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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 But when you're switching over to the hit king for 2024,
00:06 you have to start with the hit king of 2023.
00:09 And his name is Ronald Acuna,
00:11 the guy who led the league last year in hits.
00:14 He is the top of the board.
00:15 He is the one, one in average draft position
00:17 in all fantasy leagues as he should be.
00:19 And maybe the most stunning statistic
00:21 when it comes to Ronald Acuna, Matt,
00:23 he's just 26 years old.
00:25 I mean, sometimes that's a very sobering thing
00:27 to sit back and look at how old the player is.
00:30 Ronald Acuna has been around a while.
00:31 He is only 26 years old.
00:33 And if you look at what he did last year,
00:34 217 hits was the number he led the league in hits.
00:37 He had more hits than Freddie Freeman.
00:39 He had more hits than Louisa Rice,
00:41 who we're gonna talk about in a second here for this award.
00:43 But if you look at last year,
00:46 he also was at 337 in the batting average.
00:49 Can he repeat this magical 2023 season?
00:53 It's probably unlikely, 'cause it was so good.
00:55 When you're stealing 70 bases,
00:58 (laughs)
00:59 when you're hitting 40 home runs and stealing 70 bases,
01:02 something has really changed for the positive
01:04 in major league baseball
01:05 in terms of some of the rules and situations.
01:06 But that's a great thing for the game
01:08 because more offense is good.
01:09 People wanna see offense.
01:11 And Ronald Acuna is living, breathing, walking offense.
01:14 I think it's a very good wager still
01:16 'cause the number is still good at plus 750,
01:18 'cause this is really about threading the needle.
01:21 This particular future is about a guy
01:24 who's gonna be durable,
01:25 a guy who's gonna be productive,
01:27 a guy who probably has some speed too,
01:28 is gonna get some infield hits,
01:30 a guy that doesn't slump.
01:31 So you have to kind of have the perfect storm here
01:34 for everything to work to get this future right.
01:37 And I think at plus 750, it's just too good of an odd
01:40 not to go back to the favorite here, Ronald Acuna,
01:43 for a second year in a row
01:44 because he fits the bill in all those things.
01:46 And as we mentioned before,
01:47 in the last segment, the line of protection is there too.
01:50 And that is something that is also crucial,
01:52 I think at the end of the day, to get this right.
01:55 Your thoughts on Ronald Acuna
01:57 going back to back hit kings in 2023 and 2024.
02:01 - I think it's a great number,
02:03 returning seven and a half to one.
02:05 You can't pitch to 'em, you can't pitch around 'em.
02:09 So what do you do?
02:10 And you mentioned something
02:11 that I don't wanna gloss over, the speed.
02:14 So some of the guys hitting in the two hole,
02:17 I would look for those guys that are speedy
02:19 that can get those infield hits
02:21 to make up for not leading off.
02:23 You add in this fact that Ronald Acuna
02:25 has the speed for the infield hit and hitting lead off,
02:28 it just needs to be half a hit more.
02:31 It needs to be one more than everyone else
02:33 in the entire league for this to cash.
02:36 And to your point, complete has all the tools.
02:39 Conversations we're gonna have
02:40 about the rest of these players are there
02:42 and you can put together a nice ticket.
02:44 But at the end of the day, you just need one.
02:46 It's Acuna at plus 750.
02:48 (upbeat music)
02:50 [MUSIC]