Hey, so this Aaron Judge guy is a pretty good hitter, isn’t he?
The gigantic Yankees slugger was at it again on Friday in Toronto, where he took a 90 MPH offering from Francisco Liriano (holy shit, Francisco Liriano is still pitching) the other way, and it left the yard in a hurry:
Another day, another game where @TheJudge44 makes all of our jaws drop. pic.twitter.com/tg15ZyBQZO
— MLB (@MLB) June 3, 2017
Here are the numbers on that particular bomb:
.@statcast on Aaron Judge's 18th home run: pic.twitter.com/vcIIc4xpBQ
— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) June 3, 2017
Good heavens, that’s a monstrous exit velocity to the opposite field. And that distance feels a bit light, considering he hit the ball to the center field side of the 375 sign, with plenty of room to spare above it. But hey, I’m not a math genius, I just like watching talented players mash taters.
According to Fangraphs, Judge has already been worth three wins above replacement, which is just absurd considering it’s June 2. And with Mike Trout on the DL, it’s reasonable to wonder if Judge could be the first non-Trout player to lead the AL in WAR since 2011.
Also, there’s this:
Maybe we should be asking if Giancarlo Stanton could be the next Aaron Judge.
— Matt Clapp (@TheBlogfines) June 3, 2017
ESPN’s Keith Law had Judge ranked #44 among the top 100 prospects in all of baseball heading into the season, so it’s not as though Judge has come out of pure obscurity. However, Law had Judge ranked fifth in the Yankees system, and though there’s always the chance this is just some small sample dominance, at this point there’s also a chance that Judge is just going to be a tremendous hitter going forward, having been so from pretty much day 1 in the bigs.
But seriously, the man just murders baseballs. Destroys them. Violates their eighth amendment rights, and maybe a few more amendments too, for good measure. (That wasn’t even a judge pun, but here we are.)
Also, this is somehow relevant:
So there’s that.
