season’s end and if it will compete with other all-around great campaigns.
