“He hit at a very high level”- Writer explains reasons behind choosing Shohei Ohtani over AL MVP Aaron Judge


“He hit at a very high level”- Writer explains reasons behind choosing Shohei Ohtani over AL MVP Aaron Judge

Shohei Ohtani

Apparently, Los Angeles Angels Shohei Ohtani’s brilliant 2021 performance wasn’t enough to secure the American League trophy outclassing New York Yankees Aaron Judge. After the AL MVP shot the etched Judge’s name on MLB boards, Ohtani fell short of one scoop.

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Judge’s performance barred Ohtani from snatching his 2nd straight AL award, after taking the world by storm a season ago. According to one of his voters, ShowTime had the best season year overall, even more so than the current AL winner. 

One of the two writers who chose Ohtani over Judge was Sam Blum of The Athletic and the other was Greg Beachem of The Associated Press. Some thought Blum’s vote for Ohtani was biased as he is an Angles writer, but the latter cleared his name stating the vote had no biases going on whatsoever. 

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Sam Blum states his vote for Shohei Ohtani wasn’t based on any bias

Shohei Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani

Blum noted, “Let me first state the very basic reason I picked Ohtani to win. He hit at a very high level. He pitched at a very high level. He had the best season of all time.” “Ohtani wins the MVP award 99 times out of 100 with the season he had,”

Sam Blum further mentioned,  “Just because we all oohed and ahhed at his breakout 2021 season (when Ohtani was unanimous), does not mean we should take it for granted a year later. The novelty might not be the same, but the reasons we were enamored with him have only been maintained or improved upon.”

Though it was an “uncomfortable dynamic” to deal with bias statement after voting for one of the players, Blum said, “This vote, though, has nothing to do with bias. There’s not a single person with the Angels that would accuse me of being a homer. The opposite, far more often than not.”

While Judge got 28 out of 30 first-place votes, Ohtani got 2 first-place votes and 28 second-place votes, according to an MLB Network update released on Thursday. During an interview, Ohtani said through an interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, “I definitely think I had a better season in 2022 over ’21”. “Especially if you look at the overall season.”

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