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

One week before the end of the regular season, MLB on FOX analyst John Smoltz weighed in on some of baseball's most important awards and accomplishments – as well as an infamous target 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 best entering the playoffs and more.

Kavner: Look at something Shohei Ohtani has managed this season, reached the 50/50 mark, and what Ronald Acuna Which of these two performances do you find more impressive to achieve 40/70 last season?

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

I'm not a big fan of, once you reach a certain number, trying so hard to make the other number equal. And that usually follows in the stolen base department. So when you have 70 stolen bases, that's part of the game, that's what makes you special, and then the home runs make it special again.

So I'd probably be crazy if I said that 50/50 isn't more impressive. But we won't experience that again. So if we don't see that again, because that person isn't going to do it again, not because they're not capable of hitting 50 home runs, then it's just that (the 50 steals) aren't going to be in their game in the future. So that would mean a 40/70 could be a part of the future because it's part of the game.

Kavner: Yes, and you're probably alluding to the fact that I doubt that Dodgers I'll let Ohtani go for 50 stolen bases again if he pitches every week.

Smoltz: And you can get stolen bases that don't help your team, that's my point. They could have a six-run lead and steal a base. What does it make? If you get a stolen base because you're able to do it in a tied or one-run game, that helps your club, I think that's great.

But if you're just trying to get a number, you'll see stolen bases that happen at third base and are insignificant with two outs. There are easy ways to make stats look great. All I'm saying is I'm a fan of a statistic that helps your team win and win baseball games. That's what I'm saying.

(RELATED: How Shohei Ohtani, without half his powers, re-wrote MLB history and won 50/50)

Kavner: Paul Skenes And Jackson Merrill have been neck-and-neck in the race for National League Rookie of the Year for some time. You could also interject Jackson Chouriowho was incredible in the second half. Who is the NL rookie of the year for you?

Smoltz: I'm pitcher-biased, but I'll give Merrill a slight edge. He's an everyday player who will help the Padres pull off perhaps their biggest upset and win the division. They're in the playoffs and it's going to be a tough opponent, and he contributed to that with huge late-game heroics. He was an everyday player in a league that, as we just mentioned, is very difficult to score on.

If a hitter does that as a rookie, even one as incredible as Skenes, it will probably give him a slight advantage. Skenes had a great season by all accounts. He is very deserving of the Rookie of the Year award, and he will receive Cy Young votes and win a Cy Young in the future. It will be interesting to see how the vote turns out.

Kavner: Who would you choose as AL rookie of the year?

Smoltz: That's a difficult question. I would say: Luis Gil and what he did as a pitcher in New York. The same argument could be made for Austin Wells, but I would agree with Gil just because the Yankees have been really lacking in their starting lineup for so long without Gerrit Cole. Gil provided a stability and dominance that probably surpasses the other candidates in this league, in this division.

Now, in the American League, I make the opposite argument for a pitcher than I would for a position player – especially in New York, because it's a little easier to hit and go for power in New York. But I'm going to make the counterargument in this case in the American League because Gil has been special for the New York Yankees for a long time.

Kavner: That White Sox will likely set the record for most losses in the modern MLB era. Is this the worst team you've ever seen?

Smoltz: Paying attention to the worst teams is probably not my biggest priority. But the Tigers were pretty bad in 2003. I don't know much about the 1962 Mets other than what I've seen in the record books.

When you talk about today's time in baseball – again, “I like it, I don't like it, this is kind of a model for rebuilding a franchise,” I don't think it's a good model. But this is what people are convincing their fan base: We need to shake this thing up. We need to rebuild our farm system. We will attract all possible interested parties. We will do business.

I don't think that's a good formula, but that's what we have today. So if you stick to their formula, they do a pretty good job of stripping it down to the essentials, and it's not very good. The question now becomes: Can they do what the Houston Astros did? Can they do what the Chicago Cubs did? People forget how long these franchises suffered before winning World Series championships. I think I can sell a lot of things. I think I would have a hard time selling to my fan base, “Be patient, stick with it for seven years and watch us lose, because here's the model of what we're going to end up with.”

I think every case is a little different. I don't know if I can call them the worst team ever because they have some pieces that they sold and some players that are pretty darn good. I think the future will be a little brighter in Chicago and the rebuilding won't take seven years like we've seen in other cases.

Kavner: Which team do you think has the best starting rotation in the postseason?

Smoltz: Well, my favorite will be the healthiest. It might not be the team I end up on right now. Although I could argue that they are both the same team, the Philadelphia Phillies. They have four dynamic pitchers and five really good pitchers that they have used all year. They had one or two hiccups and some of them got injured.

Of course, the Braves are no slouch, and there are certainly others you can root for. But the healthiest rotation for me right now is the Phillies'. They have a weapon at the top, the first two guys create all sorts of challenges. Zack Wheeler is the stud, and he's the guy who's been through this before. Aaron Nola found his groove again and was mechanically sound. Then you have Cristopher Sánchez, Ranger Suárez. I just think the Phillies and their experience gives them the edge in most rotations out there.

If you told me the Baltimore Orioles would stay healthy with their rotation, sign me up for it. They've just had injuries and are a shell of their former selves. You can see that teams are really suffering. The Los Angeles Dodgers would have a dynamic rotation if these guys were healthy and a shell of their former selves. The Houston Astros were, in my opinion, the most complete roster considering what their rotation could look like. Too many injuries, they haven't managed to keep anything under control.

So there will be some injuries and there will be some pitching performances from clubs that need to use 12 players to get through.

Kavner: Let's finish with two of the game's best. If you were just in a hypothetical Game 7 and had the choice to start Chris Sale or Tarik Skubalwho would you choose?

Smoltz: Wow. Tarik Skubal at the moment, just because he is younger. Chris Sale is phenomenal, but what he's doing this year, after all the injuries and not really having a complete year in a long time. I give him all the credit in the world because he's probably building on fumes at times, and maybe he's being thrown on fumes now. The guy knows how to pitch and he's definitely evil.

Now if you give me a completely healthy Sale with no problems and a completely healthy Skubal, I might have to go with Sale. But now, in my gut, after Tarik is finished, he was phenomenal. This is an incredible weapon for the Tigers right now.

John Smoltza first-ballot Baseball Hall of Famer, eight-time All-Star and National League Cy Young Award winner, is FOX MLB's lead game analyst. In addition to calling the network's major regular-season games, Smoltz is also on the stand for the All-Star Game and a full slate of postseason matchups, including appearances in the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series.

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the LA Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. Rowan, an LSU graduate, was born in California, grew up in Texas and then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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