Sullivan: Willians Astudillo is an MVP candidate
From SABR member Jeff Sullivan at FanGraphs on January 3, 2018:
Just a few weeks ago, something incredible happened. On an otherwise ordinary day in Venezuela, a pitcher named Rick Teasley became the first person to ever strike out Willians Astudillo twice in a game. Teasley is a former Rays draft pick who’s played baseball all over the globe, and Ben Lindbergh and I were delighted to chat with him for the Effectively Wild podcast. He remembered the pitches he threw to Astudillo with great detail. Those are pitches one wouldn’t soon forget.
The Venezuelan winter league regular season is now over. Astudillo wound up fourth in the league in plate appearances, with 261. Against Teasley, that one evening, he struck out two times. Against everybody else, every other evening, he struck out two times. Willians Astudillo has completed another regular season. He finished with four strikeouts. And it only gets better from there.
I don’t know much about the MVP voting in the LVBP. One thing I know is that there is, in fact, an MVP award. Another thing I know is that, this year, Astudillo is a candidate.
Read the full article here: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/willians-astudillo-is-an-mvp-candidate/
Originally published: January 3, 2019. Last Updated: January 3, 2019.