Braves: Ronald Acuna Jr. and His Current Pace for a 40/40 Season
We take a look at where Ronald Acuna Jr. stands in his quest to become just the fifth player ever to put together a 40/40 season.
I’m not usually one who gets too caught up in personal achievements — steroids kind of ruined that for me. But Ronald Acuna Jr.’s pursuit of a 40/40 season is one of the most exciting storylines in baseball for me this season.
The rarity of it — and the fact that he’d be maybe the first one to do it without the aid of steroids — would be a really cool accomplishment.
Obviously, Ronald Acuna Jr. got off to a great start in the 2021 season before an abdominal injury slowed him up. He was stilled named the NL Player of the Month for April.
But let’s see how he’s pacing to reach that goal of a 40/40 season.
Ronald Acuna Jr. — Pace for home runs
The Braves have played 28 games so far this season and Acuna has participated in 26 of those. He has 9 home runs.
He’s averaging a home run a little over once every three games that the Braves have played (you have to go by the number of games for the team and not that Acuna actually plays in).
If that pace remains he’ll easily hit the 40 home run mark. He’s currently on pace to hit around 50 home runs.
However, he’s only hit two home runs since suffering that injury — that’s his last 13 games. And that comes after hitting 7 home runs in his first 13 games.
Ronald Acuna Jr. — Pace for stolen bases
This is where Acuna really needs to pick it up if he’s going to get that 40/40 season. Right now he only has 3 stolen bases through the team’s first 28 games — that’s an average of 1 every nine games.
That’s not even enough for him to have a 20/20 season.
We know Acuna can get stolen bases in bunches, but I would like to see him get more aggressive on the base paths. He really hasn’t even attempted to steal any bases since that first week of the season.
The injury could be holding him back some, but also, pitchers are keenly aware now of his stolen base ability and are doing a much better job of keeping him close at first.
Even if he can just get 8 stolen bases in May, that would put him on pace for 38 stolen bases this season.
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After a month-plus of games, Acuna is not currently on pace for a 40-40 season. Hopefully he’ll get on track with a big month of May — the Braves certainly need him to continue his MVP performance.