What does Ohtani have to do to be considered a viable MVP candidate?

[Lou]

7 hours ago, Angels 1961 said:

On a last place team?

He's not on the Rangers.

[Jeff Fletcher]

7 hours ago, Angels 1961 said:

On a last place team?

Yep

[Jeff Fletcher]

7 hours ago, angelsnationtalk said:

How did Trout win 2 of his 3 MVPs? 

2016: Angels record was 74-88

2019: Angels record was 72-90

They sucked those 2 years and he still ran away with the MVP. 

In 2019 it was pretty close with Bregman (17-13) but your point stands. 
 

I don’t think as many voters care about the standings as 10 years ago. 
 

i know I don’t. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

This is the first time ive considered going to an all star game in years. Would be cool to see his first one... wspecially since you know he'll likely start, and at lesst make a relief appearance

[Angelsjunky]

As with any season over the last decade, every AL MVP has to get by Trout. For whatever reason, it seems voters are insistent on someone else winning the MVP but Trout sets the bar, which is usually 9 WAR. 

It is really too soon to tell who in the AL singles themselves out to compete with Trout for the MVP, but if he stays health, Shohei is one of them. That's his first challenge: staying healthy.

I don't think Shohei has to beat Trout in WAR to win the MVP (he probably won't, unless Trout is hurt), but he does need to stay healthy. If he does, he should finish with 6+ WAR (he's at 1.7 now, 1.2 for hitting, 0.5 for pitching).

But if Shohei finishes with 30+ HR and an ERA below 3.00 in 100+ IP, he's going to be hard not to vote for, even if he's 2+ WAR below Trout.

 

[Don]

15 minutes ago, Angelsjunky said:

As with any season over the last decade, every AL MVP has to get by Trout. For whatever reason, it seems voters are insistent on someone else winning the MVP but Trout sets the bar, which is usually 9 WAR. 

It is really too soon to tell who in the AL singles themselves out to compete with Trout for the MVP, but if he stays health, Shohei is one of them. That's his first challenge: staying healthy.

I don't think Shohei has to beat Trout in WAR to win the MVP (he probably won't, unless Trout is hurt), but he does need to stay healthy. If he does, he should finish with 6+ WAR (he's at 1.7 now, 1.2 for hitting, 0.5 for pitching).

But if Shohei finishes with 30+ HR and an ERA below 3.00 in 100+ IP, he's going to be hard not to vote for, even if he's 2+ WAR below Trout.

 

I don’t think he even has to do that much. I mean if he hits .275/.350/.550 with 30 HR and throws 100+ Innings with like a 3.75 ERA it would be hard not to vote for him.

[Angels 1961]

20 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

If Ohtani can maintain exactly what he’s doing right now, he’s got a very good chance of winning MVP.

I hope so

[JustATroutFan]

Trout's not the first player to win the MVP on a team below .500. Other cases would be A-Rod in 2003 with the Rangers, Ripken Jr. with the Orioles in 1991, and Banks with the Cubs for a couple of seasons. I still have to say that the MVP should be considered an award for the best player in each league. It's hard to penalize anyone who has a great season on a bad team because of how much impact he can make for each game. It's not like the NBA where a superstar can have a lot of impact on an outcome of a game. It's interesting to know that Kareem won the MVP award on a non-playoff team. That, to me, was not the right pick. 

[Chuck]

 

[Docwaukee]

he's doing it.  

[Blarg]

He destroyed a pitch tonight that should have resulted in a pop up. Imagine if, right now, he hasn't even found his groove hitting. 

[Docwaukee]

1 minute ago, Blarg said:

He destroyed a pitch tonight that should have resulted in a pop up. Imagine if, right now, he hasn't even found his groove hitting. 

He's starting to become better at predicting how they're going to approach him as a hitter.  He's evolving

[ten ocho recon scout]

5 hours ago, Don said:

I don’t think he even has to do that much. I mean if he hits .275/.350/.550 with 30 HR and throws 100+ Innings with like a 3.75 ERA it would be hard not to vote for him.

Agreed

[ScottT]

8 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

This is the first time ive considered going to an all star game in years. Would be cool to see his first one... wspecially since you know he'll likely start, and at lesst make a relief appearance

Home run derby, too?  I'm down.

[angelsnationtalk]

16 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

In 2019 it was pretty close with Bregman (17-13) but your point stands. 
 

I don’t think as many voters care about the standings as 10 years ago. 
 

i know I don’t. 

Just goes to show the MVP really can be won as an individual award. 

Would Trout have won more if the Angels were a playoff team? Maybe.

[Taylor]

13 hours ago, Blarg said:

He destroyed a pitch tonight that should have resulted in a pop up. Imagine if, right now, he hasn't even found his groove hitting. 

"High school hitter"

[ten ocho recon scout]

52 minutes ago, Taylor said:

"High school hitter"

High school hitter on-er

[Slegnaac]

Considering that in 2012 the MVP went to the first triple crown winner in decades, you have to think that Shohei being among the Pitching and Hitting leaders, something that hasn't been done in the last 100 years, would make it a slam dunk.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Slegnaac

[Duren, Duren]

Ohtanti's two way uniqueness is the biggest story in baseball. He has slowly passed Trout as the first person the media mentions when talking about the Angels. Once in a century production at a high level should wipe out any hitter only  MVP challenger, barring something amazing. 

If Ohtani hits 30 + homers bats above 270 and wins double digit games with a solid ERA and K rate he should win. Regardless of team results. Banks won twice in a bad team partly because he too was unique. 40 + homers as a shortstop. Maris was MVP with a .269 batting average, but unique in breaking Ruth's record.

If Trout reverts to form it will be interesting internal competition. Dynamic duos have always been fun.

Ruth/Gehrig, Gehrig/DiMaggio, Mantle/ Maris, Mays/ Cepeda, Mathews/Aaron, Kaline/Cash, on and on throughout history. 

[Angelsjunky]

He would have a better chance if, I don't know, Trout injured himself.

[bloodbrother]

God dammit The Onion does it again

 

[WicketMaiden]

18 minutes ago, bloodbrother said:

God dammit The Onion does it again

 

Billy Eppler's finest piece of work was getting Shohei to sign with the Angels. 

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

On 5/14/2021 at 8:10 AM, floplag said:

Win
The team has to win games for either he or Trout to get that consideration going forward.
Either that or has has to pull a Baylor and it must be so obvious that no one else could be considered and put up video game numbers while no one esle gets close. 

Pretty sure being on a contender isn't as big a deal as it used to be. Trouts won 3 of them on only 1 playoff team.

I think he will hit 40+ HRs, win at 10 games with a sub 3.00 ERA. He even chip in with 15 SB.

[Angelsjunky]

Eppler: "Shohei, we're N+1 years away from competing."

Japanese Man: "Math. I like this guy."

[ten ocho recon scout]

3 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

Eppler: "Shohei, we're N+1 years away from competing."

Japanese Man: "Math. I like this guy."

I think it helped when shohei said "I dont speak english, well. I dont want to be somewhere people will make fun of me for that"

And in walked Mota