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Braves star and National League MVP frontrunner Ronald Acuña Jr. is having an outrageously good 2023. Acuña is the first player in MLB history with a 30-homer, 60-steal season, and he did it before September. That is one of the more astonishing facts of this baseball season. 

But what's driving this historic year and an MVP chase? It's remarkable consistency and improvement. These five stats tell the story. Let's dive in.

1. Acuña has been slump-proof

Everyone goes through a slump at some point. That's baseball. Unless, apparently, you're Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2023. One of the most impressive parts of his MVP run this year is the consistency. He entered September with a .900 OPS in every month this season. So clearly, there's been no extended slump. The only other player with a .900 OPS in every month in a season in the last 5 years is Aaron Judge in 2022 (min. 75 plate appearances each month).

There hasn't really even been a mini slump! His lowest batting average in a traditional fantasy week (Monday to Sunday) this season is .217. His lowest on-base percentage in any week is .313. There are 139 players who qualify for a batting title this season. He is the only one who hasn't hit below .210 in any week. He is also the only one who has not had an on-base percentage under .300 in any week (min. 20 plate appearances per week). Plus, he's had at least one home run or steal in every week this year, the only player in baseball who can make that claim.

Acuña Jr is, however, off to a slow start this week, going 1 for 10 in the first two games of Atlanta's series against the Cardinals. He's also 1 for 14 dating back to Sunday, so it's possible his first mini-slump of the year comes at the start of NFL season. Not bad!  

2. He hits the ball really hard

Another facet of his greatness is his ability to hit the ball very hard. He's tied with Braves teammate Matt Olson for the major league lead in average exit velocity among qualified batters (94.7 MPH) this year. His 63 batted balls of 110-plus mph are 16 more than anyone else in baseball (Shohei Ohtani is second) and more than 19 teams. 

He is hitting the ball with more authority than anyone else in baseball, like this 121.2 MPH screaming home run against the Dodgers that was the hardest-hit ball in the majors this year. 

3. Ks have been cut in half

Acuña Jr. cut his strikeout rate in half this year, going from a 23.6 percent K rate in 2022, to 11.9 percent in 2023. That's the largest year-over-year improvement by any hitter in over a half century. The only player in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) with a bigger improvement was Mark Belanger from 1968-69. 

When you consistently smoke the ball and don't strike out, you have an ideal combination. He leads the majors in average exit velocity and has the sixth-lowest strikeout rate. He's the only player in the Statcast era (since 2015) to rank top 10 in both statistics.

As you can see in the below scatterplot of every qualified batter this year, Acuña Jr. is in a league of his own in terms of this elite contact combo (hint: being in the lower-right corner is good).

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TruMedia Sports

4. Pitchers can't put him away

When you smash the ball and don't strike out, it's really hard for pitchers to put you away. Sound logic right? That's one way to explain how Acuña Jr. is hitting .356 after an 0-2 count this year, while the entire league hits .181 in those situations. The .356 mark is the highest of its kind after 0-2 counts in 16 years, since Placido Polanco hit .402 in 2007 (who could forget?). Polanco hit nine home runs that year, so he wasn't exactly a power threat like Acuña Jr..

5. There's no hole in Acuña's swing

One way to slow down a superstar is to make him uncomfortable and don't allow him to get fully extended. In the past, pitchers have thrown inside on Acuña Jr. to back him off the plate with some success. In his first five seasons he hit .219 on pitches 95 mph or more on the inner third. Acuña Jr. has fixed that hole in 2023, hitting .375 on those hard, inside pitches. 

Acuña Jr. was a superstar before he tore his ACL two years ago and struggled at times in his first year back in 2022. Clearly he's come back with a vengeance and taken his game to another level with consistency as a big key. I'm still amazed he has not missed a single game this season. 

All of it puts him in position for his first MVP award with a solid September. A push to 40 home runs and 70 steals will make him pretty tough to beat, even with Mookie Betts creating quite the competition.