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ESPN Staff Writer- Sports reporter, Kansas City Star, 2002-09
- Writer, Baseball, Baseball Prospectus
- Co-author, Pro Basketball Prospectus
- Member, Baseball Writers Association of America
- Member, Professional Basketball Writers Association
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ESPN Senior Writer- Covers MLB for ESPN.com
- Former deputy editor of Page 2
- Been with ESPN.com since 1995
This month's MLB Awards Watch update is a bit of a changeup, as we're focusing exclusively on one category: Most Valuable Player.
Why? Mostly because the races in both leagues are shaping up to be among the most intriguing we've had in some time. That's not just because of the star power of the names involved, or how closely arranged the pecking order seems to be right now. It's mostly because of how, well, unusual the landscape looks right now.
In the American League, you have a two-way superstar (Shohei Ohtani) going toe-to-toe with a breakout young hitter (Vladimir Guerrero Jr.) who is poised to make a run at the league's Triple Crown.
In the National League, the leaderboards in the advanced metrics are dominated by starting pitchers, led by history-chasing Mets ace Jacob deGrom. But you also have two of the game's brightest young stars -- Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ronald Acuna Jr. -- building up strong MVP résumés.
As we enter the early days of summer, we look at how both races are going, with Bradford Doolittle breaking down the AL and David Schoenfield examining the NL, along with numbers from Doolittle's AXE formula.