SAN FRANCISCO – Where should we start? With bWAR? Yeah?
No, really, let’s start there, trust me, because it helps explain some of the history the Detroit Tigers star rookie is starting to make.
Kevin McGonigle is fourth in MLB in Offensive WAR and second in the American League in that stat of all-around excellence at the plate, behind only Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, who would win the triple crown if the season ended today.
But then bWAR can be a little fuzzy sometimes, so here is something that’s not: If McGonigle gets on base Saturday, Aug. 8, against the San Francisco Giants, that will mark the 200th time he’s gotten on base this season, and he will have accomplished that in 113 games.
Random? I mean, sure, but also, this is baseball, and when a young player – McGonigle is still just 21 – starts to do things that compare to Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, well, it’s not so random.
It’s … ridiculous? Inexplicable? Consistent? Yeah, that’s the word, said A.J. Hinch, when asked to describe McGonigle’s prodigious start to his baseball career.
“It starts with his preparation,” he said. “You know, this is the most baseball he’s played his whole life. He hasn’t experienced the grind of August and September and he’s about to, and yet he continues to be prepared to play every day.”
If that sounds a bit mundane, it shouldn’t, baseball is mastered – as much as it can ever be mastered – in the tiny details worked on every day, and so, yes, as Hinch said, routines have to be there, game plans have to be there, learning how to determine what a pitcher will do has to be there.
And when a player shows all this at McGonigle’s age?
“It’s remarkable,” said Hinch. “I’m proud of him, but I’m also not surprised by him anymore.”
That’s the thing with McGonigle now and speaks to the feeling he elicits – from his manager, his teammates, heck, from fans – about what to expect when he steps into the box. It’s almost stunning now when he doesn’t deliver.
An unrealistic expectation, obviously, but one that’s arisen organically, and no wonder. Now about DiMaggio and Williams.
If McGonigle gets on base Saturday, he’ll become only the 11th player in baseball history to get on base 200 times in their first 113 games. DiMaggio and Williams are among the other ten.
But it’s not just that. No player has accomplished this since 1984, when Seattle’s Alvin Davis did this. Which makes it noticeable when McGonigle doesn’t get on base, or get a hit, as he didn’t earlier this week when he went – gasp! – three games without one.
Of course, he walked three times in those three games (one against the Athletics, two against Seattle), and he broke the mini streak with five hits in two games, including a home run.
McGonigle got on base four times Friday, Aug. 7, in the series opener against the Giants. It’s getting to where it’s easy to take for granted. A rookie season with only one three-game hitless streak?
“I think the reason we feel like something positive is going to happen every time is because he knows the strike zone,” said Hinch. “He rarely chases. He rarely gets out of his plan. And we’re still going to push him.”
He doesn’t just know the strike zone, he feels it. He also is getting to know what pitch is coming, and when you combine that with, as Hinch described, good body awareness and elite mechanics, you start making history.
“He’s been incredible,” said Hinch. “A lot of that stuff is a gift. Applying it as the competition gets harder is the true test.”
McGonigle has. And continues to do so, even as he enters the grindiest part of the season.
Where can he go from here?
“He’s had to grow and learn,” said Hinch. “I think our staff has done a really good job of pushing him to game plan better. Once you have the ability to know a ball from a strike, the next step of game planning is trying to figure out what the pitcher is going to do to you and that’s what we are seeing him grow with … [he’s] taking to coaching here at the major league level.”
And he’s taking that to the batter’s box, again and again and again.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kevin McGonigle and Joe DiMaggio in the same sentence? He’s that legit
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
