[stealofhome]

In 1944 in the real world, the MVP award was renamed to honor the late commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. We have now reached 1944 in this league and I will be renaming the MVP award in each league (excluding the minor leagues) in honor of a particularly memorable batter.

MLB: Tomas Reed
It was between Reed and Velez, but Reed was the first to 3,000 hits while Velez only had 2,359 and Reed came along much sooner than Velez. I wish there was an easily dominant batter just as there was for pitching.

Atlantic League: Eric Rubio
This was a hard one to determine - Rubio is the only player in the Atlantic League on any of the rate leaderboards, meaning he played in the MLB and also had over 2500 PA in the ATL. I'm not sure if any other players met the 2500 PA mark but retired and were deleted without making the MLB.

NCAA: Phoenix Amoss (St. Mary's Gaels)
Typhoe Valentin has the career record for WAR but he did it in 4 years. Tomas Reed, Rory Shew, and Jimmy Canales were also in the running.

California Interscholastic Federation (CIF): Cole Dins (Cypress Centurions)
No real obvious pick here but Dins had a better MLB career than Urdar Arisson, Seymour Aguirre, and Josiah Everson. Yujiro Imai won the most MVPs (3) but he is still too young (27) and his MLB career is only partially completed.

Florida High School Athletic Association (FLHSAA): Gilson Cravoa (Wiregrass Ranch Bulls)
He did play for 5 years in high school but once he signed with the Angels he turned in a Hall of Fame career. R.J. Taylor was also in consideration.

Georgia High School Association (GHSA): Kerry Law (Buford Wolves)
Law was also a 5-year high school player but did turn in a borderline MLB HOF career. Many of the top position players in career WAR for the GHSA are quite young (still in their 20s).

Illinois High School Association (IHSA): Joshua Ham (Brother Rice Crusaders)
Ham has had by far the best MLB career of any Illinois High School batter, even though his HS career amount was lower than that of the likes of Houston Williams and Chris Spinner. Bobby Fendley was another memorable Illinois batter who turned into a borderline HOF candidate.

New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA): Jeff Garcia (Suffern Mounties)
Jeff Garcia has had the best MLB career of any NY hitter. Ebenezer Daniels finished in the top 3 for MVP every year in high school, but actually finished his MLB career with a similar total to what he had in high school. Steven Hayman, Dave Farver, and Smack Housand were all NY batters as well.

New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA): Elliot Raprap (Volcano Vista Hawks)
Raprap was really the only selection here, even though he is still active in the majors. Both D.J. Vetter and Kendall Bradford had better MLB careers up to this point but Raprap still has the opportunity to surpass them and he had a much better high school career.

North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA): Lester Taylor (North Buncombe Black Hawks)
Taylor did play five years in high school but he has the most High School and MLB WAR of any North Carolina hitter. Thomas Hagan was also from the NCHSAA.

Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA): Aiden Shelton (Pendleton Buckaroos)
Similar to North Carolina, Shelton was the best hitter in high school and the majors. Dan McKee is another HOF that came out of Oregon.

Texas University Interscholastic League (TUIL): Benny Wurdeman (College Station Cougars)
Wurdeman is one of three hall of fame hitters from Texas. The others are Phoenix Amoss and D.J. Leverton. Amoss was ineligible since he already has an MVP award named after him and Leverton didn't have quite as good an MLB career as Wurdeman.

Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA): Johan Velez (Denmark Vikings)
Velez held the record for most WAR in the WIAA until Nick Reed came along. However, Reed has quite a ways to go before matching Velez's 77 MLB WAR. Youssef Raadouni is another former WIAA player to make the HOF.