Back in June, MLBTR conducted a pair of polls checking the temperature on the two MVP races, and both polls saw the league’s reigning MVP earn a dominating majority. Aaron Judge pulled in 55% of the vote in the American League poll, while Shohei Ohtani did even better as he commanded 57% of the vote in the National League’s poll. Since then, Ohtani has broken away from the pack in the NL as he’s more fully resumed two-way duties. While other players like Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Pete Crow-Armstrong have put together excellent seasons of their own in the NL, it’s hard to see that race as anything other than Ohtani’s to lose headed into the final month of the season.
By contrast, the AL MVP race has tightened considerably over the past two months. A big part of that is the fact that Judge hasn’t looked like his usual superhuman self lately. The 33-year-old is still slashing an absurd .323/.439/.667 (193 wRC+), a figure that leads the majors by a substantial margin. However, Judge’s numbers have come down quite a bit in the past two months. Since the day our last AL MVP poll was published, Judge has hit “just” .240/.385/.540 with 12 homers and a 26% strikeout rate in 192 trips to the plate.
That lack of volume is thanks to a flexor strain in Judge’s elbow that sent him to the injured list for a minimum stint a few weeks ago, and his .210/.380/.403 slash line since returning from the injured list only underscores that he’s not playing at full strength. He’s also been relegated to a DH-only role for the month of August and has no timetable for his return to the outfield, though he’s already begun making throws to the infield in pregame workouts.
Of course, Judge looking mortal for a month or so wouldn’t be terribly noteworthy without someone mounting a substantial challenge for his league’s MVP award. Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is doing exactly that. Raleigh’s phenomenal season has earned him plenty of attention all year, but he’s only garnered more attention as an MVP candidate in the weeks since Judge’s injury. Interestingly, Raleigh’s offensive numbers have slumped a bit right alongside Judge. While he was slashing .278/.383/.665 at the time of our last AL MVP poll, he’s hit a less robust .204/.311/.498 in 235 plate appearances since then. That includes a .202/.302/.524 slash line in August that isn’t all that far ahead of Judge’s numbers.
Even with the pair both cooling at the plate, Raleigh has still been playing catcher regularly and hasn’t missed time on the IL like Judge has. Raleigh, who secured just 37% of the vote in our last poll, now has eight more games played and 31 more plate appearances than Judge. It’s a small gap, but in a close race, an increased defensive workload and slight lead in terms of overall volume could be key differentiators.
There’s also the factor of history to be considered. Judge managed to surpass Ohtani in the 2022 AL MVP race in part because he set the AL home run record that season. Raleigh would need to hit 13 homers before the end of the season in order to take the title of AL home run king away from Judge, but his prodigious power has already secured him one piece of history that Judge has no hope of taking away: last night, he became the first catcher in MLB history to slug 50 homers in a season. All of that comes together to make Raleigh a legitimate contender for the award alongside Judge, and the fact that the pair are tied at the top of the MLB leaderboard with 7.3 fWAR a piece only further speaks to the viability of both candidates.
Few players in the AL have a realistic shot of challenging these two titans, but one player who could make an interesting case for himself with a strong September would be Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who finished second for the award behind Judge last year. Witt only received token consideration for the award in our last poll, garnering just 2.3% of the vote two months ago. Since then, however, he’s outperformed both Judge and Raleigh with a .313/.370/.524 slash line, a 13-for-14 record on the bases, and defense at shortstop that should make him a lock for his second consecutive Gold Glove award at the position. Witt’s 6.5 fWAR and 130 wRC+ both substantially trail Judge and Raleigh at this point, but if those two continue trending downward while Witt continues trending up, it’s at least possible that we could be in for a three-horse race.
Who do MLBTR readers think will ultimately win this year’s AL MVP award? Will Judge hold onto the title for the second year in a row? Will Raleigh’s historic season behind the plate be enough? Could Witt’s second-half surge be enough to overcome both of them? Have your say in the poll below:
Still inclined to believe it will be Judge.
It should be. He’s clearly the best player.
Clearly the best *hitter
His WAR is higher than any other players, so clearly the best player.
WAR isn’t everything. Batting average is the only reason Judges offensive WAR is more than Raleigh’s. Raleigh has been more productive otherwise. Raleigh is an elite catcher.
WAR contains everything.
This was posted down below. Its Judge’s rankings on offense.
OPS – #1
OPS+ – #1 (34% better than Raleigh)
wRC+ – #1 (34% better than Raleigh)
Batting Wins – #1
BA – #1
OBP – #1
wOBA – #1 (55 points better than Raleigh)
SLG – #1
oWAR – #1
Judge is better on offense than Raleigh. The only thing Raleigh has done better is hit HR. Even more HR has not been enough to push his SLG% higher than Judge’s.
Thanks for cutting and pasting part of my post. lol
No doubt it will be Judge.
Still a month to go and if Raleigh breaks Judge’s HR record he probably will win. From production to date its obviously Judge. I think fans are tired of him winning, but he is just that much better than anyone else in the Al today.
It is still Judge at this point. Witt Jr and Seager definitely deserve to be in the conversation too.
A guy batting 240 something will never be MVP. Baseball writers still value batting average.
Is there an argument to say Shohei only hit 257 in 2021? Or is the counter that he pitched too? ….which I would counter this is a catcher up for nomination.
I think judge gets it still but Raleigh is having a historic season for a catcher.
As a switch hitting catcher, Raleigh, you would hope, gets the nod for what he’s doing; however, he’s still got a month left and what he’s gained during Judge’s injured period may not be enough if Judge gets back to it.
At most other positions I would have no problem placing a certain amount of importance (not excessively so, but not zero either) on batting average. But at an absolutely premium position like catcher, if you’re doing literally everything else at an elite level I can look the other way on a lackluster batting average. I think yes you could also say the same for Ohtani in ’21 given he was also pitching and pitching at a high level, not just only hitting.
Well said.
Probably right…banging away on their typewriters, wearing ascots and powdered wigs.
“Duly noted.” – cloud in the sky
Yet every hitting metric favors Judge. Wompwomp
And sadly… MVP… most valuable “player”, not hitter.
Cal calls a great game hardly a shake off from pitchers. Blocks really good and is good throwing out runners. Even though I think this stat is BS but he frames very well. As an ump framing was dumb because I didn’t pay attention to where the ball was caught. I didn’t pay attention if he caught the ball or not. If they drop a close ball it wasn’t a strike. Some coaches would get mad if you called a strike and his catcher dropped the ball. Anyway back to the show Cal is playing a premium position and getting beat up. It is more physically demanding than any other spot. He also has to have meetings with the pitchers to go over game plan then go over his notes on pitchers for both sides of the plate. Sometimes you need to put down your pacifier (SABR stats) and watch the game. Positions need to have more weight added to them because of what you do. Catching and DHing some is much harder than playing RF which is easier than CF so he should get nicked for that. Going to an easier position to take some of the workload off him needs to be added into the mix. The problem is people that think Judge will win will rarely change their mind.
6.9 WAR vs 5.9 WAR for 2nd best. That includes offense and defense.
And Judge is more valuable. Its ok you’ll get over it eventually
Old school baseball writers also love offense from a “hard” position. Raleigh will get bonus points for being a catcher.
Many baseball writers value batting average appropriately – in other words, not particularly highly.
@Digglin I tend to agree, but Judge is hitting about .150 in the second half.
mrkinsm,
Judge is hitting .210 in August and .250 since July 1. He also has an OPS around
900 since July 1.
Since the ASB (the beginning of the 2nd half) he’s hitting .195-.349-.402. Not quite .150 but terrible none the less.
The amount of work a catcher has to put in defensively is taxing enough, but to put up that kind of pop on top and break the record for most homers by a catcher is enough for me to give him the vote. Not saying Judge isn’t worthy.
A catcher, chasing down the AL HR record, withing striking distance with still a week to go in August. If Raleigh can make it to 60 and certainly 62, there is nothing Judge can do to beat him.
I think what Cal is doing, over the course of a full season, is more impressive than Judge. In a day and age where you take whatever you can take offensively from a catcher, this guy is rewriting the history books.
Now if Cal was say a 1B and putting up these offensive numbers, different story.
1st base is a hitters position, right field is a hitters position, catcher is arguably the hardest position to play well defensively and hit
Catcher is made for guys like Austin hedges
Judge is the best player in baseball, but this year belongs to Cal.
Best “regular season” player like Peyton Manning often was in football. Not postseason when facing the best SPs and bullpen arms. Lot of players better than Judge in primetime.
Judge has a .768 OPS in the post season which places him in top 25 among players with at least 100 postseason AB.
There aren’t a ton of current players racking up 100 playoff ABs. If you think he’s stepping up, that is fine, but cherry picking qualifiers like that to make it seem all is well. 2018 short playoff run was his 1 really good showing-just saying he needs to much closer resemble his regular season form.
According to Baseball Reference there are 281 players with 100 or more postseason AB and all of them played on exceptional teams to get that many playoff AB. Top 25 in that group is rarefied air. Among the 31 active players with 100 postseason AB, Judge is #6 in OPS.
Regular season is what counts, not small sample sizes like the postseason. If all that counted was the postseason, Clayton Kershaw would not be a 1st ballot, sure thing HOFer and Ted Williams would not be in the HOF at all, yet those are two that are in the pantheon of all Time greats.
Pads Fan with the numbers. Thanks.
If judge doesn’t get back to first half Judge then Cal will win the award. Otherwise it’s Judges to lose
Most valuable is hard to quantify in the great game of baseball because as we know, baseball ts a team sport built around some individual accomplishments of certain players we call superstars. I would probably pick Cal since imo he is a big reason why the long suffering mariners are in the race.
Valuable in what way?
To me it has to go hand in hand with an accomplished team. Because even if a guy hit 100 home runs, if his team misses the playoffs how valuable was that? Now I’m okay with once in a while considering an exception if a guy from a non-playoff team really goes nuclear and stood head and shoulders above the other MVP contenders. That happens in playoff fields sometimes too. But most playoff MVPs come from teams that win. So should regular season MVPs.
Going from there, my preference would be “whose performance was the most irreplaceable in getting his team to October?” Judge, Raleigh, and Witt obviously belong in this conversation.. In this season it’s hard to say who else. I think Jeremy Pena and Jose Ramirez deserve some down-ballot love for putting their respective teams on their backs this year. But essential as they’ve been to their squads their numbers are not even close to what Judge and Raleigh have been doing so they can’t be in serious contention to actually win the award. Can probably say the same for Vladdy and Springer on the Blue Jays. They have both been very good and their team has been very good, but they are just not on the same level right now.
TLDR I think it’s pretty tough to argue that anyone has been snubbed from this MVP race. Just as no team has run away from the pack in the standings, no player has really forced his way into the conversation here as of yet. Maybe Witt can make this a tougher conversation if he has a very strong stretch run while the other two don’t manage to rediscover their top gears.
Dirty: Having to be on a PO team to be considered for MVP doesn’t make sense. If a guy like judge has a great year but his team misses the PO, would you not vote for him for MVP? Samé with Raleigh. It’s rare that one player can get the team to the PO.
Depends on how great. Like I said, I can’t say never. If there’s a case where there’s a guy who was orders of magnitude more dominant than everyone else in the league, then no, in that instance I would not hold it against him if his team was bad.
But if we are talking about guys with a pretty similar dispersion of value, I don’t see how you cannot take playoff qualification into account. If one guy is worth 7 WAR on a team that makes the playoffs and another guy is worth 7.5 or 8 on a team that won 80 games, how valuable really was the second guy? If the goal of baseball is to win baseball games, the guy who was instrumental in leading his team to the playoffs is more valuable than a guy who didn’t, and that ought to count for something.
No one player can get a team to the playoffs alone, it takes a 40 man roster and sometimes more. Look at Trout in 2016 and Ohtani in 2023 with the Angels. Historic years on 4th place teams with losing records. No one disputes that they were the most valuable players in those season.
A great player on a bad team was still valuable. A 9-10 WAR on a 4th or 5th place finishing team like Trout in 2016 or Ohtani in 2023 still equals the most valuable player.
Wins are a TEAM stat. Value is based on individual performance.
I didn’t say that guy is *not* valuable, but is he is he the *most* valuable if his performance was all for naught? At least 90% of the time, the answer is no.
Ran out of time editing my comment, but to add:
1. You don’t need to argue historically great seasons from guys on bad teams, those are explicitly examples of cases I have said multiple times now that I would consider exceptions for. But sure, to reiterate for the third time, if nobody on a playoff team was anywhere close to as good or dominant as an Ohtani or Trout, fine, that guy can have it. Every rule of thumb has exceptions.
2. I understand the individual player can only do so much to impact a team win, but winning the game is the objective of playing the game, is it not? Therefore, a performance that contributes to a team winning more games is more valuable than one that does not, correct? For now the fourth time, again, that does not mean there will never be exceptions, but we are trying to talk about a framework that will generally apply 90+% of the time, so we don’t need to keep thinking of random one off cases that will present an issue to this line of logic once every 20-30 years. Can we agree on that?
3. To frame the issue in a way you may better see my point: imagine a game where one team scores one run on just two hits. The other team manages 9 hits but couldn’t score a run. Who won the game? But the team that lost had 9 hits, isn’t that better? And yet, nothing to show for it in the box score and the standings! What’s wrong with applying the same logic to awards? Or if you’re going to say applying context to each player’s statistics doesn’t matter, why even have the award at all? Throw it out and do away with voting and just give it to the guy with the highest WAR, then.
Yes, he is the most valuable regardless if his performance went for naught. Value is value.
Every couple of years there is another one of those examples of great players on bad teams that either won or should have won the MVP.
Cal and it’s not even close.
“Not even close”
Rage bait lol
stathead.com/baseball/versus-finder.cgi?player_id2…
The problem is that most fans look at the MVP as just for hitting stats. This is the most valuable “player“. You need to take everything into Account. Yes, hitting should lead the way. But ignoring what Cal does defensively as well as working with the pitching staff would be absolutely absurd. Most fans seem to want to ignore it. Hopefully the writers aren’t that blind. Cal deserves the MVP as he is shattering the record books of what some of the top catchers in the history of the game ever did. Ignoring that because everyone just loves Aaron Judge is ridiculous.
Big Dumper all the way!
I love you homie but a catcher hitting .240 isn’t winning AL MVP
I respect that, and I would normally agree, but I think because he’s a catcher he’ll get a pass. Judge can still go on a tear this final month and he gets the MVP, still lots of baseball left! Also wow Yankees clobbered Framber!
Salvador Perez wasn’t gettin this same love from people when he had that 48 HR season 🙂 think he ended up being 5th or 6th in voting that year.
Also, it was glorious. Great seeing that blockhead get lit up lolol
Dude, you’re absolutely right about Salvador Perez. Okay, now I’m not happy he didn’t get as much love even though he put up a monster year. 🤨
Perez has had such a great career. That 48HR 120RBI season was like “woah” lol
Kurtz had been best hitter in mlb last 3 months , he should get a couple votes
But he won’t win it
🎶 If you want an AL MVP, go see Cal…🎶
The Big Worthington….
Ah Worthington dodge, Cal was a hoot wasnt he.
Anyone who grew up in SoCal in the 70s and 80s just had a smile put on their face.
And yes, Cal all the way.
He was in Washington too. The AG ran him off for his deceptive practices. But hey Go See Cal Go See Cal Go See Cal. Sitting in or on a car with a tiger.
I was a kid who lived in the valley, so I wasn’t ever planning on buying a car from him, and my parents preferred local dealerships.
Maybe that informed my decisions as an adult, but I never understood buying a car from a dealership 30-40 miles away. If I have an issue, it’s a lot less of a pain in the arse to deal with someone local.
Just ordered a 2025 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray 2LZ from a dealership in New Hampshire. Saved me about $13k after shipping and detailing once it gets here is taken into account. My birthday present to me.
Bought my Panamera GTS from a Minneapolis dealership about 6 months ago. Best deal I could find… and flying out to drive it home to San Diego still made financial sense!
Bet that was a fun drive. I am having mine shipped because I don’t want to do highway miles until I have it broken in. They told me no freeway driving until 500 miles.
Where do you live in San Diego that you don’t have to do freeway driving to break in your new Vette?
Bonsall. Lots of country roads up here to drive on until I have this beauty broken in.
and his dog Spot?
Raleigh’s catcher home run record has a bit of cheesiness to it. I think he has hit 9 HRs as a DH. Same with Salvador Perez former record. I don’t see how you can claim HRs stats to your playing position if some occurred when you weren’t actually playing your position and were a DH.
Ohtani was a DH and his hitting stats count towards an MVP. Cal Raleigh!!!!!
I agree they should. But if Ohtani hit 74 homers as a DH, that’s fine, that’s his position.
The phrasing is always “Home runs hit by a player whose primary position is Catcher.” and not “Home runs hit while playing catcher.”
But also, Raleigh is currently at 40 HRs when playing catcher, which puts him 2 behind Javy Lopez in 2003 for the record, which he will likely also break barring an injury.
(Source: mlb.com/mariners/news/most-home-runs-by-a-catcher)
Suppose statisticians could subtract HRs not hit on days each player weren’t catching, but probably being forgiving since C is the most demanding position. If he were only catching say half the time and doing bulk of the damage in those other games, the spirit of it would be in question.
Don’t forget, judge hasn’t hit all of his homers as a right fielder.
I personally don’t think DH homers should be added to any position total. I would blanket OF as a position, regardless of LF,CF or RF.
I think that Judge and Raleigh both have very strong platforms, and there will be plenty of legitimate arguments for Judge to take the award, but right now I see it going to Cal.
Cal and AJ having great years no doubt… but can’t believe I see no support for Devers???
Devers can win the “most valuable addition by subtraction” award for his contributions to the increased Red Sox youth playing time with him gone igniting club.
Most VALUABLE…….Cal Raleigh
No discussion needed
Forget the East Coast bias
As good as Cal has been, I’m going with the guy with an OPS+ over 200!
Bobby Witt Jr deserves the AL MVP more than Raleigh tbh if we’re talking “value”
WPA:
Cal Raleigh: 4.03
Aaron Judge: 3.74
We’ll see how it pans out at the end of the season but so far, it looks like Cal should win it.
The 77 people thus far that voted for other.. trolling or do you know something we don’t?
Maybe they are picking their custom players from MLB The Show? *Shrugs*
Too much pressure. They’re abstaining.
Volpe fans.
Judge the best player, but Raleigh having a an epic season. Still time for it to switch, but if voting today it’s clearly Cal for me.
@AlistairC
Freddie Freeman has been the best player since Judge joined. Judge is #2 and Bryce Harper is #3.
When I was a kid growing up in the 60’s and 70s always heard Cubbies Hack Wilson with 56 had the catchers record.
Now he’s never mentioned.
Delete that comment. Baseball reference says he was OF. Not sure why I thought catcher. Age lol
RBI record. 190.
The people have spoken and they’re decidedly Team Dumper.
Big Dumper looks to be the shoe in. Just my unbiased observation.
On the fence, but I think it will be Judge by a very narrow margin.
Nearly impossible to truly compare the two. They play massively different positions. Cal is a switch hitter. Judge plays in a tiny hitters park while Cal plays in one of the worst offensive parks to hit in in all of baseball.
Cal has been durable at the most important position and Judge is dealing with an injury. Judge has a better BA (really just 8 extra hits out of 100). Judge’s OPS is significantly larger while Cal’s defensive metrics is significantly larger.
Both deserve the honors. Cal is doing something NO CATCHER in baseball history ever has. Shattering the home run record in T-Mobile park as your home park and still have September to play???? Sorry… this isn’t even a debate. Cal wins it.
I think if voted on today this would be surprisingly dominant on the Raleigh side of the tally. Writers love a dominant offensive season from a C or SS and Judge has that “old news” vibe.
I should have stated “as things stand” Cal is a shoe in. However if Judge gets back on track then the shoe might be on the other foot. 🦶
I have no problem giving Cal a catcher’s bump for MVP over Judge if his overall production is a tick below Judge’s. He’s having a historic season for a primary catcher. Fun to watch.
PCA is the obvious choice in the NL. 6.4 WAR vs 5.6 WAR for Ohtani. Its not even close. Tatis and Ohtani are close with a 5.5 WAR vs a 5.6 WAR, but neither are in PCA’s class this season.
Judge is is the obvious choice in the AL with a 6.9 WAR. Raleigh and Witt are having great seasons at a 5.9 WAR, but Judge is once again the pick by a large margin.
Its really too bad that Nick Deeds tried to make our decision for us instead of just presenting the facts, but then we have gotten used to his terrible posts on here.
Here is the list
1. Judge • NYY 6.9
2. Crow-Armstrong • CHC 6.4
3. Raleigh • SEA 5.9
4. Witt • KCR 5.9
5. Ohtani • LAD 5.6
6. Tatís • SDP 5.5
7. Seager • TEX 5.4
8. Perdomo • ARI 5.3
9. Rodríguez • SEA 5.0
10. Hoerner • CHC 5.0
Varsho had 5.0 war last year- he’d be on the above list ;)”
Your point?
Raleigh and Judge are tied in fWAR at 7.3.
Ohtani and Trea Turner are tied in fWAR at 5.9, 5.4 for PCA.
Also, there’s still a month to go.
fWAR uses imaginary numbers, expected numbers, to create their stat. That is why I ignore it.
5 bWAR for Hoerner at 2B lol
fWAR any day of the week.
So they use WAR to pick the MVP? since when?
The value of a player is measured by WAR among other things. That you have no clue about that says volumes.
It’s not the highest WAR award.
WAR measures value. That you don’t understand that says volumes.
WAR tries to produce a good *estimate* of a player’s value, but it’s the starting point for talking about MVP deservedness, not the ending point. You need to dig into the underlying results that produce a given WAR value to make a case for the player. WAR alone is not a solid basis for an MVP platform; it simply helps tell us where to look.
Which means Judge is the MVP as of today since he is both above average on defense playing his games in RF while Raleigh is below average on defense at catcher and Judge is the best player on offense in the league.
OPS – #1
OPS+ – #1 (34% better than Raleigh)
wRC+ – #1 (34% better than Raleigh)
Batting Wins – #1
BA – #1
OBP – #1
wOBA – #1 (55 points better than Raleigh)
SLG – #1
oWAR – #1
There is not a question as to who is the better player as of today. Judge.
That could change over the last month, especially if Raleigh breaks Judge’s HR record of 62. (YES, its the record. PED users don’t count)
Dang! Take it easy on them Pads Fan.
your poll shows only 37% for Cal- flawed poll i’d say. Yes Cal has cooled off, but he still is clearly having a HISTORIC season- and as a catcher!! Judge his hitting for avg and HR.
Yet another poll shows Cal with 2-1 of the votes for AL MVP., Judge is #2.
One’s a catcher with 50 bombs, the other a DH with 40. Seems like an easy decision. Both teams are below 500 without them for certain.
Judge is an OF.
Judge is a RF and an above average defensive RF this season. He has played some games at DH. Raleigh has also played games at DH.
The most valuable player is Cal
Cal Raleigh SHOULD
Why? He has not been the best player.
Raleigh is doing it all as a CATCHER, probably the toughest position in the game.
His defense is outstanding, his caught stealing rate is outstanding, his team leadership is unquestioned.
AND he’s hit more home runs than any other catcher in the entire history of the game in a single season. That’s over 100 years.
His work with a pitching staff that has not had all five starters healthy until last week has been stellar,
If the M’s still make the playoffs despite losing their starting 2B in April, both of their starting and reserve RF in April, and with 4 of their 5 starters on the IL for significant time…….the MVP has to be Raleigh.
Raleigh is a slightly below average defensive catcher with a -1 DRS . baseball-reference.com/players/r/raleica01.shtml#p…
His defense is actually dragging his value down a bit as he has a 6.3 oWAR and 5.9 overall WAR.
What Raleigh is doing is playing exceptionally well for a catcher with the bat. Even on offense he is not doing as well as Judge by measure of OWAR or run value. baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/swing-take?year…
His WAR is still a full point below Judge’s 6.9. That is a significant difference. There is no doubt that at this point Judge is the AL MVP.. There is still a full month to go, so that could change, especially if Raleigh breaks judge’s record for HR.
Aaron Judge has almost a full 1.0 WAR more than Cal Raleigh.
Judge was so amazing earlier in the year that his only standard elite performance looks sub par now, but he’s still been the overall most valuable player, IMO- whereas Cal Raleigh feels more impressive because it’s not a standard assumption that he’s gonna Do This Kind of Thing Year In and Year Out.
It does feel a bit like those years A-Rod got it despite his production not really helping the tea that much, but the overall numbers being there on paper.
%72+ for Cal…the people have spoken! Maybe they should listen to the people like Cracker Barrel did! 🙂
Hasn’t helped Cracker Barrel.
Oh please…” the people have spoken ” “The people “, do you mean the 1000+ fans who voted in the poll here? Or the other million+ baseball fans who didn’t vote here? Kind of a small sample size, wouldn’t you say Ross?
Yankees fan or not Judge should absolutely be the MVP, and everyone that gives the vote to Raleigh is just bored of Judge winning and suddenly trying to act like there’s this other argument to be made. No team in the league looks at their seasons so far and take Raleigh to impact their team
It’s obvious that the voting in this poll is skewed in favor of Raleigh. I’m sure that some Yankee fans voted in the poll, but fans of the other 29 teams, I’m sure, voted heavily for Raleigh. You know that there is a bias against the Yankees because they are the Yankees. You think that Boston fans would vote for Judge? Not a chance. How about the Toronto faithful? Highly unlikely.. Royal fans? Nope. The Yankees have delivered too many bad memories to KC. As for the rest of the teams, fans of those teams love to beat the Yankees. And the vote from those teams would, for the most part, be for somebody, anybody, other than a damn Yankee. Now, I’m sure the staff at MLB Trade Rumors would vote for whatever player, all things considered, who they felt was most deserving. But the commenters here? There is definitely a dislike for NY. Just read the comments for articles mentioning the Yanks, or featuring NY. Not good. I’ve been a Yankee fan for longer than I care to remember. My opinion on the AL MVP race? At this point in time, I would think it’s probably a dead heat. Could go either way. I’m not going to give the pluses and minuses for Judge and Raleigh. It would take too long, and I have some business I need to get to. Rather that Judge would win another, MVP, I would hope NY would win the World Series. That’s a tall order, and let’s face it, the Yankees are a flawed team.. Their bullpen can sometimes be pretty good, but sometimes they are terrible. Like last night against Detroit. What a nightmare. Anyway, I would rather look at a poll where the voters were MLBTradeRumors. staff. I would feel like the staff would vote for the player they felt deserved it. Not because they root for a certain team, or had a strong dislike for NY, I feel that the writers here are professionals that want to do things right. For a lot of people, there is no way in hell they’d vote for a player on the NY team. .Once again, I’ve seen the remarks the commentators make on the Yanks. Some are ok, but there is a lot of bias and dislike against Judge and the Yankees. Maybe I’m wrong, but I tend to think in this particular pole, Judge, would deserve more than 22% of the vote. IMO.