![Christian Yelich is making his case to be named National League MVP for the second straight year. [Image Credit: Joel Abroad/Flickr]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2019/8/21/660x290/b_502x220x82/christian-yelich-is-making-his-case-to-be-named-national-league-mvp-for-the-second-straight-year-image-source-flickr-joel-abroad_2312519.jpg "Christian Yelich is making his case to be named National League MVP for the second straight year. [Image Credit: Joel Abroad/Flickr]")
With 41 days of regular-season action remaining, there are plenty of stat races in both leagues that could come down to the final day.
Here are six of them in both leagues. Of course, if you lead your league in a statistical category, you get the ever-so-important bold ink on the back of your baseball card.
League leaders were taken from MLB.com.
American League
Batting average
- 1. DJ LeMahieu .338
- 2. Michael Brantley .334
- 3. Rafael Devers .329
LeMahieu is trying to join a list that isn’t even really a list yet because it’s never been done before.
He is trying to become the first player to have both an American and National League batting crown according to MLB.com.
In 2016 while with the Rockies, his .348 batting average led the National League.
RBIs
- 1. Rafael Devers 101
- 2. Mike Trout 98
- T3. Jose Abreu, Xander Bogaerts 94
The incredible Trout led the American League in RBIs in 2014 with 111. He will surely need more than that this time around to once again be the league-leader.
After somewhat of a disappointing sophomore season in 2018, Devers has been superb in 2019. He has 39 RBIs in 36 games since the All-Star break.
Stolen bases
- 1. Mallex Smith 34
- 2. Adalberto Mondesi 31
Unfortunately, Mondesi has missed over a month now with a shoulder injury or else he would have likely been atop the leaderboard. According to MLB.com, he began a rehab assignment on Tuesday, but there is still no timetable for his return.
Wins
- 1. Domingo German 16
- 2. Justin Verlander 15
- T3. Gerrit Cole, Lance Lynn, Eduardo Rodriguez 14
German has an opportunity to add to his win total Tuesday night, but the Yankees fell to the Athletics by the score of 6-2.
Verlander led the American League in wins in 2009 (19) and 2011 (24).
ERA
- 1. Charlie Morton 2.77
- 2. Justin Verlander 2.81
- 3. Gerrit Cole 2.87
- 4. Mike Minor 2.94
During Verlander’s wonderful career, he once before led the American League with a 2.40 ERA in 2011.
Morton has been defying the odds in the past couple seasons. He posted his career-best ERA of 3.13 in 2018 at the age of 34, and that number has improved in 2019 at a year older.
Strikeouts
- 1. Justin Verlander 228
- 2. Gerrit Cole 226
Verlander is trying to accomplish what he did in 2011 when he led the American League in wins, ERA, and strikeouts.
He also led the league in strikeouts in four other seasons as well including last year.
National League
Batting average
- 1. Christian Yelich .333
- 2. Jeff McNeil .332
- 3. Charlie Blackmon .329
- 4. Bryan Reynolds .323
Yelich is trying to win a National League batting crown in back-to-back years as he led the league during his MVP season of 2018.
Blackmon won a National League batting crown in 2017 with a .331 batting average.
Home runs
- 1. Cody Bellinger 42
- 2. Christian Yelich 41
- 3. Pete Alonso 40
All eyes will be on Alonso as he not only looks to lead the National League in home runs, but also set a major league record. He already has surpassed Bellinger’s mark for most homers by a rookie in the National League, and he has a shot to break Aaron Judge’s major league rookie record of 52 homers.
RBIs
- 1. Freddie Freeman 102
- T2. Cody Bellinger, Eduardo Escobar 100
- T4. Anthony Rendon, Josh Bell 98
- 6. Pete Alonso 97
- 7. Nolan Arenado 96
Good luck picking who will lead the National League in RBIs as seven players are within six RBIs of each other. The only one of these players to previously lead the league is Arenado who did so in both 2015 and 2016.
Stolen bases
- 1. Ronald Acuna Jr. 29
- 2. Jarrod Dyson 27
- 3. Trea Turner 26
Much like Mondesi in the American League, Turner would likely be leading the National League in steals had he not missed a month and a half in April-May.
Wins
- 1. Stephen Strasburg 15
- 2. Max Fried 14
- 3. Clayton Kershaw 13
Strasburg has already tied his career-high in wins at 15, a number he hit in 2012, 2016, and 2017.
Kershaw has plenty of experience in leading the National League in wins doing so in 2011, 2014, and 2017.
Strikeouts
- 1. Jacob deGrom 194
- 2. Stephen Strasburg 191
- 3. Max Scherzer 189
- 4. Robbie Ray 187
Scherzer’s two recent IL stints have opened the door for others to potentially lead the league in strikeouts. He led the National League in punch outs each of the last three seasons.
