Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani vie for American League MVP

• Yes, but: Ohtani shouldn't be viewed as merely the second-most likely to win this race. Not when he's putting together a season that may exceed even last year's unanimous MVP-winning campaign.

Let's break it down...

Judge: The Yankees outfielder is, quite simply, engineering one of the greatest offensive seasons of the 21st century.

• He leads all of MLB in most major categories, including HR (51), RBI (113), OPS (1.062) and WAR (7.7).
• His 199 OPS+ is the sixth-best mark since 2000 (min. 100 games), behind only Barry Bonds (4x) and Sammy Sosa.
• Wild stat: Judge joined Babe Ruth (5x) as the only players in MLB history to enter September with at least 15 more HR than anyone else (Kyle Schwarber, 36).

Ohtani: It's easy to forget that what he's doing is about more than "just" being an elite hitter and pitcher: While every other starter gets four days to recover between outings, Ohtani is right back in the lineup the next night.

• Among AL hitters, he ranks third in HR (30), second in triples (6), fourth in RBI (82) and OPS (.888), and sixth in walks (64).

• He leads AL pitchers (min. 120 IP) with 12.38 strikeouts per nine innings, and he's got the fifth-most strikeouts (176) and sixth-best ERA (2.67). He's a legitimate top-five Cy Young candidate.
• Add it all up, and his 7.3 cumulative WAR is second only to Judge.

The bottom line: No matter who wins, let's not take for granted that seasons like these don't come along very often, and we're lucky enough to witness both simultaneously.