Top Junior?

 

The modern scope of the MLB is defined by second generation players. Jack Leiter, Jackson Holliday and Jacob Wilson have been some of the top young players of the season thus far, and all of them had a major leaguer as a father. Considering that the NBA has LeBron James getting his son as a bench guy on his own team, and the NFL just had Deion Sanders begging teams to draft his son, the MLB might have the most dignified place for juniors. You can root this back to 1989, where Ken Griffey Jr., Roberto Alomar and Moises Alou burst onto the scene and paved the way for so many sons and descendants of major leaguers to be less of a novelty. Now you have people like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ronald Acuna Jr. and Bo Bichette as some of the heroes of the league.

And this season, so far, the most valuable second generationer might be Bobby Witt Jr. I don't say this lightly, because there's a ton more of them around right now, and they're very important to the current picture of the game. But not only has Witt hit his stride, he might be THE reason to watch the Royals right now.

The Royals, as they are currently...pretty good. They've won 21 games, that's very good, and they've been very hot since April 20th [and we're not gonna read into that], but you can still see some flaws. Looking at this lineup, there is a whole lot of mediocrity. Salvador Perez, Michael Massey, Hunter Renfroe and Jonathan India all have negative WAR at the moment. Renfroe in particular has been atrocious, hitting .160 in 75 at-bats. Vinnie Pasquantino, who was the golden boy last year, is hitting .200, and only hitting when I don't start him in fantasy. Bench guys like Drew Waters and Mark Canha are doing more work than they should. 

But it helps that Witt, at the heart of the lineup, is not at all disappointing. He's hitting .310 with 44 hits, 19 RBIs and a league leading 14 doubles. Every facet of the game, he's excelling at. Great with contact, great at short, great at stealing bases. He's the man of the moment. Yes, Aaron Judge has like a 3.000 OPS or whatever, but he's in his 30s and solidifying. Witt's in his prime and only getting better, and he, Maikel Garcia and Vinnie Pasquantino make up a very strong core that, even as the lineup sleeps, could keep things exciting going forward. 

The pitching has gotten the Royals this far, and it will continue to. Lugo and Ragans stepped over early hiccups to get back to complete dominance. Bubic is still sub-2.00. Lorenzen and Wacha have had rough starts but are still really reliable. Estevez has worked like a charm in the ninth and the bullpen has so many really tough arms, Lucas Erceg chief among them. This pitching staff can get the Royals back to the postseason, so hopefully the lineup shifts so that it's not relying on Witt alone.

Witt, if he keeps it up, will be remembered as fondly as Ken Griffey Jr. But only if he has 10 more seasons like these last two.

Coming Tonight: The Yankees will try to convince themselves that they always needed to trade him, but I don't think I'm ever gonna not miss him. Especially as he gets the position to himself in Cincinnati.