Saturday, May 14, 2016

The 40-year-old allegedly retiring David Ortiz is the American League MVP so far

In the Red Sox's 6-5 extra-inning win this afternoon, David Ortiz tied the game with a two-out triple in the ninth, then won it in his next at-bat with a double in the 11th--again with two outs (not to mention he also homered back in the third inning).  The walk-off hit was the 600th double of his career, which put Big Papi in some pretty exclusive company:


The greatest designated hitter of all time is 40 years old and supposedly retiring at the end of the season.  The thing is, through 37 games (nearly 25 percent of the season) for the 23-14 Red Sox, Ortiz is most likely the MVP of the American League.

Here are some of Ortiz's stats, followed by where each ranks in the AL:

Batting average: .320 (10th)
Doubles: 16 (2nd)
Home runs: 10 (4th, tied)
RBI: 33 (1st, tied)
On-base percentage: .405 (4th, tied)
Slugging percentage: .695 (1st)
OPS (on-base plus slugging): 1.101 (1st)

There are three Potential American League MVP candidates at the moment:

David Ortiz, Red Sox (23-14): .320, 16 2B, 10 HR, 33 RBI, .405 OBP, .695 SLG, 1.101 OPS
Manny Machado, Orioles (22-12): .350, 15 2B, 10 HR, 23 RBI, .405 OBP, .671 SLG, 1.077 OPS
Robinson Cano, Mariners (21-14): .299, 8 2B, 12 HR, 33 RBI, .344 OBP, .599 SLG, .943 OPS

Ortiz has a big lead over Machado in RBI, a much higher average and on-base percentage than Cano, and is ahead of both of them in slugging and OPS.  If the award was chosen today, he'd be the guy.

Big Papi sent this tweet the other day when Stephen Curry unanimously won the NBA MVP:


The way things are going, Curry may not be the only 2016 MVP in that picture.



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