MVP*

So, Shohei Ohtani and Bryce Harper won the MVP Award in their respective leagues. Without casting too many aspersions, if these two are the cream of the crop, I’d hate to see the mere mortals who play the game. The thing is, they’re not the best, not if stats count as much as sabermetrics. Ten hitters had more than Ohtani’s 100 RBIs, topped by Salvador Perez with 121. My vote would’ve gone to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who hit .311 with 48 homeruns; 123 runs scored; and 111 RBIs. Compare that to .257; 46; 103; and 100 for Ohtani. Not only did Guerrero put up better numbers, those numbers counted for something, with the Blue Jays missing the playoffs by all of one game. Ohtani’s Angels went 77-85, textbook also-rans. But Guerrero didn’t post a 9-2 record on the mound, and the voters must’ve been impressed with Ohtani for doing that. I saw it as more of a sideshow. Harper is another headscratcher. How do 84 RBIs and 101 runs scored translate into a most valuable player? Juan Soto and Austin Riley both had more of each. Or take Freddie Freeman, with his 120 runs scored to go with 83 RBIs. Oh, and his team won the World Series while Harper’s Phillies faded down the stretch. But Harper had a league-leading 1.044 OPS, like that mattered. If adding on-base and slugging percentage leads to a magic number, then Guerrero should be the AL MVP with a second-best in baseball OPS of 1.002. Go figure. I can’t.