American League MVP

[atk825]

Originally Posted by pete2345

Judge and its not close that roadside attraction ohtani got his lucky MVP last season.

Nothing says roadside attraction quite like repeating the elite performance.

[Bcr]

Originally Posted by BabaORiley

Top 25 batter in the AL? He's Top-7 or better in the AL in OPS, OPS+, wRC, HR, RBI. I'd say he's objectively a top-10 AL hitter.

I was going off of his WAR on Fangraphs, but I don't disagree.

[pete2345]

Originally Posted by atk825

Nothing says roadside attraction quite like repeating the elite performance.

Will he be playing in the postseason?

[imbluestreak23]

To me I think it's Judge right now, but it's so hard to argue if Ohtani finishes top 3 in AL HR, and top 7-8 in OPS. He's not there yet, and has work to do, but a top 7-8 hitter with his pitching #s, that value is hard to beat. OPS for the final 34 games needs to be 900+ to finish strong.

[rman112]

Originally Posted by imbluestreak23

To me I think it's Judge right now, but it's so hard to argue if Ohtani finishes top 3 in AL HR, and top 7-8 in OPS. He's not there yet, and has work to do, but a top 7-8 hitter with his pitching #s, that value is hard to beat. OPS for the final 34 games needs to be 900+ to finish strong.

I think pitching is where Ohtani will need to make his mark. He's not going to touch Judge offensively, but a few more outings like he had the other day and things get REALLY interesting.

[majestik101]

It's Judge's to lose.

[Trueblue]

Originally Posted by pete2345

Judge and its not close that roadside attraction ohtani got his lucky MVP last season.

Screams insecure. Nothing wrong with two great players competing.

[rngrdanny22]

Originally Posted by Trueblue

Screams insecure. Nothing wrong with two great players competing.

TrueBlue, meet Pete.

Pete, TrueBlue.

[imbluestreak23]

Pete didn't like Patty either. Repulsed by greatness.

[atk825]

Originally Posted by pete2345

Will he be playing in the postseason?

It’s a regular season award. The postseason has nothing to do with MVP

[johnlocke36]

Originally Posted by Trueblue

Yes, clearly. What about the extra roster spot? If your belief is that it adds no value, then fair enough.

This is actually an interesting question because of how bad the angels are (17 position players with a negative war) and you could actually make the hilarious argument that adding an extra roster spot for say Joe Adell is worth - WAR because now Joe Adell is in the majors.

Hard to go wrong for either guy, the real travesty will be if any other player gets a 2nd place vote and these 2 just so far ahead of ramirez or whomever

[Skipscards]

Originally Posted by Trueblue

Trout doesn't play two ways. Bill James was not factoring or even thinking about a two-way player when he invented the metric. I'm not saying it sways the argument either way, but it's not that straight forward.

Bill James didn’t invent WAR; Sean Smith did (Keith Woolner technically created it’s precursor VORP) and Tom Tango gave us the current base model. In fact, Bill frequently questions it. But WAR’s creation was absolutely designed to account for pitching and hitting (and defense for that matter). Ohtani is not the first player to pitch well and hit well… Babe Ruth, Wes Ferrell, Rick Ankiel, etc. When any value metric is created, one of the first things you do is see how it measures Ruth.

[Shadowsonic2004]

Originally Posted by rngrdanny22

Truthfully, I think he has to break the AL record, so 62+. That milestone would absolutely guarantee it.

This is my thinking too. I'll agree on they like to spread things around sometimes but I don't think they'd have any issues with Ohtani winning back to back years with how he has played. Judge is a great story and I hope he does break the record but if he doesn't the story finish isn't a happy ending.

[Raleigh504]

It also hurts Judge that the Yankees have slipped a bit. If they were still dominating and leading the league in the win column then it would be hard to vote against Judge. Voters could easily say that he is leading his team to victory. But it will be much closer now and especially if he doesn't hit 60+ HR

[BostonNut]

Hopefully Judge's power shoulder holds up.

[spuds1961]

Originally Posted by BostonNut

Hopefully Judge's power shoulder holds up.

Old useless joke, maybe Devers can get back in the mvp race.

[cnewby]

Originally Posted by spuds1961

Old useless joke, maybe Devers can get back in the mvp race.

That's true. Clearly you can be in the race even on a crap team.

[Chris Lyle]

Call me a homer but not sure why JRam doesn't get more attention for MVP.

[spuds1961]

Originally Posted by Chris Lyle

Call me a homer but not sure why JRam doesn't get more attention for MVP.

His stats are definitely worthy but playing in Cleveland hurts him from being recognized, they are the most under the radar first in their division team in Major League Baseball.

[k13]

Originally Posted by rngrdanny22

I still think unless Judge gets to 60+, it's Ohtani.

Are you dreaming?
Have you seen the odds?

[k13]

Judge is -800 to win.

[oldgoldy97]

I’d love for LA to get rid of Trout and Ohtani and then win the WS.

Kind of like what Washington did with Harper.

[Hollywood42]

Ohtani has been every bit as good as he was last year. Perhaps slightly lesser offensively, but has taken a step forward on the mound. I simply don't see how shouldn't win MVP in a landslide every single year as long as he continues to be a great player on both sides of the ball. It literally shouldn't matter what any other player does until someone else that plays both ways at a high level comes along

That's taking absolutely nothing away from Judge. He's having a historic season and has been the best hitter in the AL. But Ohtani is what, top 10 minimum best hitter in the AL this year? AND a top 5 pitcher in the AL? Pfft. It should be another blowout

It feels like we (in general) are already losing sight of how absolutely incredible it is that Ohtani is able to do what he does, and emblematic of society's tendency to so quickly move on to the next thing. I wouldn't be surprised if Judge won - Chasing 60/Maris, leading what has been perhaps the best team in baseball, New York bias. He has the headlines and attention, while Ohtani wastes away on the inept Angels, and he just had his big nationwide spotlight last year. But I also wouldn't be surprised if Ohtani wins in a blowout. The storyline last year was all about how unprecedented what Ohtani did was. And he follows that up with another season that's been just as good? Why should this year be any different?

[rman112]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

Ohtani has been every bit as good as he was last year. Perhaps slightly lesser offensively, but has taken a step forward on the mound. I simply don't see how shouldn't win MVP in a landslide every single year as long as he continues to be a great player on both sides of the ball. It literally shouldn't matter what any other player does until someone else that plays both ways at a high level comes along

That's taking absolutely nothing away from Judge. He's having a historic season and has been the best hitter in the AL. But Ohtani is what, top 10 minimum best hitter in the AL this year? AND a top 5 pitcher in the AL? Pfft. It should be another blowout

It feels like we (in general) are already losing sight of how absolutely incredible it is that Ohtani is able to do what he does, and emblematic of society's tendency to so quickly move on to the next thing. I wouldn't be surprised if Judge won - Chasing 60/Maris, leading what has been perhaps the best team in baseball, New York bias. He has the headlines and attention, while Ohtani wastes away on the inept Angels, and he just had his big nationwide spotlight last year. But I also wouldn't be surprised if Ohtani wins in a blowout. The storyline last year was all about how unprecedented what Ohtani did was. And he follows that up with another season that's been just as good? Why should this year be any different?

Well, Judge has already pretty much outperformed Guerrero last year, for starters. And there's like 7 weeks left in the season. And Judge was ahead of Ohtan's entire 2021 in WAR before 2 bad games.

[Chris Lyle]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

Ohtani has been every bit as good as he was last year. Perhaps slightly lesser offensively, but has taken a step forward on the mound. I simply don't see how shouldn't win MVP in a landslide every single year as long as he continues to be a great player on both sides of the ball. It literally shouldn't matter what any other player does until someone else that plays both ways at a high level comes along

That's taking absolutely nothing away from Judge. He's having a historic season and has been the best hitter in the AL. But Ohtani is what, top 10 minimum best hitter in the AL this year? AND a top 5 pitcher in the AL? Pfft. It should be another blowout

It feels like we (in general) are already losing sight of how absolutely incredible it is that Ohtani is able to do what he does, and emblematic of society's tendency to so quickly move on to the next thing. I wouldn't be surprised if Judge won - Chasing 60/Maris, leading what has been perhaps the best team in baseball, New York bias. He has the headlines and attention, while Ohtani wastes away on the inept Angels, and he just had his big nationwide spotlight last year. But I also wouldn't be surprised if Ohtani wins in a blowout. The storyline last year was all about how unprecedented what Ohtani did was. And he follows that up with another season that's been just as good? Why should this year be any different?

Ohtani is a generational talent no doubt but to say that a 2 way player has to come along and top him or he should basically be handed the MVP is a stretch.