Who is more dominant in their sport: Ohtani, McDavid or Mahomes?

[Hockeyholic]

What about Babe Ruth? He dominated his peers as a hitter, after being one of the better pitchers in the league. To me, the biggest difference between them is that Ruth didn't have the DH position to be able to just hit on his days off from pitching.

Not taking the lazy way out. But I can't speak to how baseball was played 90 plus years ago.

 

[ryerockarola]

Mahomes: regular season MVP last regular season 2022 and also 4 years ago.
Super Bowl MVP this year, and 3 years ago, QB'd team to win both teams. Lost in the Super Bowl 2 years ago.

McDavid: won MVP Hart this year, also 2 and 6 years ago.

Ohtani: AL MVP 2 years ago (Judge won last year).
*have to see how Ohtani's year goes (Angels make playoffs, Ohtani break records, him threatening Judge's record would be great and earn him more $$$)

Mahomes can affect his team's games enough both regular season and playoffs for his team to win championships with him being the best player (dominant).

McDavid can affect his team's regular season games enough (dominate) for team to make playoffs. Can dominate some in playoffs though hockey may be the 1 sport of the 3 where some rules/penalties called differently in regular season than playoffs makes it harder.

Ohtani can affect his team's games enough... 1 in 5 when he pitches. And when he hits even Judge setting the HR record last year didn't guarntee Yankee post-season success. Eager to see current MLB season play out.

 

[Trash Panda]

Shoei by a f***ing mile.

The guy brings something to the table that hasn’t been seen in a century.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

Ohtani is like a hy

Shoei by a f***ing mile.

The guy brings something to the table that hasn’t been seen in a century.

He's basically like if McDavid and Vasilevsky were just one person lol

 

[The Nuge]

The fact that he's not 1st by a large margin in any category over the last 3 years kind of proves my point. Being a top 5 hitter and a top 10 pitcher for 3 years is extremely impressive, and shows a versatility we haven't seen since Babe Ruth, but being among the best isn't the same as being the best by a large margin, no matter how great the salary on the last year of his current contract is, or how good of a year he's having. When there's guys better than you, then you're not dominating on the field of play.

Over the last 7 years, McDavid has 126 more points than 2nd place, and the gap in PPG between McDavid and #2 is the same as between 2nd and 13th. He has the most ES points, most PP points, most GWGs and most OT Goals. There's only a few offensive categories over the last 7 years where he's not 1st, like goals where he's only 3rd, but almost everything he does sets the mark for everyone else to chase, year after year after year. That's domination on the field of play.

I don’t get how people don’t understand this distinction. If you want to call him the most impressive, that’s fine. But how can you call him the most dominant athlete in the world when he’s not even the best in his sport at either position?

 

[Trash Panda]

I don’t get how people don’t understand this distinction. If you want to call him the most impressive, that’s fine. But how can you call him the most dominant athlete in the world when he’s not even the best in his sport at either position?

Because a pitcher that can hit like Shoei brings more to their teams success than any other pro in any other sport.

The guy is going to get the most lucrative contract in professional sports history, and it’s completely justified.

 

[yurnxt]

Disagree. QB is only there for half the game.

And McDavid is only there for slightly better than one third of the game.

 

[Icebreakers]

I don’t get how people don’t understand this distinction. If you want to call him the most impressive, that’s fine. But how can you call him the most dominant athlete in the world when he’s not even the best in his sport at either position?

He leads the league in triples, home runs, slugging % and OPS. Hes the best batter in the league this year.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Shoei by a f***ing mile.

The guy brings something to the table that hasn’t been seen in a century.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

The fact that Ohtani is leading this much over the current best player in hockey, on a hockey forum, tells you all you need to know about the answer to the original question and just how unique Ohtani is.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

MacDavitt is almost putting up Barry Bonds steroids leve stats offensively. Check those and compare to Ohtani’s for reference.

Ppl are getting too caught up on the uniqueness and rarity of Ohtani.

In terms of sheer impact and goals/runs or ‘wins’ relative to his playing partners, it’s a lot closer than people think.

We’ll have to see how long Ohtani can sustain this. His one year peak this year might be the best and better than any McDavid year but we’ll see how long he can sustain doing what he’s doing.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

MacDavitt is almost putting up Barry Bonds steroids leve stats offensively. Check those and compare to Ohtani’s for reference.

Ppl are getting too caught up on the uniqueness and rarity of Ohtani.

In terms of sheer impact and goals/runs or ‘wins’ relative to his playing partners, it’s a lot closer than people think.

We’ll have to see how long Ohtani can sustain this. His one year peak this year might be the best and better than any McDavid year but we’ll see how long he can sustain doing what he’s doing.

I feel you misunderstand Ohtani.

You're under some belief that Ohtani just has a fun little parlor trick where he can hit and pitch better than the average player.

Nah - this dude is a monster at both. He's elite at both. Been excellent for multiple years (not just 1 year, as you suggested). That'd be like McNuggets leading the league in scoring and also top 10 in save percentage over the last couple of years.

Ohtani is a freak and no one else can touch him right now.

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

1. Lebron
2. Ohtani
3. Mahommes
4. McDavid

McDavid going deep or winning a ship this year would help that a lot. Lebron is obviously more so referring to Cavs/Heat Lebron. He was unstoppable.

 

[Fatass]

Ohtani is like Gretzky, Jordan, Nicklaus. He’s the goat.

 

[JoelWarlord]

The fact that he's not 1st by a large margin in any category over the last 3 years kind of proves my point.

I dunno man, I don't think it does. He's leading the league in home runs and has nearly 100 point OPS lead over Acuna and Freeman in 2nd and 3rd, 5th in OBP, and has also been a superstar #1 starter over that timeframe. It's ludicrous, he's hitting better than all the bat-only 1st basemen in the majors and is also an ace.

Being a top 5 hitter and a top 10 pitcher for 3 years is extremely impressive, and shows a versatility we haven't seen since Babe Ruth

Ruth is the closest but even Ruth never really did this, his peaks as a hitter and pitcher never lined up in the same way. Ruth pitched from age 19-24 and then abandoned pitching, and his age 23 (1918) season was the only year he was impressive on both sides of the ball but still hadn't really become Babe Ruth at the plate.

At 24 he had his big offensive breakout from 11 to 29 home runs, but that season he had declined a lot as a pitcher and was pretty much just league average and nothing special on the mound, and had stopped pitching when he made the huge jump to 50+ homers and started his run of ultra elite hitting.

but being among the best isn't the same as being the best by a large margin, no matter how great the salary on the last year of his current contract is, or how good of a year he's having. When there's guys better than you, then you're not dominating on the field of play.

I think it absolutely is in a sport with two defined offensive and defensive phases. Being 95th percentile at basically everything is astonishingly impressive even if he's not 100th percentile at any one particular thing (although again, he is literally the single most productive hitter in baseball right now, just because he's not leading in any particular category doesn't mean he isn't dominating peers as a hitter).

I fully agree that McDavid relative to other forwards or Mahomes relative to other QBs is a bigger gap than either side of Ohtani relative to competitors but I don't see why that matters. Ohtani doesn't need to be Barry Bonds crossed with Roger Clemens to be definitively more dominant than Gerrit Cole who doesn't hit or Ronald Acuna Jr. who doesn't pitch, or to be more dominant than a McDavid/Mahomes who are better than him on either side of the ball but can't play goalie or on defence.

 

[Cas]

I don’t get how people don’t understand this distinction. If you want to call him the most impressive, that’s fine. But how can you call him the most dominant athlete in the world when he’s not even the best in his sport at either position?

He's pretty clearly been the most valuable player in baseball over the last three years - he just happens to do it in a different way.

However, it is easy to overstate how much value this is in a historic sense. Ohtani has been superb - as a peak, he's clearly producing well above a typical Hall of Fame rate - but he's not out produced a lot of other three-year peaks.

 

[triggrman]

Side rant

As a baseball coach, and father of a player, it drives me nuts that we take the best athletes at 10 years old and put them on the mound, by 16 if they're still the top pitcher they get less and less field time, and less batting practice, by their college years they're only on the mound in most organizations.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

I feel you misunderstand Ohtani.

You're under some belief that Ohtani just has a fun little parlor trick where he can hit and pitch better than the average player.

Nah - this dude is a monster at both. He's elite at both. Been excellent for multiple years (not just 1 year, as you suggested). That'd be like McNuggets leading the league in scoring and also top 10 in save percentage over the last couple of years.

Ohtani is a freak and no one else can touch him right now.

Wat...I never said he was only great for one year. I said his best year will most likely trump McDavid's best year and that I don't think we can expect him to do this every year.

He's great at both, but not otherworldly. Mack David is putting up otherwordly numbers.

That was my point. It's definitely closer than people think.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Ohtani by a country mile.

He’s the equivalent of an NHLer who can play both goalie and forward at pinnacle elite level. The dude is a unicorn.

Super unique but it's more of the equivalent of a goalie and forward that can only 5-10 mins of a game.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Really hard to judge this. But I'd have to say Ohtani. Just because he plays a sport where he can contribute in many different ways and he excels in just about every aspect of the game. He's like a unicorn.


Mahomes plays in a sport where he has a very specialized role. He can't contribute defensively or on special teams, he doesn't really have many plays designated for him to run the ball, he can't catch the ball or block. He's obviously the best at what he does right now, but he's more specialized.

McDavid is in the same boat, but he can contribute a bit more to the overall game. Obviously he is a total offensive juggernaut, but he doesn't necessarily have a rounded out playstyle. He doesn't hit much or fight, he plays decent defense, but doesn't excel in this.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

Wat...I never said he was only great for one year. I said his best year will most likely trump McDavid's best year and that I don't think we can expect him to do this every year.

He's great at both, but not otherworldly. Mack David is putting up otherwordly numbers.

That was my point. It's definitely closer than people think.

I'll put it this way:

No one else can do what Ohtani can do. He's crazy gifted.
Other people can do with McDavid can do, albeit not quite as well.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

McDavid is the most dominant male in team sports right smack in the middle of his prime. He is lapping other players at this point.

Username checks out lol.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

The answer is mahomes. No baseball player or hockey player is as important to team success as a QB.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

I love ohtani but you can replace him with a top 5 hitter and a top 5 pitcher. You don't NEED that in one player and baseball doesn't have a cap anyways. McDavid is much harder to replace while Mahome just takes that to an even higher level due to being a QB.

 

[The Nuge]

He's pretty clearly been the most valuable player in baseball over the last three years - he just happens to do it in a different way.

However, it is easy to overstate how much value this is in a historic sense. Ohtani has been superb - as a peak, he's clearly producing well above a typical Hall of Fame rate - but he's not out produced a lot of other three-year peaks.

But the question isn’t who is most valuable. It’s who is most dominant. They’re very different things. He’s probably the most valuable because of his two way ability, but he’s not dominating either the way McDavid is. That difference is why Hall and Matthews have a Hart trophy despite clearly not being the best player in the the league those years