The beauty of overall base value (OBV) is that it precisely displays a baseball participant’s worth to his membership.
Take final season, for instance. Aaron Judge, the slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees, topped the American League with an excellent OBV of 255, indicating that he reached 255 extra bases than a typical batter would have attained below the identical circumstances. Paul Goldschmidt, the strong first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, led the Nationwide League with an OBV of 159.
Who received the Most Precious Participant Awards of their respective leagues final yr? Decide and Goldschmidt, after all.
The identical dynamic was at play in 2023.
Shohei Ohtani, the dazzling star on the plate and on the mound for the Los Angeles Angels, posted the best OBV within the majors. He piled up 186 bases greater than a mean batter would have reached, and he additionally surrendered 54 fewer bases than a mean pitcher would have yielded. His grand complete: an OBV of 240.
Ronald Acuna Jr., the best fielder for the Atlanta Braves, set the tempo within the Nationwide League with an OBV of 226, all achieved on the plate.
Ohtani and Acuna had been the one two gamers in 2023 to exceed 170 on the OBV scale, so it comes as no shock that every was the unanimous selection for the MVP trophy in his league — or that each might be discovered on the very high of my record of the season’s high 100 gamers.
I’ve been unrolling that record in consecutive installments of 10 honorees since November 7. The rankings are decided by OBV, with any ties damaged by ratios of bases per out (BPO). Click here to learn more about both stats.
Listed below are the ten highest-rated gamers of the yr:
Scroll downward to see transient profiles of the yr’s 10 finest gamers. In the event you’d wish to look again at earlier installments of this sequence, observe these hyperlinks: 91-100,81-90,71-80,61-70,51-60,41-50,31-40,21-30, and 11-20.
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OBV: 120
Main place: LF
BPO (batting): .986
BA: .285
Different batting stats: PA 645, HR 25, RBI 76
Notes: Carroll took the Nationwide League by storm in 2023. He was unanimously elected as Rookie of the Yr, and he emerged as a star throughout Arizona’s inconceivable run to the World Sequence. Carroll led the NL in triples (10), completed second in stolen bases (54), and was sixth in runs scored (116).
OBV: 121
Main place: SS
BPO (batting): 1.062
BA: .327
Different batting stats: PA 536, HR 33, RBI 96
Notes: Seager’s first season after signing with Texas as a free agent was a slight disappointment. He batted solely .245 in 2022. However he made amends in 2023 by hitting a strong .327, topping the American League in doubles (42), driving house 96 runs, and main the Rangers to their first world title.
OBV: 123
Main place: RF
BPO (batting): 1.147
BA: .267
Different batting stats: PA 458, HR 37, RBI 75
Notes: The numbers from Decide’s injury-plagued 2023 season paled compared to 2022’s 62 homers, 131 RBIs, and .311 BA, however he was nonetheless solidly productive. He racked up an OBV of 123 regardless of taking part in solely 106 video games. His 37 homers had been nonetheless fourth-best within the AL, and his 88 walks had been sixth.
OBV: 130
Main place: P
BPO (pitching): .497
ERA: 2.63
Different pitching stats: IP 209.0, W-L 15-4, SO 222
Notes: Cole had come near the Cy Younger Award on a number of events, ending among the many high 5 vote-getters in 5 earlier seasons. However he lastly landed his first trophy in 2023 after posting 15 wins for New York and main the American League in ERA (2.63) and innings pitched (209.0).
OBV: 137
Main place: LF
BPO (batting): 1.014
BA: .275
Different batting stats: PA 708, HR 35, RBI 109
Notes: Soto stumbled a bit in 2022, a season during which he was traded from Washington to San Diego in early August. However he bounced again properly in 2023. His .410 on-base proportion was second-best within the NL, his .519 slugging common was eighth, and his 35 house runs had been tenth.
OBV: 161
Main place: 1B
BPO (batting): 1.060
BA: .283
Different batting stats: PA 720, HR 54, RBI 139
Notes: Olson had the unenviable task of changing the beloved Freddie Freeman at first base for Atlanta. He proved as much as the duty, topping the Nationwide League in homers (54), runs batted in (139), and slugging common (.604). He completed fourth in balloting for the Most Precious Participant Award.
OBV: 163
Main place: 1B
BPO (batting): 1.070
BA: .331
Different batting stats: PA 730, HR 29, RBI 102
Notes: Freeman stays a batting machine, regardless of the place he performs. He rapped 211 hits in his second season with Los Angeles, producing a .331 BA. He completed second within the NL within the former class, third within the latter. Freeman led the league in two stats in 2023: doubles (59) and intentional walks (12).
OBV: 167
Main place: RF
BPO (batting): 1.103
BA: .307
Different batting stats: PA 693, HR 39, RBI 107
Notes: Betts served as Los Angeles’s leadoff hitter all through 2023, forming a harmful mixture with Freeman, the person proper behind him within the batting order. Betts completed third within the NL in slugging (.579), fourth in on-base proportion (.408), and fifth in batting common (.307).
OBV: 226
Main place: RF
BPO (batting): 1.197
BA: .337
Different batting stats: PA 735, HR 41, RBI 106
Notes: Acuna was the unanimous winner of the Nationwide League’s Most Precious Participant Award, and why not? His dominance was complete. No person within the NL rapped extra hits (217), reached base at a greater clip (.416 OBP), stole extra bases (73), scored extra runs (149), or made extra plate appearances (735).
OBV: 240
Main place: DH-P
BPO (batting): 1.214
BA: .304
Different batting stats: PA 599, HR 44, RBI 95
BPO (pitching): .568
ERA: 3.14
Different pitching stats: IP 132.0, W-L 10-5, SO 167
Notes: Nothing was extra sure than Ohtani’s unanimous victory within the American League’s MVP race. The 2-way star led the American League with 44 homers and a .654 slugging common as a delegated hitter, and he added 10 wins and a 3.14 ERA earlier than an elbow harm ended his pitching duties for Los Angeles. The large query now, after all, is the place Ohtani will land as a free agent.
