We have talked at length about how impressive of a season that Ronald Acuña Jr is having, and make a point to include in our articles when he's leading MLB in specific statistical categories...like right now, where he leads MLB in hits (177), runs (119), stolen bases (61), and on-base percentage (.417).
And there's plenty of talk about how he's accomplishing things will be records if they happen, like how he's on pace to be the only player in MLB history to finish a season with 30 home runs and 60 steals.
But something that not a lot of folks have done is given the franchise's historical context to what Ronald Acuña Jr is doing, and there's an interesting name that comes up when you do this: Hank Aaron.
Hammerin' Hank is known for being the home run king, with his total of 755 being the real home run record, but he also leads baseball all-time in career RBIs (2297) and total bases (6,856).
(Explainer: MLB's definition of "total bases" is "the number of bases gained by a batter through his hits" - walks and steals are not part of this, solely putting the ball in play and getting on base via hit).
His record year for total bases was 1959, where he took an even 400 total bases thanks to pacing MLB in hits (223), batting average (.355), and slugging (.636).
But total bases doesn't tell the full story, right? It doesn't account for walks, steals, or HBP. So let's add those in to get a new number - we can call it "actual bases".
Add in Hank's eight stolen bases, 51 walks, and 4 HBP and he had 4463 actual bases in that magical 1959 season.
This isn't the Braves record, BTW. Chipper Jones in his 1999 MVP season had 513 "actual bases", when you add his 359 total bases with his 126 walks, 25 stolen bases, and 2 HBP.
Ronald can still beat that.
Acuña's on pace for 372 total bases this season, which would be the third-best season in Braves history for total bases. But if you add in steals (where he's pacing to finish with 75), walks (pace of 85), and HBP (pace of 9), Ronald's projected to finish with 541 actual bases this season.
So not only is his stolen base figure on pace to beat Otis Nixon's 72 in 1991, but Ronald's on pace to take more actual bases than any prominent Braves player in history.
And to think there's some folks who have him as the runner-up in the MVP race.
More must-reads: