Jonathan Lucroy for MVP

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Now, at age 28, Lucroy is suddenly mounting a campaign of conquest and destruction in the National League. He’s been by far the best player on a team that includes the guy who won the MVP three years ago (Braun) and a guy who could have won the MVP last year (Carlos Gomez).

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Lucroy is currently hitting .334/.403/.515 with an NL-leading 28 doubles. His 156 wRC+ would be third among major league first basemen, fourth among corner outfielders, and second among DHs. Only he’s a catcher, and a very good defensive catcher to boot. That makes it harder for Lucroy to stack up counting numbers, since catchers only play about 80 percent as much as other position players do. It’s also not hard to argue that it’s harder for a player to hit if he’s squatting a couple hundred times a game and taking foul balls off the mask, as Lucroy does, than if he’s spending defensive innings freeloading, as, say, David Ortiz does. And Lucroy once again sits near the top of the pitch framing leaderboard, currently in a practical dead heat with Miguel Montero with a little more than 16 runs saved above average.

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Not too long ago, the Brewers released a video for Lucroy’s All-Star campaign in the style of a political ad pitting Lucroy against Yadier Molina.


It was funny and playful, and it calls attention to the great season Lucroy is having. I love everything about it, including how offended St. Louis manager Mike Matheny and various Cardinal fans got. Lucroy inspired something that was decried as classless by the Best Fans in Baseball and greeted with multiple paragraphs of “Gee, I dunno” from Mike Matheny, in which he literally used the phrase “Cardinal Way.” That’s how I know Lucroy is bringing joy and happiness to the world.

I joke, but Cardinals fans should be upset. Not because they’ve been somehow aggrieved by a promotional video for the All-Star Game or because the Brewers have a clever marketing department. They should be upset because the Brewers’ catcher is better than theirs, and people outside of Wisconsin are starting to notice

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