The Brewers crushed the Cubs 7-0 (box score) on Tuesday to move to within two games in the NL Central while also strengthening their hold on a wild-card spot. The stars of the game were Ryan Braun (two 2-R HR) and Jhoulys Chacin (7 IP, 0 R, 10 K), but leadoff man Lorenzo Cain got things started in style in the first inning:
Cain would make hard contact again in his second at-bat with a single.
Cain is now hitting .304/.391/.426 with 19 doubles, nine homers, 31 RBI (he does hit leadoff), 62 runs and 21 stolen bases this season.
The offensive stat line doesn't do justice to Cain, either, because he's a well-polished, all-around player. Note the stolen bases above. He's a great baserunner in general, even when not committing theft. He also leads all center fielders in baseball with an 18 in defensive runs saved. He passes the eye test, too. He's smooth out there with great range and a good arm, to boot.
The number that does Cain justice? WAR. The baseball-reference.com version had Cain entering Tuesday as number one in the NL position players, just a nose ahead of Matt Carpenter with Freddie Freeman, Javier Baez and Nolan Arenado next. We have often been hearing those other names in MVP discussions, but not so much with Cain. In fact, I think teammate Christian Yelich has probably more often been thrown in that mix than Cain.
Cain has long been pretty underappreciated. He was actually the best player on the 2015 World Series champion Royals. Was he credited as the best player on the champion? It doesn't feel that way. It seems like Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer and Wade Davis got a lot more adulation.
Cain with his all-around play, however, crushed his teammates in WAR during the regular season at 7.2. Mike Moustakas was second at 4.4. Think about that. Cain was the best all-around player by far on a World Series champion and we still heard more about a few other teammates.
Let's give it up for Lorenzo Cain, a long underappreciated player who deserves a lot more credit for being an awesome baseball player.
