It was another incredible week for historic sluggers Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani
Even by their high standards, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani had a pretty busy week.
Judge hit seven home runs in six games for the New York Yankees, including twice on sunday to bring his season total to 51. He’s on pace to surpass 60 for the second time in three years, and his American League record of 62 in 2022 could very well fall.
Ohtani became just the sixth player to reach 40 homers and 40 steals in a season, and he did it with more than a week left in August. in a dramatic way — home run No. 40 was a game-winning grand slam for the Los Angeles Dodgers vs Tampa Bay Friday evening.
There has never been a 50-50 player, but Ohtani clearly has a chance. Here are some more stats that underscore the historic nature of what Judge and Ohtani are doing:
— OPS+ is a statistic that takes a player’s on-base and slugging percentages and compares them to the league average and factors in stadium effects. Baseball Reference estimates Judge’s OPS+ to be 230, with 100 being the league average. Only three players (minimum 500 plate appearances) have finished a season with an OPS+ above 230: Barry Bonds (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004), Babe Ruth (1920, 1921, 1923), and Ted Williams (1941, 1957).
— Power-speed number The power-to-speed ratio was invented by Bill James to condense a player’s home runs and steals into a single number. The formula is actually quite simple: 2(HR x SB)/(HR + SB). As of now, Ohtani’s power-to-speed ratio is 40.5, which already ranks ninth all-time for a single season. For a quarter-century, the record was 43.9, held by Alex Rodriguez in 1998, but Ronald Acuña Jr. surpassed that mark last year, hitting 41 home runs with 73 steals for a power-to-speed ratio of 52.5.
Judge leads the major leagues in home runs and RBIs (122), but his .333 average is 14 points behind Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. He’s not the only player with a shot at the Triple Crown this season, either.
In the National League, Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna leads the way with a .305 average. He’s also tied with Ohtani in RBIs with 94, and with 37 home runs, Ozuna is just four points behind Ohtani. So it’s possible Ozuna could win the National League Triple Crown while trailing Judge in all three categories.
According to Baseball Reference, Judge has 9.4 wins above replacement in 129 games this season. Among non-pitchers, who holds the record for highest WAR in a season while finishing with fewer than 130 games played? (Hint: The record is actually 9.4, so Judge would tie it if he finished his season now.)
Bowden Francis of Toronto 12 eliminated in eight-plus innings, allowing just one hit in a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday. Francis had his no-hitter snapped in the ninth.
It’s been a hugely disappointing season for the last-place Blue Jays, but they’ve won six of their last eight games and are now just five games under .500.
One day later Manager Scott Servais firedThe Seattle Mariners trailed San Francisco 5-1 in the bottom of the eighth. They then strung together six straight singles, giving them the four runs they needed to tie the game. After an unusual ninth inning in which all three batters on each team were struck out, Seattle won it 6-5 on a single by Leo Rivas in the 10th inning.
The Mariners had a 3.2% chance of winning entering the eighth, according to Baseball Savant.
In 1980, George Brett posted a 9.4 WAR in 117 games. That was the year he hit .390 for Kansas City.
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AP Major League Baseball: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
