This post is not about Yoenis Cespedes’ amazing run of late for the New York Mets. Not really, anyway. You have probably heard about Cespedes since his trade to the Mets. He is hitting .302/.352/.676 with 17 home runs and a wRC+ of 179 in 193 plate appearances with his new club. Even more amazing, from August 12 through September 14, Cespedes hit .323/.379/.805 with 17 homers and a wRC+ of 220 in 145 plate appearances. During this time the Mets went 22-9 and seized control of the National League East from pre-season, early-season, and even most of late-season favorites Washington Nationals. What Cespedes has done is incredible, but he is not the only major league player to have a great run along these lines.

This post is also not about Cespedes’ MVP candidacy. Matthew Kory did a good job breaking that argument down and discussing whether Cespedes’ time in the American League should be a part of the consideration when discussing MVP. What this post is about is recognizing those performances throughout the season on the hitting side that have been up to par with Cespedes’ great run. Some of the performances are from players on winning teams, some are from non-contenders, many of these runs have been covered by various FanGraphs authors as the runs were happening, but they all deserve recognition for playing incredible baseball for a stretch at least a month long.

We’ll start with the very best players in baseball this season. Looking at the top ten in WAR on the season, we have four players from the American League, five players from the National League, and Cespedes, who has split time with both. First, Cespedes’ line, mentioned above.

Yoenis Cespedes and His Incredible Run Dates PA HR BA OBP SLG wRC+ Team W-L Yoenis Cespedes 8/12-9/14 145 17 .323 .379 .805 220 22-9

Here are the best streaks each player from the AL has had that lasted at least one month, sorted by weighted batting.

Other Cespedes-Like Runs: Top AL Players Dates PA HR BA OBP SLG wRC+ Team W-L Mike Trout 6/11-7/31 172 16 .366 .459 .779 240 26-17 Josh Donaldson 7/30-9/11 174 14 .363 .434 .767 219 29-9 Manny Machado 6/6-7/24 182 13 .357 .442 .662 202 17-10 Lorenzo Cain 6/27-8/13 204 8 .362 .417 .649 191 26-18

Josh Donaldson has been on an impressive run simultaneous to Cespedes, his team’s record is just as impressive, and he likely passed Mike Trout for AL MVP during that time. Mike Trout has struggled a bit of late, but over a nearly two-month period before the All-Star break, he had a run of play that actually exceeded Cespedes’ statistically. Lorenzo Cain actually had a shorter streak than the one represented above during which his wRC+ exceeded 200, but I made the judgment call of putting the longer run with more plate appearances as I deemed it more impressive. Manny Machado had a great streak of his own as the Orioles fought their way back into the playoff race before the trade deadline.

Below are the National League counterparts: