Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani run away with 2024 fantasy baseball awards

Congratulations, you made it! The 162-game marathon is finally over (minus Monday’s Mets-Braves doubleheader), which means there are no more ageless veterans performing like they discovered the fountain of youth to add from the waiver wire.There are no more rookie fireballers on their way to the bigs to boost your rotation, no more draft-day afterthoughts outperforming their average draft position, and no more top-tier players falling way short of expectations. Monday, your league will crown its champion and figure out a punishment for the loser.

(Maybe the grand loser should play a round of golf dressed like Guy Fieri or Grimace while using clubs made for a toddler — and if he or she shoots over 110, they have to do it all over again.) That means there’s no more advice to give.Just awards to hand out.

Roto Rage Jarad Wilk doles out the honors (and dishonors) for the AL and Fantasy Alarm’s Howard Bender handles the NL awards: AL: Aaron Judge, Yankees — An argument could be made for Bobby Witt Jr., as he had more stolen bases, an ever-so-slightly better average, a few more runs scored and struck out less, but Judge is the MVP.He entered Friday leading the majors in homers, RBIs, walk rate, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, average exit velocity, hard-hit rate and WAR.

After a slow start, business picked up — and rarely slowed down (outside of a 16-game homer-less streak where he hit .207).Juan Soto was a close third. NL: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers — Is there really anything to say about Ohtani’s season that hasn’t already been said? Once he cleared 50/50, he easily established himself as not only the best player in reality, but in fantasy as well. AL: Randy Arozarena, Rays/Mariners — Drafted as a top-15 outfielder (top-50 overall), he came nowhere near performing like one.

The move to Seattle didn’t help, and he will finish with career-low marks in average, OBP, slugging and OPS. NL: Matt Olson, Braves — Some might disagree ...