When 22-year-old rookie phenom Cody Bellinger slugged his 30th home run of the season on Wednesday night, he became only the 10th rookie in MLB history to do so and only the third National League player to do so. In fact, Bellinger is now only five home runs shy of tying former Dodger and Hall of Famer Mike Piazza for the franchise record of 35 home runs by a rookie, set in 1993 … and the Dodgers still have 55 games remaining in the 2017 regular season.

Keep in mind that the young Scottsdale, Arizona native wasn’t even called up to the big leagues until April 25, a full four weeks into the season. Yet Bellinger still managed to become the third fastest rookie in MLB history to reach 30 home runs in their first 87 games behind only Rudy York (1937) and Mark McGwire (1987).

But wait, there’s more!

With his 30th round-tripper on Wednesday night, Bellinger became the first Dodger – rookie or otherwise – to hit 30 home runs in a season since Matt Kemp hit his MLB-best 39 home runs in 2011, the year that he was cheated out of the National League MVP title by admitted PED user Ryan Braun. But here again, the Dodgers still have 55 games left to play (as of August 3).

It would be a crime if Cody Bellinger is not selected as the 2017 NL Rookie of the Year by the BBWAA. But it would be an even bigger crime for him to not be a serious candidate for the 2017 NL MVP as well.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

But even with the record numbers that Bellinger has put up thus far – and presumably will continue to do so – is he, a 22-year-old rookie, in the same league with guys named Bryce Harper, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Anthony Rendon and even teammates Corey Seager and Justin Turner as a legitimate candidate to potentially win the game’s highest individual honor?

Chances are that if the MVP voting were in the hands of fellow players, coaches and managers, the 6′-4″ / 210-pound Dodgers first baseman / outfielder would indeed have a legitimate shot at winning the award. But when such a prestigious award is in the hands of the supposed unbiased members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) – an organization founded in 1908 that couldn’t even get their own acronym right – it is impossible to eliminate at least some element of personal bias.

Now this certainly isn’t to say that baseball’s oldest writers fraternity isn’t loaded with extremely talented writers and credible voting members, it absolutely is. However, if the game’s true MVPs are indeed the best of the best, why wouldn’t cold, hard numbers such as those found on Baseball-Reference.com or other statistical and analytical-based websites be used to determine who each league’s best players (and pitchers) are?

It goes without saying that prior to today’s remarkable instant-access digital world, a body such as the BBWAA may have been the best available option at the time, although that ‘fellow players, coaches and managers’ thing still seemed like a better one. But in today’s high speed fact-based digital world, even casual computer and smartphone users can confirm with 100 percent accuracy who the best players in the game are.

But alas, it is still the BBWAA, of which many are so-called baseball purists and old-schoolers who still prefer the old-fashioned “human element” over the “get it right” mentality that determine the winners of baseball’s highest awards. As such, youngsters such as Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager – who were born well after today’s digital high tech world was already in place – may have a difficult time winning such awards, statics be damned.

Along these same lines, it has been a well established longstanding practice (for lack of a better word) that a player with MVP-caliber numbers is immediately discounted as an MVP candidate if they were not on a playoff team which, quite frankly, seems a bit ridiculous. A great player is a great player regardless of how good or bad their team was. Furthermore, such a criteria is not listed anywhere in the voting guidelines and is further proof that old-school trumps getting it right.

Then again, with the Dodgers having the best record in all of baseball and are all but guaranteed a playoff berth, Cody Bellinger could stand to benefit from that old-school mentality over guys named Bryce Harper, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado and Anthony Rendon who may not be on playoff-bound teams.

…so Belly has that going for him.

Play ball!