Winning the title of cover athlete for your sport’s top video game brand is a unique honor. You didn’t necessarily win any awards, championships, or knockouts, but you played well enough that people considered you the most marketable face they could put on a product cover. their product — a production that has displayed MVP award-winners, Cy Young, and World Series champions. It must feel good, right?
Yesterday, PlayStation revealed cover athlete for the 2023 installment of the popular video game franchise”MLB: Performance” — Miami Marlins Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Why was Jazz Chisholm chosen?
Why? What did Chisholm do to deserve this honor? He played 60 games last year. He’s played 205 games in his career, played only one playoff in his entire career, and has never played more than 125 games in a season. Sure, he landed an All-Star spot last year, but he didn’t play in the game. Chisholm never shone in the national spotlight (guess that’s what happens when you play for the Marlins). Most people don’t even know what position he plays. Oh, inland center, what do you say? EHHHH! MISTAKE! After Marlins exchange for AL 2022 batting champion Luis Arraez in january On the 20th, GM Kim Ng of the Marlins announced that the plan is move Chisholm to the central school this coming season.
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There’s no denying that Chisholm is an exciting player to watch, but most of the time, that dazzling play style needs to amount to something before that person earns cover athlete distinction. If we were just giving that title to anyone with a flashy glove and solid stats at the plate, then Andrelton Simmons should have been the 2014 cover athlete. In fact, 2014 Simmons was arguably more deserving because he actually won the MVP title the previous year. He also won the Golden Glove and is considered the best defensive player in baseball. Oh, he’s also been to the knockouts twice and has played five games. Chisholm doesn’t have that. Simmons does not have an All-Star option. I’ll give Chisholm that, but you see my point, don’t you?
Is Chisholm interesting enough to warrant a cover despite not giving the numbers it deserves? Maybe. Is his swagger so mesmerizing that we can’t take our eyes off him every time he’s on screen? Not really – he’s definitely not old school Robinson Canó or Dustin Pedroia in that category.
Honestly, there has never been a MLB cover athlete with such a small name before and I don’t like that. When it comes “Program“ The only other cover athlete to even come close to Chisholm in terms of how little he is at Major League level is Yasiel Puig of 2015. But even Puig has won the MVP vote… twice. . He’s also been an All-Star and even won the playoff series taking down 0.471/.500/.529. That’s something.
Other inappropriate choices for video game cover art
Even when we review MLB video games in their entirety, freeing us from the constraints of watching”Program” Consisting only of athletes, Chisholm still stands out with his succinct resume. Here are some of the people MIGHT has had worse cases for baseball players than the 2023 Jazz Chisholm:
That’s everyone, and like I said, most of these are questionable. Rizzo had just finished 10th in the MVP vote in 2014 and made it through 32 home runs, but it was his first successful season. Berman is a television station. Jordan just finished eighth in the MVP poll, and Erstad was All-Star and 14th in the MVP poll. Maybe I could have thrown Fernando Tatís Jr. 2021 into it, but he had just finished his second season by then and he had finished third in the Rookie of the Year poll and fourth in the MVP poll for the previous two years. He also won a Silver Slugger. Tim Anderson is the cover athlete for Baseball RBI 21but he just finished sevenstuff in the 2020 MVP voting (I know it’s a shortened season, but still). He also won the Silver Slugger and has a batting title to his name in 2019. Both of those guys beat Chisholm in the awards.
I understand that the cover athlete moniker has waned over the years, but as a baseball fan and as a fan.”MLB: Program“ Chisholm is not the right choice. Can he have a great year? Sure! But that would make him even better for the 2024 cover. At this point, you might as well throw James Outman on the cover.
