The Yankees’ Aaron Choose is doused by his teammates after he hit his three hundredth profession house run, the quickest participant to take action in MLB historical past, in August in opposition to the White Sox.
(Erin Hooley/AP)
Ohtani is nearly sure to win his third profession MVP award this season. If he nonetheless performed within the American League, nevertheless, he’d doubtless end second.
That’s as a result of Choose, the Yankees’ hulking 6-foot-7, $360-million middle fielder, had probably the most productive offensive seasons in Main League Baseball historical past.
It’s not simply that the veteran slugger led MLB with 58 house runs, 144 RBIs, a 1.159 on-base-plus-slugging proportion and 133 walks. However he did it in a season when hitting numbers have been down throughout the board.
Due to that, Choose’s OPS+ (an all-encompassing metric that normalizes total manufacturing relative to the remainder of the league) was a whopping 223.
For reference, solely three NL or AL gamers in MLB’s trendy period have had a better OPS+ in a season — and their names have been Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.
Regardless of all that, Choose’s postseason has been a grind. Within the division sequence in opposition to Kansas Metropolis, he was simply two for 13 with zero RBIs, albeit whereas strolling 5 instances. And whereas he had some large moments within the ALCS, together with late house runs in Video games 2 and three, he nonetheless batted simply .167 (three for 18) within the sequence.
If there’s one gap in Choose’s recreation, it’s his penchant to swing and miss. Though he led the majors in walks, he additionally struck out 177 instances, fanning on greater than 40% of non-fastballs he swung at.
