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Colorado Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu captured the National League batting title Sunday afternoon, finishing the season with an incredible batting average of .348. With that feat, LeMahieu just barely edged out Washington Nationals infielder Daniel Murphy, who finished with a .347 average.
“It’s a relief, it’s pretty cool but it hasn’t quite sunk it yet,” LeMahieu said. “It’s pretty special, though.”
LeMahieu finished the season hitting .348/.416/.495 with 32 doubles, eight triples, 11 home runs, 66 RBI while scoring 104 times.
Former Rockies’ manager Walt Weiss spoke about DJ after Colorado’s season finale Sunday afternoon, praising the gold glove second baseman.
“Certainly one of the best storylines of this season, especially when you take into account the type of guy DJ is and how hard he’s worked to achieve that,” Weiss said. “That’s no small achievement winning a batting title in this league. Where he came from two, three years ago is pretty amazing, [and] it’s a testament to his work ethic and everything else about him.”
However, DJ continues to receive flak from the national media (and even some locally) regarding how exactly he won the batting title. LeMahieu sat out four of the last five games, but it’s unfair for the media to blast a player that wants to be out there every day.
“I was ready,” LeMahieu said. “It was Walt’s call.”
Daniel Murphy, who didn’t play for a ten-game stretch due to a strained left buttocks, (Sept. 21 – Oct. 1), made one pinch-hit appearance in Washington’s 10-7 win over Miami, going 0-for-1 in an attempt to catch up to DJ.
“Yeah, we were monitoring it, you didn’t hear that from me” Weiss joked. “But yes we were, we were in tune.”
“Yeah, guys in here were keeping an eye on it, because we didn’t know what was going to happen,” LeMahieu said. “I think he hit in the fifth or sixth. I didn’t hear it until after.”
Back to LeMahieu not getting enough credit — he deserves it, but not in the way the national media is portraying him. “Oh, he’s a product of Coors” — “Oh, he plays for the Rockies” — “Oh, look at his team’s record, who cares” — stop.
If you’re going to sit there and discredit what happened the last five games, not his fault mind you, rather than pay attention what he did for the whole season, it speaks volume on how you approach watching and learning about the game. In football, for instance, let’s imagine a scenario where a team is winning 21-7 with less than two minutes. More often than not they kneel, correct? For this case, it’s like the media arguing to keep throwing the ball and see what happens. Murphy was already out, and Weiss chose not to let the player who had already accrued more games play at an unnecessary disadvantage.
So, DJ — what was the key to becoming a National League batting champion?
“I got a lot of hits” LeMahieu joked with some prompting from Charlie Blackmon. “I was more consistent this year than I have been in the past. More consistent in driving the ball. It’s [Coors] a good place to hit, I mean, obviously. There’s a lot of good names that have done it in the past, especially here so it’s pretty cool.”
As for hitting .348, it’s an incredible feat and rarely happens in today’s game. The last player to hit at or above DJ LeMahieu’s batting average and win a batting title was in the American League back in 2013 — Miguel Cabrera at .348.
“I mean, I would’ve have said it wasn’t possible, “LeMahieu said. “but I would’ve been surprised if someone would’ve told me that [I’d hit .348 in a season] three or four years ago.”
Little did we — and everyone around baseball — know that years ago the Rockies’ were going to get an All-Star, a Gold Glove winner, and a batting champion in the deal that sent Ian Stewart and Casey Weathers to the Chicago Cubs for Tyler Colvin and LeMahieu.
But that’s exactly what they got. And while some keep doubting, DJ LeMahieu keeps writing his name in the record books.
