Acuna 40-40 in 2021?

Topps chrome update is a chromium version of Topps update series. 2020 Topps chrome update arrived in January 2021, which was quite late, but it still arrived. You can find autograph cards, however, it’s really hard. I bought some packs this year, trying to find some cool rookie cards or refractor cards. It turned out that I was quite lucky because I got a Ronald Acuna Jr.’s X-Fractor card. On the front, it's a photo of Acuna in the 2019 All-Star game, which was held in Cleveland. In the 2019 season, Acuna was hitting .280/.365/.518, blasted 41 home runs and collected 101 RBI. Also, he had 37 stolen bases. He finished 5th in the 2019 MVP voting. Acuna’s batting average was only .250 in the 2020 season. However, his OBP was .406 and he had a .581 SLG, both are his career high. Also, he posted a .987 OPS, which is career high as well. So, is Acuna actually becoming even more dangerous?

Firstly, let's look at Acuna’s hard hit rate. Acuna’s hard hit rate went up each year, from 46.6% to 57%. His hard hit rate of 57% was third highest in the MLB in the 2020 season. Going a little bit deeper, let’s see his hard hit rate against different types of pitches. Acuna is a very good hitter against fastballs and he’s becoming even better, in his three years with the Braves so far, his hard hit rate against fastballs never fell below 46% and it was rising to 59.3% last season. Against breaking pitches, Acuna is just evolving gradually, the hard hit rate went up year by year, from 45.2% to 57.6%. At the same time, his hard hit rate against offspeed pitches remained above 40% from 2018 to 2020.

Secondly, Acuna posted an xwOBA of .401 last season, ranking 9th in the majors. So, we can probably say that he’s one of the most dangerous hitters in the league. And looking at his xwOBA against different types of pitches, Acuna’s xwOBA against fastballs was .420 last season. A pitcher must be very careful if he’s going to throw a fastball to Acuna. Against breaking pitches, Acuna’s xwOBA was .364 and he had an xwOBA of .388 against offspeed pitches.

Finally, let’s see Acuna’s speed. His sprint speed declined to 29.2 ft/s last season. However, it’s still in the top 20 list of the major league. Hence, we probably don’t have to worry too much about Acuna’s speed. Although Acuna’s batting average was only .250 in the 2020 season, his OBP and SLG both went higher. His sprint speed might not be as fast as he was in 2018, but he’s still one of the fastest runners in the major. So we might be able to expect one big thing in 2021, can he become a member of the 40-40 club? In the 2019 season, Acuna was just three stolen bases short to join the club. In baseball history, there are only 4 members in the 40-40 club, they are Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano. If Acuna stays healthy in the 2021 season, it’s highly possible to see Acuna join this club. However, just one thing, none of the members of the 40-40 club has become a Hall of Famer yet.