Week 9: Max Kepler

The Minnesota Twins won their last six games in a row and now have the best record in the MLB. They have a 10 game lead in the American League Central, and have a .692 win percentage compared to the .648 of team with the next best record, the Houston Astros. Leading the charge for the Twins last week was Max Kepler, their MVP at the plate. Kepler was not just the Twins' best batter; he was arguably the most valuable offensive player in baseball last week.

Kepler had 10 runs, 10 RBIs, a .571 average and 1.790 OPS. Those are some really big numbers. How big? Of all players last week, Kepler had the most runs and was tied with four other players for the most RBIs. 

Compared to players with 10 or more at bats, Kepler had the second best OPS and the third best best average. The two players with better averages, Justin Turner and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., had 15 and 10 at bats respectively. Kepler had 21.

Week 14: Max Kepler

I live and work in the Twin Cities, and after the week we've had, I was clearly going to pick a Twin today. Max Kepler was a leading candidate obvious reasons:

Then, on Sunday, Kepler hit a grand slam to help in the Twins clobber the hateful Texas Rangers 15 to 5. It was the first Twins grand slam of the season and rookie Kepler's first in the big leagues. Kepler has a knack for making a big impression. His first major league home run was a walkoff dinger against the (also hateful) Boston Red Sox which led to this picture of Kepler with my other favorite Twins, Eduardo Escobar, Eduardo Núñez and the dreamy Trevor Plouffe.

Here's some fun facts about Kepler interspersed among unrelated pictures of him.