Aaron Judge stands tall at six foot seven in the New York Yankees’ right fielder spot, and he is the answer for trophy 28. The Yankees have struggled in the past couple years, but they are back in action with a young squad led by power-hitting Gary Sanchez, speedy Didi Gregorius, and huge Judge. How does this translate to another piece of pinstripe success?
Here’s the verdict: they’re right back ahead of their rival Red Sox, they have been absolutely on fire, and they’ve got a pretty easy schedule up ahead which is a pretty clear indication that they’re gonna break out into the playoffs, again. Another factor is the young Judge: The man is batting well above .300, he’s already hit close to 15 home runs by early May, his on-base percentage is above .400, and his slugging percentage is closing in on .800! The last pinstriped outfielder to start out this well in his rookie year was Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio. Judge is sentencing opponents to grim final scores. They’re merely becoming names in history books about Judge as who he set his records against. How do teams prepare for their trial against New York? Don’t pitch right into the strike zone. The best opportunity for getting the powerful Judge out is to pitch around him. That means something similar to intentionally walking a batter. Say you’re a left handed pitcher and Mike Trout comes up with the bases loaded; you don’t want to give him anything good to hit, but you also can’t walk him because then a run will score. What you do is throw pitches around the edges of the strike zone that wouldn’t always be called a strike by the home plate umpire, but still look close enough for the batter to take a whack at. The pitches are close enough to look hittable, but they’re much more difficult to strike than pitches right down Broadway are. That’s how pitchers have to play it against Judge. For example, last year he struck out 42 times out of just 95 plate appearances. His batting average was a mere .179, but his strikeout average was an astounding .442. This year, he’s struck out just 32 times out of 104 at-bats. That’s a strikeout average of only .308. His SO average has dropped by more than .130! The Yankees also have Gary Sanchez’s power in tow: Sanchez is batting up near .300 with an OBP close to .400 alongside 2 home runs in just 10 games for Sanchez. Last year, he came in second for the Rookie of the Year award behind the 11-7 Detroit Tiger, Michael Fulmer. Sanchez also went .299 for his average, .376 for his OBP, and hit all of 20 home run shots in just 53 games. If the Bronx Bombers ballclub can keep calling their shots, this team could come to be another rendition of their late 1990s and 2000s team, their 70s team, and maybe even their 1927 Murderer’s Row lineup. Baseball has been judged and the sentence is life in another set of Yankee World Series championship wins. Jesse A. Cook May 10, 2017 “Tough To Judge: The New York Yankees”
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