Shohei Ohtani's remarkable 2021 season continued with a pair home runs against New York Yankees in Bronx Tuesday night. Ohtani's home runs Nos. He surpassed Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the MLB leaderboard with 27 and 28 home runs. This gave him four wins in his last three games. The Los Angeles Angels two-way sensation has hit 11 home runs since June 15 and has two starts (and a 1.50 ERA as a pitcher) in that time span. Ohtani's impressive performance at the plate and on the mound is remarkable.Shohei Ohtani's second home run of evening! pic.twitter.com/MYQ4mjPukL Los Angeles Angels - @Angels June 30, 2021This is a modern Babe Ruth Season, as I said in May. However, that may not be true of Ohtani's performance. Baseball-Reference.coms wins over replacement shows that Ohtani has a pace of 11.7 WAR per 162 games, which includes 6.7 as a player and 5.0 in the role of pitcher. This would be a staggering feat that Mike Trouts season has not achieved. In fact, Barry Bonds 2002 in particular is the last time it was done. Even more remarkable, 5 WAR has never been achieved by a player in either the AL or NL. Ruth's best two-way season saw him post 6.0 WAR as an outfielder and 3.0 WAR in 1918 as a pitcher. This was one of his last seasons as a full-time player.It is difficult to find parallels to Ohtani's 2021 performance when even the most famous example of a two-way superstar baseball player fails to live up to expectations. It's not impossible. It was possible to make new comparisons with the data after Baseball-Reference added statistics from the Negro Leagues into its major league records. We have the opportunity to highlight another player who did the same thing Ohtani does now, Bullet Rogan of Kansas City Monarchs.Bullet Rogan in 1934 with the Kansas City Monarchs. Mark Rucker/ Transcendental Graphics/ Getty ImagesWe've discussed Rogans two-way prowess in the past. Our current closest comparison would be if one player was like Ronald Acua Jr. on the plate and Gerrit Colon on the mound. This is essentially a description of Ohtani too. However, this was based on unofficial statistics before Baseball-References research was published. Rogan's career looks just as impressive, according to official statistics. Despite playing in leagues that had schedule lengths of 60 to 100 games per year, he earned 23.7 WAR as an a batter and 37.8 WAR as a pitcher for a total of 61.5 WAR, more than 99.3% of all MLB players since 1901. He and Ruth are the only two players to have at least 20 career wins as both a batter or a pitcher.Rogan's numbers are extraordinary when we consider the shorter playing hours. He had six seasons that produced 10 or more WAR per 162-game, which included five consecutive years from 1921 to 1925. Over the three seasons that Rogan was in the league, he averaged 14.9 WAR per year. After that, he had a down season of 10.4 WAR/162, also known as Trouts worst-ever season. But, he bounced back in 1925 and generated a remarkable 18.8 WAR/162 games, which helped the Monarchs win their third consecutive Negro National League title. They would lose the Negro Leagues World Series in that year as Rogan was hurt when his son accidentally stabbed him in his knee with a needle.The 1925 season was Rogan's best -- and it was one of the greatest seasons in baseball history. Although Rogan was able to post a strong 3.9 WAR/162 as a batter, and a remarkable 14.9 as an pitcher, it wasn't his best two-way performance. That would have been 1922 when Rogan had 8.7 WAR/ 162 as both a batter, and 8.8 WAR/ 162 as an pitcher. It was a perfectly balanced season of all time greatness.Ohtani's 2021 performance -- with 6.7 WAR/ 162 as a batter, and 5.0 as an pitcher -- isn't nearly as impressive as Rogans from almost a century ago. Ohtani plans to join a Rogan-like team. His 2021 season would be the sixth to achieve that standard since 1901 if he has at least 4 WAR on each side of the ball. Ed Rile would be the other, a great Negro Leaguer who excelled at both pitcher and batter during his long career. The remaining four were all Bullet Rogans.Bullet Rogan's Ohtani joins the club. Since 1901, MLB players must produce at least 4 wins above replacement per 162 games. Total Bullet Rogan 1922 Monarchs 8.7 9.8 14.3 Bullet Rogan 4.4 8.5 12.9 Ed Rile 1925 Stars 6.8 12.5 Shohei Ohtani 221* Angels 12.5 5.7 12.5 Bullet Rogan 1924 Monarchs 11.7 Bullet Rogan 1924 Monarchs 11.7 4.8 5.6 10.4 *Through May 29 Source: Baseball-Reference.comOhtani is the best player in baseball this season. His 5.7 combined WAR (batting and pitching) is almost one win more than any other player. Zack Wheeler, Phillies pitcher, is second at 4.8. It's becoming difficult to keep track of the home runs he hits right now. Keep him healthy, and you can count on it! Ohtani's 2021 season will be remembered as the greatest two-way season since Babe Ruth. As Ohtani runs roughshod through the league, it is important to remember that Bullet Rogan did exactly the same thing almost 100 years ago -- and we now have stats to show just how great he was at every phase.Take a look at our MLB predictions.
