MLB Futures: Ohtani's MVP Race and Dodgers' Playoff Strategy

Could be. Pat Murphy is, you know, obviously fantastic. All right, so this is trying to figure out who the runner-up would be because it would appear that barring anything with health, the America League MVP could be this year an open and shut case. You do not have Aaron Judge. I'm very surprised Bobby Witt is as low as he is with the season that he's having, but I guess it's just a product of the Royals being horrible. But it is Jordan Alvarez's award, I think, Tom, so it's just a matter of who you can advance on here, I think, closer to the bottom. That would just be Caminero. I think it's as simple as that. I think Jordan will win it. I think it's very straightforward, but that's not to say that you can't invest in Caminero now. His price increases and you can get out a little bit later. He's going to go through a streak where he gets five home runs in a week. People are going to put him into the conversation. People are going to be willing to say that he wins the award, but ultimately Jordan will win it. You could still make money on Caminero from now until the end of the season. And then in the NL, Tom, barring an injury, this is the Shohei Otani annual MVP award. Every time he hits and pitches, you got to give it to him. No difference this season. I mean, I guess the question would be is if Otani didn't play another inning for the rest of the season, would he win the MVP? You would probably say, probably not, but that just tells you how far ahead he is of everybody else. You made a good point. Maybe Otani is shut down from pitching just to get ready for the postseason sometime in September. But I mean, look, Pete Crow Armstrong right now is taking the second most tickets, and that guy's had, what would you say, Tom, two good months out of four? Like really, when you think about it, like two incredible months or two nothing months, that guy's not going to win the MVP. No, he's had a rollercoaster of a season, and that's, you know, putting it lightly. Otani's going to win it, and we've had this conversation for a couple years. We're going to continue to have it. When you go through a stretch where he has enough innings and he's 0.85 over a significant stretch and he's still going to go out there, he has averages as high as it was. He's not going to have as many home runs, but it's still the Otani award when it's all said and done. It should always be when he's pitching and hitting. No one's ever going to do this, folks. As long as you ever watch baseball in the past or the future, it'll never be done. He's the MVP every year. All right, most team home runs. Let's take a look at this on Cali. Pretty incredible when you think that there's been no Judge, there's been no Stanton, but Ben Rice has filled the bucket with home runs for the Yankees, and they're just so far ahead of everybody else, but I suppose there's some, you know, sleeping tigers here too, and what you don't know, Tom, maybe is if you were to project a team that could be closer to the Yankees, let's say the White Sox were to add a massive power guy, could the White Sox or the Nationals go ahead of New York? I don't see that happening, but that's where you really can play this market a little bit. If a team is in it, and they acquire a bat that can hit 15 home runs the rest of the way, it could catapult them maybe to second or third. Right, I gotta say, this market seems all over the place. Atlanta leading the way, and they are in eighth place right now, and there was 14-ish home runs behind the Yankees, and the Nationals are nowhere near the top of the list, and yet they are tied with the Yankees. Now, granted, if you're expecting Judge to come back, you're expecting Acuna to come back for their respective teams, that would change things, but I would not be looking to the Dodgers. That's the answer to this question right now. Do not look to the Dodgers, because again, with a 12-game lead, if they get that into September, Mookie, Freddie, Otani, Pajes are all going to be shut down, or not shut down, they're going to have an extra day off here or there just to give them some rest to be ready for October 1st. Yeah, you're right. The final week of the season for LA may not look like the Dodgers. I mean, it's just true. They add, remember that you're allowed, it's not quite what it used to be where you can add as many players as you want to the roster, but you can add two or three extra players, whoever those guys are, are going to be playing a lot the final week of the season for LA, make no mistake about it. But meanwhile, Team ERA may be where the Dodgers have it, but the other part of this, Tom, is like, who's to say the Dodgers don't end up with Scooble? Imagine that. Then all of a sudden, whoever gets him, that's going to help this team's ERA. The Dodgers right now are taking the most action on this, but again, you made a good point last week of the season. Who knows who's pitching for LA? It could change things significantly, but it does feel like LA will be in the mix. Right. I still like Milwaukee. Right now, the Yankees lead it at 3.38. The Brewers are right behind them at 3.48 ERA. You know, the Brewers are going to be fighting tooth and nail for everything. Yeah, I still think they win the division, but the Cubs are going to give them a push at some point. The Cubs will go on another one of those streaks, and I think the Brewers, the team, I continuously want to back that bullpen. It's fantastic.