00:00The National League is a very interesting conversation in the month of May.
00:04Just baseball's National League Player of the Month was James Wood of the Washington Nationals.
00:09Understandably so.
00:10Wood, in 127 plate appearances, had a 176 WRC+, 311 with six homers, and a 982 OPS.
00:18But there are other guys that deserve some consideration or possible recognition.
00:23Michael Bush in Chicago.
00:25Andy Pahes in L.A.
00:27There are a bunch.
00:27J.J. Bleday.
00:28J.J. Bleday.
00:30Is that your pick?
00:32I think it's not as sexy.
00:34I think J.J. Bleday was the best player of the month of May.
00:37And you could say, okay, well, he's playing Great American Ballpark,
00:41and that's what we got WRC+, because I'm looking at nine homers.
00:44The only guy with more homers in the month was Juan Soto with 10.
00:48And Kyle Schwarber with 11, excuse me.
00:50But those guys were way, way below when you look at pretty much any other production department.
00:56When you look at WRC+, to just account for the ballpark,
00:59J.J.
01:00Bleday had a 179 WRC+, which was six points higher than the next highest,
01:04which was Michael Bush at 173, and then James Wood at 172.
01:08It's the nine homers compared to Wood's six.
01:10I think that stand out to me.
01:11But also, you look across the slash line, pretty similar.
01:14And with that uptick in homers, you had 100 slugging points higher from Bleday.
01:22Obviously, Wood is walking a lot more now all of a sudden and seeing that patience there
01:25and just continuing to see him lean into the power, three true outcome side of things is great.
01:30But I just think J.J. Bleday was the best player this month.
01:34Yeah, I look at team performance, to be honest with you, a little bit when I think about player of
01:40the month.
01:40And, you know, Wood jumps out.
01:42The other one that jumps out to me is Pajas.
01:43Andy Pajas, I know that he wasn't, you know, to that level in terms of war.
01:47But Wood was at a 1.4 F war in the month of May.
01:49I think Pajas was at 1.3.
01:51But Pajas had a 25 RBI month.
01:54And I know you can dunk on me for the use of RBIs and all that.
01:57But Pajas was the best player outside of Otani for the last two weeks.
02:02But he was the best player all month long for the L.A. Dodgers when they snapped it into gear.
02:07They're 14-3 in their final 17 games in the month of May.
02:11So, like, I do think team performance has to matter here.
02:14And Pajas certainly has a seat at the table.
02:16But I can't fault our staff for going with the Wood choice there.
02:21No, I can't.
02:21Because what James Wood has done for Washington is not only keep them in the hunt,
02:25but make them, like, must-watch right now.
02:28They're the best offense in baseball in terms of runs scored.
02:30And James Wood is the reason why.
02:33Abrams has been great.
02:35Curtis Mead has been really good.
02:37K-Bert Ruiz has been solid.
02:38But Wood is the reason why.
02:40Yeah, you've got to treat it like a micro MVP, I guess, over the month, right?
02:43And, like, that offense without him.
02:46I mean, so it's kind of funny in, like, a more depressing version of that.
02:49Imagine the Reds' offense without Bladay, like we were alluding to.
02:52But they drove in 26 this month, this past month.
02:55Like, what would this offense be without him?
02:57But to your point, like, the Nationals were a national story in terms of how potent
03:03and unexpectedly just productive the offense was.
03:07And a big reason why was James Wood and what he was doing offensively.
03:11So I can't get too upset with that pick either.
03:13I just think the unexpected nature of what J.J. Wood is doing is really cool.
03:18And, again, I think, I mean, this month has just been ridiculous for him.
Comments