Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman has been named National League Player of the Week.
This marks the third time this season and second time in September alone that he has taken home the award. That’s right. Despite playing for a last place team, he’s recorded a Player of the Week hat trick.
Frankly, at this point it just seems greedy.
That isn’t to say the accolades are undeserved, though. Just take a look at Freeman’s numbers from the past week. In 27 plate appearances, he slashed an otherworldly .500/.593/.909 with two home runs, three doubles, five walks, and seven RBI. He even threw in a pair of stolen bases for good measure.
That’s the type of performance that’ll get you noticed.
Of course, Freeman’s excellence was noticed long ago. After being taken in the second round of the 2007 draft, he appeared on a number of top prospect lists before making his big league debut in September 2010. Though he remained a solid contributor throughout his time in the majors, in 2016 Freeman has taken his play to another level.
In addition to setting new career highs in home runs and runs scored, he’s on pace to record the highest on-base, slugging, and isolated slugging percentages of his six-plus year tenure in the bigs. While the fate of the Braves’ season was determined long ago, Freeman has continued to be a force in the lineup.
Since we last wrote about him winning this award (all the way back in the halcyon days of early September), Freeman has been a busy man. On September 12th he celebrated his 27th birthday. On September 15th, he and wife Chelsea welcomed their first child, Frederick Charles Freeman II. Oh, and in his spare time he’s also managed to string together a 28-game hit streak.
Congrats Freddie, for the third time this year, you’ve earned it.
Scott Ferris covers the Braves as a Staff Writer for Outside Pitch MLB. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottHFerris
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