Nick Kurtz won the American League Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award for 2025. He recorded 30 of 30 first place votes. He reached base at a .383 clip and slugged .619, collecting 64 extra base hits. His teammate, Jacob Wilson picked up 23 second place votes to finish second, and those two should be the center of a very nice offensive core for the Athletics going forward. Fifteen players in total received at least one vote.
The top five of the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings churn again, with more new names rising to the top. Vinnie Pasquantino of the Royals, in fourth place, joins his teammate, Bobby Witt Jr. in the top five. Witt ranks one after a one for five in a 7-5 Tigers win. Pasquantino homered and singled to move up to fourth place. He homered in seven of his last ten games, including five straight. The MLB record for a home run streak stands at eight games.
Brice Turang of the Brewers moved into second place with a single and a walk out of the leadoff slot in a 5-4 win over the Giants. Turang’s OBP rises to .352. Corey Seager of the Rangers dropped to third place with a one for four in a 4-3 win over the Guardians. Rookie Nick Kurtz of the Athletics took fifth place with a walk in four PA, the Mariners winning that game 3-2.
The best game score of the day belonged to Juan Soto of the Mets, an 80. He went three for four with two walks and a home run, his 32nd of the season, in a 12-7 win over the Braves. Soto owns a .251/.396/.500 slash line, which is only disappointing if you’re the highest paid player in the game. Soto’s BABIP is just .259 this season, but StatCast shows his hard hit rate compare favorably to last season. I suspect there is some bad luck involved his his lower production. He currently ranks 12th, which is very good.
Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals and Corey Seager of the Rangers remained one and two respectively in the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings, the Royals downing Texas 6-4. Witt posted a two for five game with his 40th double of the season. Seager went three for five with a double as well. Seager does the better job of getting on base, Witt the better job of hitting for power. Both do so playing shortstop, a position primarily concerned with defense.
Nick Kurtz of the Athletics moved into third place, going two for four with a home run in an 8-3 win over the Twins. Kurtz posted a game score of 66, which wasn’t even the best of the game, as Tyler Soderstrom came in with a 75 on a four for four day with a double and a walk. That was the second highest score on Thursday.
Brice Turang of the Brewers took fourth place. He went two for four with a home run in a 4-1 win over the Cubs. Turang is on a tear in August hitting .366/.408/.789. Matt Olson sits in fifth place, the Braves idle on Thursday.
The best game score of the day belonged to Jesus Sanchez of the Astros, a 78. He went five for five with a double in a 7-2 win over Baltimore. Despite all the hits and the scoring, he only scored one run and only drove in one run.
Corey Seager of the Rangers retakes first place in the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings. Seager went two for four with a home run to move 0.45 points ahead of Jose Ramirez of the Guardians. Ramirez posted an 0 for 4 in 3-1 win over the White Sox.
The Phillies beat the Rangers 3-2, with Kyle Schwarber on the winning side drawing a walk. He sits in third place. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays went 0 for 4 with a strikeout to drop to fifth place in a 9-1 Dodgers victory. That leaves the injured Jackson Chourio of the Brewers in fourth place, Milwaukee continuing their hot play with a 7-4 win over the Mets.
Shea Langeliers of the Athletics posted the best game score of the day, a 77. He went three for four with a walk, double, and home run in an 11-3 win over the Orioles. This is the second time this week Langeliers topped the game score leaderboard. He now ranks eighth, with his teammate Nick Kurtz tenth. Langeliers age 27 is what it should be, the best of his career.
On a very good night for the Athletics, Nick Kurtz moves into the fifth slot in the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings. Kurtz went three four four with two walks and a double in the 16-7 win over the Nationals. That puts him at .311/.389/.655 for the season, his first in the majors. His game score of 71, however was only the fourth best on the team in that game. Brent Rooker posted a 72, JJ Bleday came in at 79, and Shea Langeliers topped all of MLB with a 99. He went five for six with a double and three home runs, giving him the 19th game score of at least 90 this season. That gives the Athletics two of the four highest game scores on the season, Kurtz setting a record was a 118 on July 25th.
Jose Ramirez of the Guardians remained on top despite an 0 for 4 in a 3-2 win over the Mets. The Guardians are now seven games out of first place in the AL Central and 1 1/2 games out of the third wild card slot. Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies gained on Ramirez with a single and a walk in a 5-0 win over the Orioles.
The injured Jackson Chourio of the Brewers stubbornly remains in third place. Milwaukee continued their winning ways with a 7-2 win over the former Milwaukee Braves.
Manny Machado of the Padres rounds out the top five in fourth place as he went 3 for 5 with a walk and a double in a 10-5 win over the Diamondbacks.
July proved to be an easy month for picking a batter. Nick Kurtz of the Athletics posted a .395/.480/.953 slash line, each of those elements the highest in the majors. He collected 25 extra-base hits, leading the majors in doubles with 13 and coming in second with 11 home runs. He even added a triple for good measure.
The only batter who came close was Kyle Stowers of the Marlins with a .364/.451/.818 slash line and 15 extra base hits. Congratulations to Nick Kurtz, the Baseball Musings Offensive Player of the Month for July 2025.
On the pitching side, it’s very tough choice between two pitchers, Nathan Eovaldi of the Rangers and Paul Skenes of the Pirates. Eovaldi owns the slightly better ERA 0.59 to 0.67. Eovaldi did allow a third run that was unearned, while opponents only scored twice against Skenes. Eovaldi pitched 3 2 /3 more innings, while Skenes buried Eovaldi in strikeouts and walks. (Skenes did hit four batters, so the free passes are actually much closer.) Each allowed one home run.
For traditionalist, Eovaldi won all five of his starts, while Skenes went just 2-1. In the end, the 3.2 K per nine advantage works for Skenes. He doesn’t leave it up to his defense, he gets the job done himself. Congratulations to Paul Skenes, the Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Month for July 2025.
For the past few years Baseball Musings tried to help with playing Beat the Streak. The Day by Day Database keeps track of hit streak of at least five games. In addition, two programs produce top ten lists of players with a high probability of a hit.
Here are the top picks my programs produced for use in Beat the Streak. This post mostly explains the ideas behind the calculations. In addition, this post shows tests on the Neural Network (NN). This post discusses an NN that includes the ballpark. I updated the models, and the results of those tests are here.
The Log5 Method yields these top projected hit averages versus starting pitchers:
Colton Gordon only has 57 2/3 MLB innings under his belt, but owns low K and BB rates with a high BABIP and a high home run rate. Wilson should match up well against him. Kurtz is working on a 13 game hit streak.
The NN produces this list of batters with a high probability of collecting at least one hit:
Wilson and Andujar come out as the consensus top picks.
You can follow the NN results on this spreadsheet. I do not guarantee results. Your best pick is going to have about a 25% chance of not getting a hit. Good luck!
Nick Kurtz of the Athletics set a record for a batter game score Friday night, going six for six with a double, four home runs, and eight RBI for a game score of 118. That breaks the record Shawn Green of the Dodgers set on 5/23/2002. He posted the same line, but with seven RBI instead of eight. Kurtz ties the record for home runs in game, and vaults to ninth place in the rankings. He is the firsts rookie to record a four home run game. The Athletics beat the Astros 15-3.
Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies replaces Aaron Judge of the Yankees in the top five of the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings. Schwarber went three for five with two home runs in a 12-5 win over the Yankees, his game score of 81 the second highest of the day. That moves Schwarber into fourth place. Judge went 0 for 3 with a sacrifice fly to fall to 8th place. He is now hitting .342/.449/.711 on the season.
Corey Seager of the Rangers stayed in first place, drawing two walks in an 8-3 win over the Braves. In the same game, Matt Olson of the Braves drew a single walk for third place. Jose Ramirez saw the Guardians game postponed and sits in second place.
Cal Raleigh of the Mariners drops to fifth place with a one for five with three strikeouts in a 3-2 Angels win.
You might want to compare this thread to my praise of the two strike approach of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. last night.
The Athletics decided to call up Nick Kurtz, drafted number four overall in 2024:
Kurtz went 14-for-38 with four home runs in a dozen games for the Athletics’ Single-A and Double-A affiliates after the draft, then batted .353 in the Arizona Fall League and came into the season as the 52nd-ranked prospect by ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. Kurtz then proceeded to dominate Triple-A pitching, posting a 1.040 OPS with seven home runs in 20 games for the Las Vegas Aviators, triggering a lightning-fast promotion.
ESPN.com
He is scheduled to make his debut on Wednesday. In what so far is an evenly matched division, the A’s are 10-12 in fifth place, but just three games out of first. The are sixth in runs scored per game, but 14th in runs allowed per game. Another power hitter should close that gap, but they could really use better pitching.