Why Aaron Judge's MVP vs. Shohei Ohtani case doesn't even need to include Yankees records

just a week ago We’ve outlined why racing for the AL MVP may be a little closer than many thinkI didn’t take sides, but I gave Yankees slugger Aaron Judge all the reasons why Shohei Ohtani shouldn’t be fired outright. The biggest objection I got from the pro-judge people was usually comparing the two teams whose players wore the suits. , Ohtani can’t be as “worthy” a player as Judge.

It’s incredibly frustrating. we can do better. There is a strong case that Aaron Judge should win his MVP that doesn’t include “his teammate is better than Ohtani’s”.

To reiterate some of the points from last week, a million times (this may not even be an exaggeration) have given me my thoughts on people who rely heavily on team performance for individual awards in baseball. Below:

This is not basketball. One player can dominate the ball offensively on every possession, then guard the other team’s best player on every defensive possession. There are limits to what one baseball player can do. He can only hit once for each of his nine spots in the lineup, and sometimes he can only hit three times in a game. Usually, it’s his four times a game, and his share of offensive “possessions” is rarely enough to properly move the needle each night for a bad team. In defense, play can only be affected when the ball is hit in a specific spot. For an outfielder like Judge, it can be zero innings during a game. When it comes to pitching, a player still only affects one side of the game, and that’s just once in five games if he’s a starting pitcher.

All this to repeat a mantra we’ve been using here for years. Baseball is an individual sport disguised as a team game. It’s a series of individual battles. A single player cannot actually “carry” a team.

Many translated this as “Matt will vote for Ohtani” or even “Matt hates the Yankees.”

Conversely.

I vote for judges. I’m just sick of bad arguments. A team’s performance has nothing to do with a judge being a worthy MVP. Individual prize. As an individual, he more than deserves it.

One of my colleagues recently told me, “It’s going to take a historically great season to beat Ohtani, and well…”

yes.

It’s not just that the judges are leading in many categories or have countless numbers. he’s rapping the competition.

Home runs are and should be headlines. Judges said he had a score of 57 heading into Thursday and could very well be the first player since 1961 to reach the top 60 without a cloud of doubt about PED. In light of this, I’ve heard a lot about it).

Perhaps even more impressive is how much the judges crush everyone, although they actually say something. No other player has hit 50 home runs. Kyle Schwarber is the leader in the NL with his 37 home runs. In the AL, Mike Trout has his 35th and he is second.

No other run of 60 home runs since Babe Ruth came in tandem. Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa had each other. Sosa hit his 64th as Barry Bonds hit his 73rd. Just as Mickey Mantle hit his 54th home run, Roger Maris’s 61st home run season was part of his M&M Boys. I saw David Ortiz hit his 54.

For the last two seasons, Babe Ruth is usually cited in MVP discussions due to his two-way prowess with Ohtani, but this time he’s a judge. Ruth was the last time a hitter saw a home run dwarf the field like this. No player has had his lead over 20 home runs since Ruth finished with his 54 in 1928. Huck Wilson and Jim Bottomley finished tied for the NL lead with 31 (Lou Gehrig had 27 and he was second in the AL).

That’s how you turn the argument upside down, right? judge Now, for the first time since Ruth, I’m doing something.

Given that a home run is the only best a hitter can do at bat, perhaps stop here and have a case for the judges.

But there’s a lot more than home runs.

Rangers’ Marcus Semien is second in the AL with 90 points. The judges said he scored 117 points.

Beau Bichet is currently second with 278 bases and the judges have a ridiculous 353. He leads with his 80 base hits (José Ramirez is second with his 72 base hits).

Judges leads the league in time on base thanks to sitting fifth in hits despite leading in bases.

Speaking of on-base percentage, Judge leads the league in on-base percentage (.413). He’s completely destroying the field with his slugging percentage (.688 vs. Jordan his .598 qualifier for Alvarez) and his OPS (1.102 vs. his 1.000 for Alvarez). OPS+, yes for the judges he’s 208 vs Alvarez’s 182 and he’ll need to go back up to 152 to find 3rd place.

OBP and slugging percentage are much more important than batting average, especially when used in combination. This is because it gives us better context regarding the performance of individual hitters. Still, the argument many older students use that most of us no longer care about batting average is exaggerated.

On that front, Judge Average is also currently in the spotlight. 310, he sits tied for third in his AL (leading by Luis Araez in .320). Hitting a lot of home runs and averaging this high is a huge accomplishment.

The Yankees, which airs on YES, have trivia about each game, and on Tuesday, they had questions like: When was the last time a player hit at least 50 homers and was in the top 5 in the league for batting average Luis in 2001 batting . increase. Funny enough, that average put him only 10th in his NL that season. It could lead the majors this year. Either way, the answer was George Foster, who in 1977 hit . 320 with 52 home runs.

Judge has hit more than 60 home runs, and the batting title is close at hand. No one has done both. Even if he gets a little shy in the batting titles department, check out that trivia question.

Of course this leads well triple crown story.

I skipped the RBI above so you can loop here. The judges also have a big lead here, 123 to Ramirez’s 111. In the AL he has to go back to 96 to find Kyle his Tucker to get 3rd place.

The judges are going to lead the league in home runs. He could very well lead in RBI and win the batting average title. Since 1967, the only Triple Crown we’ve seen is Miguel Cabrera’s his 2012 season, when he won his MVP.

As mentioned earlier, there is something to be said for the historical aspect of Judge’s season by comparing Judge and Ohtani. Triple crown with 60 or more home runs? This has never happened before.

If that doesn’t convince you, let’s just say Judge is the best player in baseball.

As I said last week, when discussing Ohtani, you have to take into account how much he can help you both pitching and offensively. To explain this, the difference between Judge’s offense and Ohtani’s offense should be quite large. If you put their aggressive numbers side by side, you’ll see that it’s really huge.

Judges lead the league in home runs, RBI, runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+, wRC+, total bases, on-bases, walks, intentional walks, and slugging.

He also leads in extra win percentage. If you want to talk about how your players have been in the clutch and helped your team win, this stat is for you. If you would like a more detailed explanation, I’ve covered it beforeIt’s basically how much a hitter has impacted a team’s chances of winning or losing over the course of the season. Judge is 7.1. His second in the AL is Trout, who has a 4.2, and third is Alvarez, who has a 3.8, and no other player has more than a 3.5. Another blow.

Oh, and the judges are leading in WAR too. Yes, even looping in Ohtani’s batting and base-running – Speaking of which, did you know Judge steals more bases on fewer attempts than Ohtani? The two positions are:

Baseball Reference:

Fun graph:

Considering the historic nature of the season, plus his huge lead in home runs, RBI, and sizable leads in several other categories like the WPA, Judge’s MVP merit is just that. It seems to stand on its own. No need to loop on his teammates to prove it.

Ignore standings, teammates, and other noise. This is the only required argument.

Aaron Judge is baseball’s most valuable player in 2022 because he is the best player in baseball.