Analyzing the Miguel Andujar vs. Shohei Ohtani ROY debate

I’m not going to link to the article, but a certain “Yanks go Yard” Yankees fan site posted 3 reasons this morning why Miguel Andujar should win ROY over Shohei Ohtani.

1. The author pointed out that Adujar has been the Yankees most consistent hitter. Last time I checked, being the most consistent on a team isn’t what makes you a league wide ROY. Did I miss a memo??
2. “Andujar’s poor fielding performance hasn’t been as costly to the Yankees as you may think.” This one is just plain laughable. Your reason is that he doesn’t suck in the field as bad as you think he does?? Okay Mr. Scott. For the record, and according to Fangraphs - Andujar has the WORST defensive ranking of all qualified third basemen. That’s not “not as costly as you may think”, but rather just plain terrible.
3. Ohtani “the pitcher” has been an inconvenience to the Angels. What??? This one isn’t even about Andujar and he harps on the fact that Ohtani only started 10 games and can’t be that extraordinary because he has averaged around 5 innings per start. No mention that in one of those game he left because of a blister and the final game he left because his UCL was shot.

These are the kind of ridiculous arguments you hear from Yankees fans and supporters of Miguel Andujar as ROY. Maybe we can go ahead and bore you with some REAL facts on why Ohtani is a CLEAR choice over Miguel Andujar. There are so many places to start, so let’s begin with pitching.

Ohtani the “inconvenient” pitcher:

Shohei Ohtani racked up 63 Ks over 51.2 innings. He had a 3.31 ERA and threw over 100 MPH. He had the 3rd highest average fastball velocity of any starter in MLB. Another fun number? Ohtani had the lowest contact % of any pitcher at a mere 65.9%, beating out Chris Sale who landed in 2nd place at 66.8%. Other guys in that top list include Patrick Corbin, Blake Snell, and Max Scherzer. I hear those guys are pretty good.

Despite only starting 10 games, Shohei Ohtani had 5 quality starts. Oh, and perhaps I forgot to mention that no one in history has hit and pitched like Ohtani has since Babe fricking Ruth. Maybe you’ve heard of him? It’s truly historic.

What are Andujar’s pitching stats this year? Just asking for a friend.

Ohtani the hitter:

Let’s start with some simple stats in case any Yankees fans are reading this.

Ohtani AVG/OBP/SLG = .294/.375/.595
Andujar AVG/OBP/SLG = .298/.331/.521

Yeah, Andujar’s extra 5 batting average points are not getting him the award, especially when he’s getting on base at a 44 point lower clip.

Walk rate:
Ohtani 10.8%, Andjuar 4.3%

Home Runs/RBIs
Ohtani 19/54, Andujar 23/79

Keep in mind that Ohtani has 240 fewer plate appearances than Andujar. Before you get into that “didn’t play enough” argument, the ROY award is about how good you are - not how much you impact the team or if you help your guys get to the playoffs. Getting back to how good you are, with the same number of appearances as Andujar, Ohtani would be on pace for 34 home runs and 98 RBIs. Boom.

Going into some more advanced stats, Ohtani has a 164 wRC+ to Andujar’s 127. (wRC+ takes the statistic Runs Created and adjusts that number to account for important external factors -- like ballpark or era. It’s adjusted, so a wRC+ of 100 is league average and 150 would be 50 percent above league average.) What that tells us is Ohtani is producing runs at 64% above league average, while Andujar is at the 27% mark. Snooze..

Batted Ball:
Ohtani soft/med/hard hit rate = 10.6%/49.2%/40.2%
Andujar soft/med/hard hit rate = 18.9%/45.1%/36.0%

Split time

When it comes to runners in scoring position, Ohtani has a .373 AVG to Andujar’s .292 which is a HUGE gap. Also, as opposing teams try to adjust to these new hitters, Ohtani has a .364 AVG when they shift on him vs. Andujar’s .228 AVG. The shift hurts Andujar because he’s just not as good at hitting the ball to all fields.

How about the real pressure? Two outs and runners in scoring position? Andujar is hitting just .240 with a .420 slugging percentage when the happens. But Shohei Ohtani? Well, his .423 AVG and .808 slugging is pretty insane. In fact, he has less at bats in those situations but more RBI’s than Andujar, because the guy just gets the job done when under pressure.

Finally, we don’t even need to dig into WAR, which measures overall player value - but if we did, you would see that Ohtani’s 3.8 is more than double that of Miguel Andujar.

If you start looking at the numbers, as well as the historic achievement, the vote really isn’t even close. Those that are still thinking Andujar should win, really don’t get baseball. If you still think Ohtani didn’t “play” enough, then maybe you should look back at Dave Righetii (a Yankee) who appeared in only 15 games all year. Shohei Ohtani? He’s appeared in 96 total games if you count the mound OR the batter’s box.

Get it together BBWAA and make the right choice. And to all you Yankees fans who think Andujar would be robbed? Stop being so ridiculous.