Judgement Day Finally Arrives

December 13th, 2022 by Kevin

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Well, my lack of ambition when it comes to writing has struck again. We are so far removed from awards season that most of the marquee free agents have already found homes before I ever got around to finishing the DTBL awards announcements. With apologies to Aaron Judge, who had truly one of the best seasons in DTBL history and deserves a comprehensive write-up, I’m going to mail this one in to get it over with. I’m sure to the surprise of absolutely no one, Mavericks outfielder Aaron Judge is the unanimous selection for the 2022 DTBL Most Valuable Player award.

As you all know, Judge’s 62 home run season broke Roger Maris’ American League home run record. In this league, that ranks seventh all time behind Barry Bonds’ MLB record 73 in 2001, a pair of Mark McGwire seasons, and three for Sammy Sosa. Besides the obvious PED suspicions surrounding those three specific players, Judge’s season also stands out based on the leaguewide environment in which he was competing. All six of those single season home run figures ahead of Judge’s took place from 1998 through 2001, which we now know was the peak of the steroid era. This season, Judge hit 16 more home runs than any other player while also hitting .311, 131 RBIs, 133 runs scored and even 16 stolen bases. His 12.2 Batting PAR was more than double the next highest player this year and is the highest in any season I’ve calculated (2005-present). While there have been some other players who have had seasons with comparable or better raw batting stats, factoring in the current hitting environment in baseball makes this Judge season one of, if not the, best in league history.

It would have been fishy if Judge had not won this award unanimously. Sure enough, he received all nine first place votes. Trea Turner came in second, his second straight top four finish. Paul Goldschmidt came in third, followed by Jose Ramirez and Pete Alonso rounding out the top five.

Click here to view the full voting results.

Sorry again for not giving Judge the full due he deserved. We’ll see if I can get back in a writing flow next year.

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