Mark Madden: Shohei Ohtani has the showbiz market cornered, but Aaron Judge should be AL MVP

In 1941, Ted Williams hit .406. He remains the last MLB player to hit .400 or better. He led MLB with 37 home runs and was fourth with 120 RBIs. Williams led MLB in all the stats that didn’t matter then or weren’t kept: WAR, OPS, etc.

Joe DiMaggio hit .357, 49 points below Williams. He had 30 home runs. DiMaggio topped Williams in RBIs with 125.

But DiMaggio won American League MVP because he hit safely in 56 consecutive games. That hasn’t been bettered since.

DiMaggio got AL MVP based on showbiz. He had the season’s hottest act.

That’s why, even though Aaron Judge is the obvious choice for this year’s AL MVP, Shohei Ohtani can’t be counted out.

Judge leads MLB in home runs, RBIs, runs, WAR, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, total bases and extra-base hits. Judge has 19 more home runs than Kyle Schwarber, who ranks second in MLB. This is in the launch-angle home-run era.

Ohtani pitches and hits. He does both well. That’s impressive. The last player allowed to do that was Babe Ruth, and he wasn’t allowed to do it for very long.

That’s a key phrase: “allowed to do it.” Other pitchers were good hitters. Ex-Pirate Ken Brett comes to mind. He occasionally pinch-hit.

But those who do both well are ultimately made to pick one, almost always well before the big-league level. Ruth had to choose. Ohtani will, too. The everyday impact of hitting will win out.

Admittedly, nobody has ever pitched and hit as well as Ohtani since Ruth. Brett is a laughable false equivalency.

Ohtani has 34 home runs. That’s 23 less than Judge. He’s hitting a pedestrian .265, same as his career average. That’s 45 points worse than Judge. His OPS is .889. Judge’s is 1.102. There’s no comparison between the two as hitters.

Ohtani is the DH when he doesn’t pitch. Judge is no Gold Glove in the outfield but is more than competent. Ohtani has zero impact in the field.

Tack on Ohtani’s pitching stats: He ranks fourth in WAR for pitchers. He’s first in strikeouts per nine innings pitched at 12.0 but has only pitched 141 innings. His ERA is barely top 10 at 2.55. His WHIP ranks 15th at 1.06. (Some of Ohtani’s stats don’t qualify for MLB leadership because he hasn’t thrown enough innings.)

When Ohtani’s hitting and pitching are combined, he still isn’t as valuable as Judge. In fact, it’s not even close.

Further proof: Judge’s New York Yankees are 87-56 and lead the AL East. Ohtani’s Los Angeles Angels are 61-82, sitting fourth in the AL West. The Yankees have MLB’s third-highest payroll but the Angels’ is 10th. Ohtani isn’t playing for a have-not.

DiMaggio’s Yankees won the AL pennant in 1941. But Williams’ Boston Red Sox were second.

Ohtani is in the AL MVP discussion, though, and his supporters are vociferous: “He’s doing something we’ve never seen before!”

Not true. Ruth did it. But all the people who saw it are dead.

“He’s the equivalent of two players.” OK, but neither one of them is MVP-caliber. Even combined, they’re a clear second to Judge.

Judge is doing something we haven’t seen for a long time, too.

Judge has 57 home runs. The Yankees have played 143 games.

Judge has a shot at Ruth’s mark of 60 home runs in 154 games, achieved in 1927. He’s likely to break Roger Maris’ AL record of 61 homers. Many consider Maris’ 61 to be the “real” single-season home-run record. Everyone who hit more is presumed to have done so while using PEDs.

But the showbiz element of Judge’s pursuit is muted because of the steroid conjecture. There really isn’t an MLB home-run record.

So Ohtani has the showbiz market cornered.

But Judge is the AL MVP. To repeat, it isn’t even close. It should be unanimous.