Al mvp

[Frank A]

AL MVP!! I know Judge had a terrific year, but I can't quite see him as the MVP. My pick is Ohtani, Look at his stats. HITTING, BA 273, HR 34, RBI's 95, Hits 160, Base on balls 72. PITCHING, 15 wins, 9 loses, era 2.33, Earned runs allowed 43, K's 219 in 166 innings, games pitched, 28. I really can't see how anyone can compare even close to him. Your thoughts. Frank

[Tyruscobb]

I vote Judge. He was just 5 points from winning the triple crown, and broke the AL home run record.

[Peter_Spaeth]

I understand the case for Ohtani, but I don't understand how anyone cannot quite see Judge as MVP given the unreal year he has had. I think Judge will win easily due to the record.

[Kutcher55]

Judge. His team made the playoffs. Putting aside all the other reasons.

[oldjudge]

Otani is a great player on a losing team. How “valuable” was he. If the Angels didn’t have him they still would have missed the playoffs. In fact, they may have been better off without him as they would have had a worse record and thus a higher draft pick. Without Judge the Yankees almost surely don’t win the division and might not even make the playoffs. Also, just looking at absolute performance Judge’s WAR was 1.9 points higher than Otani’s. I think Judge will win almost unanimously.

[Shoeless Moe]

Judge no brainer.

Ohana also gets points taken off for resigning with that minor league franchise.

[G1911]

Judge will win easily and I would probably vote for him.

I am not convinced that he actually had more value than Ohtani though.

211 OPS+ vs a 145 OPS+ and being one of the best pitchers in baseball and an ERA+ of 172.

Is Judge really better than a star hitter who is also one of the best pitchers? I can see it either way, they have to be close.

[packs]

Ohtani is Ohtani. If your criteria for the MVP season in and season out is that Ohtani pitched and hit above average, then there's no need to talk about MVPs. You'll award it to him every year for having largely the same season.

You may also start advocating for Wes Ferrell to be enshrined too. The guy won 20 games 6 times and finished his career with a 280 average. He didn't win a single MVP during his career. Not even when he hit 347 and led the league in wins.

Judge hit 62 home runs. His OPS+ is 211. He scored 130 runs. His season was out of this world. He kept the Yankees atop the AL East almost single handedly at times. He is a lot more valuable to the Yankees than Ohtani was to the Angels, who would have had the same season with or without him.

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by G1911

Judge will win easily and I would probably vote for him.

I am not convinced that he actually had more value than Ohtani though.

211 OPS+ vs a 145 OPS+ and being one of the best pitchers in baseball and an ERA+ of 172.

Is Judge really better than a star hitter who is also one of the best pitchers? I can see it either way, they have to be close.

Agreed. Ohtani's numbers are unreal. He'll probably finish 2nd in Cy Young and would finish with MVP votes if he never threw an inning given those offensive numbers. But he did win last year, and I believe there's a slight bias against back-to-back awards. Judge's numbers are also certainly MVP worthy though.

It is interesting to imagine what the sentiment would be if those players put up the exact same numbers but played for each other's teams. I would expect the Yankees to still make the playoffs and likely win the division comfortably and also expect that the Angels would miss the playoffs, 62 HRs etc notwithstanding.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I understand the case for Ohtani, but I don't understand how anyone cannot quite see Judge as MVP given the unreal year he has had. I think Judge will win easily due to the record.

+1 well said