Guardians' Jose Ramirez chasing Aaron Judge in AL MVP race | Jeff Schudel
Aug. 13—Jose Ramirez is having the type season fans have come to expect from the Guardians All-Star third baseman, but once again it is looking as though J-Ram will come up short in the race to be the American League's Most Valuable Player.
Ramirez is hitting .285 with 22 home runs and 92 RBI. He has scored 63 times and leads the American League with 36 doubles.
Aaron Judge of the Yankees is currently leading the AL MVP race. It is difficult to argue with his numbers. He leads all of baseball with 46 home runs. His 100 RBI is also the most in baseball, and his 96 runs scored are 14 more than Mookie Betts of the Dodgers, who is second in runs scored. Judge is hitting .305 for the first-place Yankees.
Shohei Ohtani of the Angels and Yordan Alvarez of the Astros are also MVP contenders.
Ohtani, the 2021 MVP, is 10-7 as a starting pitcher. Only nine pitchers have won more than 10 games, and all those guys do is pitch. Ohtani has also homered 25 times and driven in 66 runs while scoring 62 times and hitting .254.
Alvarez has homered 31 times and driven in 74 runs for the Astros. He leads the American League with a .401 on-base percentage. He has scored 71 runs and is hitting .296. Ramirez has a .355 OBP. Judge is right behind Alvarez at .400.
Ramirez, Judge and Alvarez have each helped out their team reach first place in their respective division. By definition, the MVP should come from a first-place team, but that doesn't have to be the same for the Manager of the Year.
There are two candidates for Manager of the Year in the American League, in my opinion, and neither is Aaron Boone of the Yankees nor Dusty Baker of the Astros. The Manager of the Year should be from a team that has exceeded expectations. That would mean Terry Francona of the Guardians or Brandon Hyde of the Orioles.
The Guardians were projected to finish last in the Central Division, but they are first in the division at 60-52 and lead the Twins by 1.5 games.
The Orioles, 52-110 in 2021, were projected to lose 100 games this season. Instead, Baltimore is in third place in the rugged AL East with a record of 59-53. The Orioles hold the third wild-card spot, one-half game ahead of the Rays and Twins.
