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One of Shohei Ohtani’s MVP voters has provided an explanation.
Aaron Judge was named AL MVP on Thursday after hitting 62 home runs for the Yankees in 2022. The outfielder for the Yankees received 28 of the 30 first-place votes.
Sam Blum, a beat reporter for the Angels at The Athletic, was one of the two voters that selected Ohtani as the winner. He explained in a piece why he voted for Ohtani to win.
“Just because we all gushed over Ohtani’s breakout season in 2021 (when he was unanimous) does not mean we should take it for granted the next year. Blum observed, “The novelty may not be the same, but the reasons we were smitten with him have only been preserved or enhanced.”
Blum did not want to diminish Judge’s magnificence. However, he added that Ohtani was a top-five pitcher and hitter in the sport, surpassing the legendary Babe Ruth in both categories.
Blum stated, “Ohtani is commonly compared to Babe Ruth, the first two-way great.” “However, even Ruth, as amazing as he was in a radically different age, never had a two-way season comparable to Ohtani’s. Ruth’s closest season was 1919, when he hit 29 home runs with a 1.114 OPS and pitched 133 1/3 innings with a 2.80 ERA.
Sam Blum, an Angels beat writer for The Athletic, detailed why he voted for Shohei Ohtani as AL MVP.
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Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs in 2022 and was virtually unanimously voted AL MVP.
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Blum refuted the claim that Ohtani should be punished for the unsatisfactory performance of the Angels, who finished with a record of 73-89.
“However, the MVP award does not represent the incompetence or strength of the surrounding roster, in my opinion. “Judge should not receive bonus points for having superior colleagues,” wrote Blum. Ohtani should not be penalized for the Angels’ ongoing baseball debacle.
Shohei Ohtani is a world-class pitcher and batter.
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He finished with his guiding philosophic principle.
“It boils down to how you define value. Who is superior?” Blum asked. Who is the most remarkable? Who would you want the most on your team this season? Ohtani was the solution for me in 2022.”