"Shohei Ohtani makes you appreciate Aaron Judge's 62 HR even more" – Ex-Yankees coach says Ronald Acuna's 40-70 falls short of Dodgers star's 50-50

Present-day baseball fans have enjoyed watching Aaron Judge, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Shohei Ohtani create history in successive seasons. It's fairly difficult to pick who among the three has the best season objectively, but ex-New York Yankees coach Sean Casey has picked a clear winner on Friday's episode of "The Mayor’s Office with Sean Casey."

Casey, who plied his trade in the MLB from 1997-2008, had his best success with the Cleveland Indians where he was a three-time All-Star. He had a short stint as a batting coach for the Yankees, but that doesn't seem to influence his decision as he named Ohtani the greatest baseball player of all time.

"I hope we're all sitting back as fans and realizing what we're looking at, because 50-50 - only one guy has ever done it, you know? And that's Shohei Ohtani. Look at (Ronald) Acuna last year - 40 (HR) - 70(SB). Like, 40-70(is incredible), but 50-50 is a different animal because that's 10 more homers." [23:47]

For Casey, Ohtani's current season is more impressive than Acuna's MVP-winning campaign solely based on homers. As such, he felt that the LA Dodgers star has now elevated Aaron Judge, who hit 62 homers in 2022, which Casey mistakenly mentioned as 63.

"Like you think about how hard it is to hit 50 homers. Look at Judgy right now. I mean, Judgy - you talk about 63 (HR). I think this with Shohei makes you appreciate 63 even more, because you're like, 'Wow, it seems like this guy's hitting a homer every night.' So, we're looking at maybe the greatest player of all time," Casey said. [24:11]

MLB analyst claims Shohei Ohtani transcended baseball

On "The Mayor’s Office with Sean Casey," podcast co-host and MLB analyst Rich Ciancimino made an interesting take on Shohei Ohtani's global status. Per Ciancimino, even NFL sportscasters spoke about Ohtani's brilliance after his historic three-homer game against the Marlins, against whom he achieved the landmark 50-50 feat.

"This is how incredible it was: I flipped over to the NFL game. If your broadcasting an NFL game, you're not hearing about baseball. They talked for, like, three straight minutes about Shohei Ohtani on a Jets Thursday Night Football game, where Aaron Rodgers was playing out of his mind.

"That's how global [Ohtani is]. I saw a CNN alert about Shohei Ohtani today. He transcends baseball; he is a global figure, like Michael Jordan," said Ciancimino. [27:23]

Incidentally, Dodgers' skipper Dave Roberts also drew parallels between Jordan and Ohtani. Roberts said on MLB Networks "Manager on the Mic" show that the Japanese phenom always performs when the lights shine brighter. It's something Roberts felt Jordan and Tiger Woods did in basketball and golf respectively.