A huge man showing his huge growth
AARON Judge launched a ball so hard and so far Saturday afternoon — did essentially what he can do better than just about anybody in the world — that it served as yet another distraction and disservice to just what a superb hitter he is.
In his short career, Judge has shown knowledge of his own swing and what pitchers are trying to do against him, and then the aptitude and attitude to make studious adjustments.
“He’s more than a home run hitter,” Austin Romine said.
Of course, he is that, too. His 62nd career homer in a record 201 games — a two-out, two-run shot in the third that served as a catalyst in what would become a 9-1 rout — provided the Yankees’ first breakthrough against a previously dominating Toronto starter Marcus Stroman.
The ball was hit 116.1 mph, the eighth hardest of 2018 — Judge also was seventh on that list. It went 443 feet, the 12th-longest homer this year — Judge also has the 11th. He was all over the hardest and longest lists last year as well, and that too obscures his growth as a hitter.
Talk about Judging a book by its cover. Judge is 6-foot-7 and 280 pounds, so the impression is instantly of size and strength. But we are seeing unicorns emerge more in sports — NBA 7footers who can make a 3-pointer regularly as an example.
“That is how I see myself,” Judge said about being a good hitter. “Albert Pujols said it best. He said: I am not a power hitter. I am a gap-to-gap hitter with power. I want to put the ball in play and then with my size a lot of balls go out.”
Besides 52 homers, Judge did hit .284 last year with a .422 on-base percentage. But there also were 208 strikeouts. However, this version of Judge is corroborating a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery did much to mess up his second half. Healthy, Judge is back to being a hitting force in all ways.
Judge is striking out in 24.7 percent of his plate appearances, down from 30.7 last year. His Brett Gardneresque judicious nature at the plate seems even better this season. For at this moment, he is like the anti-Giancarlo Stanton. He is hardly flinching at pitches out of the strike zone, just moving aggressively when he wants to hit. And “hit” is the key word as he is batting .338 with a .472 on-base percentage.
Stroman had allowed no hits before Gardner, in a terrific at-bat, laid off two borderline pitches after falling behind 0-2 en route to walking. Stroman fell behind Judge 3-0. Many players hate swinging 3-0, but Judge was among the leaders last year with 12 and has done it four times already this year. The fourth came when Stroman threw a fastball that drifted to the inside corner. Homer No. 6 followed.
“If you are hitting in the middle of the lineup, you are not going to get too many good pitches to hit,” Judge said. “A lot of guys are going to nibble. So, if you get into a situation like that men are on base, it is a nothingnothing ballgame, it is the right situation. You are probably going to get the best pitch you are going to get all game and you don’t want to miss it. I am not taking that pitch off because I have seen too many times guys lay off the 3-0, get a strike, foul one back and now it is 3-2 and some guys strike out or have weak contact when they could have swung at the 3-0 pitch and done damage.”
It shows the thought process of a heady hitter, one who has done a better job staying in the zone this year, notably not chasing pitches up. In his next at-bat in the sixth, Judge again got ahead 3-0. This time catcher Luke Maile went to talk to Stroman. With a runner on second and an open base, no sense throwing a cookie. Judged walked on the next pitch, one of the triggers in a sevenrun inning that put the game away.
“No question, he’s better [than I thought before arriving],” Aaron Boone said. “I knew 52 home runs, Rookie of the Year, a guy that gets on over 40 percent of the time, so I understand he’s an elite level hitter. But he is … I’m so impressed with how well he knows himself and how he develops a game plan going into a game. I think he’s very in tune with the mechanics of his swing, which I’m sure is more of a challenge for a guy that size. He’s clearly to me one of the best players in the league and I talk about him winning pitches all the time. He wins so many pitches over the course of a game up there, you better execute when you’re facing him or you’re in trouble.”