Did Bobby Witt Jr. just have the best month ever by a Royals hitter?
The kid has been on FIRE.
The weather in July in Kansas City can get hot. Bobby Witt Jr. is even hotter.
The phenom has been on a tear rarely seen in baseball. After being named to his first All-Star team and nearly winning the Home Run Derby, Witt’s ascendency to stardom has continued after the break. Any notion his swing would be negatively affected by his participation were quickly dispelled, as he has hit a ridiculous .565 (26-for-46) with a hit in all 12 games since the break, and three-hit games in half of them.
His July was perhaps the best month in Royals history. Here are the best performances in a month by a Royals hitter with a minimum of 90 plate appearances. Witt ties George Brett’s performance in July of 1980 when he made a run at .400.
He is the first batter to hit .489 or better in a month with at least 100 plate appearances since Todd Helton hit .512 in May of 2000. The last hitter before that to accomplish the feat was Lou Gehrig in 1930.
Bobby Witt Jr. of the @Royals finished July with 44 hits and a .489 batting average.
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) July 31, 2024
The last MLB player with at least that many hits and that high of a batting average in a calendar month was Lou Gehrig in June 1930 (55 hits, .495 average). pic.twitter.com/XymqMK72fI
Bobby leads the league in batting average at .349, hits (151), and runs scored (91). He has the most fWAR in baseball at 7.5.
In the past calendar year, he has been worth 10.2 fWAR, more than any other player in baseball. He’s hitting .333/.382/.582 over that time with 31 home runs, 44 stolen bases and 133 runs scored. Baseball is a game of adjustments, and Witt seems to actually be improving.
Bobby Witt Jr., pct. of PA ending in a hard, pulled fly ball, by month (rank, of 733 qualifying player-months):
— Matthew Trueblood (@MATrueblood) July 31, 2024
April: 2.6% (655)
May: 5.3% (494)
June: 1.9% (704)
July: 12.1% (62)
The velociraptor has learned to use door handles. Run, dammit.
We are running out of superlatives to describe Bobby Witt Jr. It is extremely rare to be able to see a player perform at this high of a level for this long. Kansas City has arguably the best football player in the world across the parking lot from the best baseball player in the world.