Yes, he is here again.
In terms of who had the best numbers in the past week, the answer is not actually Willson Contreras. I know that’s weird way to present the argument that he is in fact the player of the week. From a rate perspective, he actually has a worse than three other guys. You can probably pick up on why they’re not picked. They didn’t really play in enough games for my liking.
Two of them unquestionably didn’t play in enough games, Pedro Pages and Nolan Gorman. Pages started in only one game in the Royals’ series. He had the big two-run homer on Saturday, but he had just 13 plate appearances. And even though they are trying to get him more playing time, the Cardinals will not stop facing left-handed pitchers, so Nolan Gorman actually had less with 10 PAs (with a .389 average).
Alec Burleson would be a defensible pick, but again the Cardinals faced a lot of lefties. Burleson started a couple against a lefty, but he got four total starts this week. And really his great week was essentially two great games. Certainly player of the weeks have been picked for just two games, but not usually a position player.
No, Willson Contreras had to be the pick. He played every possible game this week, he hit very well and he sure picked his spots on when to hit extremely well. Contreras hit .333, he did only walk once, but he also hit five extra base hits. And I know we’re an advanced analytic type of site, but he got a lot of RBIs. That is not a good analysis stat, it is however a very good stat for player of the week determination. He had 7 RBIs to Burleson’s 4. Also, you know the very most important RBI you can have, to end a game.
His week started slowly, going 1 for 5 with a double in Tuesday’s loss. No matter, he had a very good doubleheader, getting two hits in both games, including a walk-off single in his 1,000th career game. And you know what, just appearing in 1,000 MLB games is applause-worthy enough. On Friday, he homered late to put the Cardinals up 5-0. He did not have a good game on Saturday, although he did what he could. He had one strikeout, but his three outs were hit 102.3 mph, 97.2 mph, and 96.4 mph. He hit the ball hard every time he made contact. What more can you ask for? Earlier today, he had another two-hit game.
Here are some of his highlights. First, his walk-off.
And then his home run.
And let’s give a shout-out to Contreras’ stretching ability on this Masyn Winn throw. He… at least stayed on the bag long enough for there to be doubt.
After a slow start, I feel like Willson Contreras is a contender for player of the week just about every week now.