aaron judge needs his own thread

incredible season. my mother has an Aaron Judge action figure and practically worships him, and one of my best friends is from East Meadow and is a die hard Yankee, and every time he would hit an HR this year, my mom would tell me, and 5 minutes later, he'd msg me.

one of the more incredible offensive seasons in history.

If Arraez sits tomorrow--and from what I've read, he shouldn't have played tonight but wants to win the batting title playing--Judge would overtake him with a 4-4 game; he's had four 4-5 games this season. If Arraez plays, that'll get easier or harder for Judge. A single hit from Arraez would essentially close it out.

Whatever happened to those gritty players of the past who would win batting titles by going 1-1 on the final day of the season and then pull themselves out of the game?

remember when the league dictated how many games Hank Aaron had to play in an upcoming series so the Braves couldn't bench him so he could break the lifetime record at home?

imagine them trying to tell a team they weren't allowed to pull one of the contestants for batting title out early ("Arraez must play at least 8 innings")

Those were the days of Benito Kuhn.

But a few guys got pulled out of the lineup or sat out entirely when it came to batting titles, either on their own say-so or their managers--Kuhn never seemed to interfere there. To be clear, Arraez's physical ailments are 100% real (and have been lingering for weeks), and he personally seems to be bending over backwards out of respect for Judge.

Hmmmn--maybe more of a recent phenomenon than I thought.

Jose Reyes: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/870173-nl-batting-title-jose-reyes-takes-easy-way-out-to-take-the-batting-crown

Justin Morneau: https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/9/28/6860091/justin-morneau-national-league-batting-title-rockies

Terry Pendelton: https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1991/10/07/pendleton-sits-out-finale-but-wins-batting-title/

I assume that the idea that Shohei is the MVP, rather than Judge, is a minority opinion, but curious to see whether the minority is 5% or 40%. So who is the best player in the AL?

People who respond by arguing that there is a difference between MVP and best player are morons.

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) October 6, 2022

A minority of almost 60%...Surprised--maybe the MVP will be a lot closer than I thought.

silliness

Hey, where were you four days ago when it me vs. Tracer Hand and the world?

I wasn’t really interested in the AL record discussion, but the question of who should win MVP seems pretty settled to me. I wouldn’t take bill james’s selected twitter following of confused dads to portend much when it comes to actual voting

I meant more the question of whether they were legitimately pitching to Judge during that 20-game stretch, and whether--intentional or not--the strategy was working. Anyway, it's all moot now.

The interesting thing about the James tweet to me was just that he started out assuming one result and got the other...I wouldn't characterize James's Twitter following that way; honestly, to me the result suggests the opposite. I think old-fashioned baseball people--and I'll include myself here to a degree--see Judge running away with it; more analytical-leaning fans foresee a close vote.

I always find it, sincerely, incredibly confusing when people with analytical backgrounds like Bill James and Elon Musk do a Twitter poll and appear to take the results seriously. With Musk, there’s an explanation - he knows it’s completely unreliable but he is always trolling the world. What is James’ excuse?

I mean, I run a Twitter poll every once in a while because it’s funny but it absolutely absurd to take the results seriously. It breaks all 194228 rules of statistical methodology

James should never, ever have gone on Twitter. I don't keep up with anyone there, but from what he posts on his own site--where he constantly complains about Twitter--he just seems completely ill-suited. He's always talking about blocking people for rudeness, which I suspect amounts to them disagreeing with him. James is an old-fashioned, voice-of-God writer; I say it, you agree. He didn't start out that way; three decades of deification will do that. Even in the "Ask Bill" section of his own site, there is a sort of deference built into most questions.

Yeah I think he’s overstayed his welcome, tbh. I guess if anyone’s earned a right to be crabby and frequently and self-righteously wrong, it’s him

nobody's earned that right!

“If”!

Death to Bill James!

Seven strikeouts and counting in two games--looks lost right now.

I was lost, and now I'm found.

From a Jayson Stark column today:

Check this out. It’s the Yankees’ mountainous masher through 47 games in 2023 versus that same mountainous masher through 47 games in 2022. It’s mind-blowing.

HOME RUNS

2023 — 18
2022 — 18

MULTI-HR GAMES

2023 — 4
2022 — 4

MULTI-HIT GAMES

2023 — 13
2022 — 13

RUNS SCORED

2023 — 41
2022 — 39

RBIs

2023 — 39
2022 — 38

EXTRA-BASE HITS

2023 — 28
2022 — 27

PA/HR

2023 — 11.2
2022 — 11.3

SLASH LINE

2023 — .298/.410/.679/1.088
2022 — .303/.371/.657/1.029

Aaron Boone said he expects Aaron Judge to return this season but stopped short of guaranteeing it. “That’s an absolute. I can’t say that about anyone.”

— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) June 24, 2023

Yeah the second I read about the second toe injection, it was a bad vibe. Does Aaron Judge even have a toe anymore?

Torn ligament in his toe. Can’t walk without pain. Fucking hell.

Genuinely surprised that last night was his first 3-HR game.

As measured by games, fastest ever to 250 HR.

https://sports.yahoo.com/aaron-judge-becomes-mlbs-fastest-player-to-250-career-homers-034419437.html