Sale or Skubal in a Game 7? Ohtani's 50/50 or Acuña's 40/70? Smoltz weighs in

Paul Skenes or Jackson Merrill for National League Rookie of the Year? Shohei Ohtani's historic 2024 or Ronald Acuña's 2023?

With a week left in the regular season, MLB on FOX analyst John Smoltz gave his thoughts on some of baseball's top award races and achievements — as well as one infamous mark the White Sox are hoping to avoid.

As part of our weekly conversation with the Hall of Fame pitcher, Smoltz also shared the rotation he likes the most entering the playoffs and more.

Kavner: Looking at what Shohei Ohtani has done this season, reaching the 50/50 mark, and what Ronald Acuña did last season to get to 40/70, which of those two feats do you find to be more impressive?

Smoltz: Honestly, it's a great question. I think when stolen base is part of your game, I'm more impressed when you combine the stolen base with the power. And what I mean by that is, I've seen too many incidences where the power's first and then the stolen bases come to make it some kind of unique thing.

I'm not a big fan of, once you reach a certain number, trying so hard to get the other number to equal. And that usually follows in the stolen base department. So when you got 70 stolen bases, that's part of your game, that's what makes you special, and then the homers just makes it doubly special. 

So, it would probably be crazy for me to say that the 50/50 isn't more impressive. But we're not going to see that again. So, if we're not going to see that again, because that person's not going to do it again, not because they're not capable of hitting 50 home runs, it's just — [the 50 steals] won't be part of their game in the future. So, that would mean that a 40/70 is something that could be part of the future because it's part of the game.

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