Judge or Raleigh for MVP?

[packs]

Ted’s best season was 1946 when he led the league in runs, walks, batting average, OPS, OPS+, and total bases but not home runs or RBI’s. He won MVP with an OPS+ of 215.

Sound familiar?

Judge also became only the fourth player and really only the second player to Babe Ruth to have four 50 homer seasons this year. He is the MVP.

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by packs

Ted’s best season was 1946 when he led the league in runs, walks, batting average, OPS, OPS+, and total bases but not home runs or RBI’s. He won MVP with an OPS+ of 215.

Sound familiar?

Judge also became only the fourth player and really only the second player to Babe Ruth to have four 50 homer seasons this year. He is the MVP.

Well I see you don’t really offer an argument as to why Teddy Ballgame failed to win the MVP in 1941. I believe the answer is because the voters believed someone else had a more special season, and did something that had not been done before that year.

As for Ted’s best season, in 1941 he topped the A.L. in every category you just listed for 1946 except total bases, PLUS HRs AND B.A. (he did not win B.A. in 1946), in addition to reaching the magical .400 mark. He also had better OPS, OPS+ and Offensive War in 1941 than he did in 1946. So I cannot agree that ‘46 was better than ‘41 where again he did not win. The reason he won the MVP in 1946? In large part because no one else stood out as having done something unprecedented that season to top Ted's raw numbers. Unlike this year, when a catcher hit more HRs than ever before (by 7) and reached the esteemed 60 total HR mark.

As for Judge hitting 50 Hrs for the fourth time, good for him, but MVP is about this season only, so your reference is of marginal value at most.

Vote Raleigh.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Judge's WAR is 2.5 higher. There's really nothing to discuss here, although of course Raleigh is the hip/cool/contrarian/anti Yankee choice.

[bk400]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Judge's WAR is 2.5 higher. There's really nothing to discuss here, although of course Raleigh is the hip/cool/contrarian/anti Yankee choice.

Depends on which WAR. If you use fWAR, which apparently captures catcher framing, Cal is only 1.0 win behind Judge and only 0.3 behind Ohtani.

The fact that different versions of WAR can yield such different results leads me to believe that WAR shouldn't be the be all and end all, particularly if you are a journalist who actually watches the game, as opposed to being the proverbial 400-pound guy in New Jersey who sits at his computer and just models the game in a statistical vacuum.

How many people can actually explain the components of a WAR calculation in any level of detail?

I was actually thinking that catchers may not get enough of a premium -- don't they have to prepare for opposing hitters in a way that is analogous to how starting pitchers need to prepare for opposing hitters? Doesn't that, plus the obvious physical and mental demands of the position, make them more akin to pitchers than to, say, right fielders?

[rand1com]

Raleigh is a good story. Judge is the MVP. Not even close!

[SyrNy1960]

Originally Posted by rand1com

Raleigh is a good story. Judge is the MVP. Not even close!

Agree!