Either Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani will take home the American League MVP award, with no close third place finish.
The fate of the awards rests in the hands of the 30 voters — two representatives from each American League city — who completed and mailed in their ballots on Wednesday. The winner will be announced next month.
It’s almost impossible to decide who should win.
Judge broke Roger Maris’ record for most home runs in a season, hitting his 62nd on Tuesday night. is the true greatest leader of all time.
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Oh, and he also has on-base percentage (.427), slugging percentage (.686), RBIs (131), runs scored (133), total bases (391) and OPS+ (211). His 111 walks were American’s leading in his league, and his . 311 batting average was 5 points behind Lewis of Minnesota, who put him in second place.
But Ohtani is still a unicorn. Not only is he “Japanese Babe Ruth”, he’s doing what Ruth couldn’t even achieve.
This season, Ohtani became the first player to qualify for the MLB hitters and pitchers leaderboard.
That in itself is incredible and he is elite at both.
His 2.33 ERA was the sixth-lowest in all of baseball, and his 11.9 K/9 was the best mark in the majors.
He also had a .273/.356/.519 slashline with 34 homers and 95 RBIs.
Ohtani’s OPS is higher than Mookie Betts, Pete Alonso and Juan Soto, and his ERA is better than Max Freed, 2020 AL Cy Young winner Shane Bieber, and defending NL Cy Young winner. Lower than Corbyn Burns.
The vote is down to which of the 30 voters thinks they are more impressive, and both players can be easily debated.
Of course, the term “most valuable” has another definition. Today, there’s a lot in the camp that if Ohtani does both well, he should be MVP every year.
Or are you the best player on the best team? Are you the player with the highest WAR? Is it simply the player with the best raw numbers? It seems to change every year.
MVP awards rarely go to players on bad teams. However, a player’s value is not scaled by team skill or deficiencies.
Indeed, without Aaron Judge, the Yankees probably wouldn’t make it to the postseason. The Angels missed the postseason. But what else could Ohtani have done? He certainly did his job…or did his job. Blame it on his 24 other Angels not named Mike Trout. This is not basketball where one player can be solely responsible for the long-term success of a team. No one has more impact on the game when riding bumps than Ohtani.
Aaron Judge deserves a better MVP than Shohei Ohtani and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.To tell
Case in point: On July 15th, the Yankees owned the best baseball record at 62-28. 950 OPS, hitting . But that was far from what he ended up with.
From August 2nd to September 3rd, the Yankees went 9-20 with .283 Judges and 1.063 OPS. He put up better numbers, but the Yankees were the worst team in the league in that stretch.For context, from June 18 to July 15 he was .179/.264/.411. but the Yankees went 13-12. Not great, but they survived. How?
Well, the Yankees had the best rotation and bullpen in baseball, with Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Trevino being All-Stars, Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres definitely deprived of their All-Star berths, and Matt Carpenter being the greatest player of all time. But in August, Torres was one of the worst players in baseball, and injuries to the likes of Stanton, Rizzo, Carpenter, and DJ Lemahieu pushed the Triple-A lineup behind the judges. It was
Now let’s take a look at the Angels, where Trout and Ohtani were mostly batting in the top three for the year. His 4-9 hitter for the Angels had the worst total OPS in baseball (.609) and his second-worst average in a season (.213).
Indeed, the Angels only won 73 games. But without Ohtani and Trout, we would have been lucky to have 60 wins.
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Likewise, if the judges weren’t in the lineup, how many games would the Yankees win in August instead of just eight? But if you think it should be given to “the best player on the best team,” ask yourself who would he be MVP if Judge and Ohtani swapped teams?
Voters should vote for who they think is the most valuable player, not the best player on the best team. In that case, perhaps Houston’s Jordan Alvarez, Jose Altuve and Justin Verlander should be considered. He’s not the man with the best WAR – Judges said he had a higher WAR in 2017 but lost to Altuve, the best player on the best team that year.
But what is more valuable?
There are no wrong answers.
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Note that they can be tied. They could split his first place vote of his 15 votes. This is the first time two players share his MVP since Willie Stargell and Keith Hernandez in 1979.
Thirty will come down to what they consider to be more impressive and worthy: arguably the cleanest offensive season in baseball history, or one that has never been played on the mound and at bat, and likely to be replicated. there is no.