When Aaron Judge stepped up to his first MLB at-bat on August 26, 2016, and looked out to Tampa’s starter Matt Andriese on the mound, he likely didn’t realize that he would have had as much of an impact on the league as he has now. Then again, maybe he did; he promptly went on to take Andriese over the centre field wall, marked 408 to signify the deepest part of the ballpark, for his first trot around the bases in his very first at-bat.
Game number two in the quickly ascending career of Judge saw another homer from the 6-foot-6 outfielder. After that, Judge came back down to earth and Yankee fans woke up from the supposed dream as their new outfielder finished the year striking out in 42 of his 84 at-bats before straining his oblique.
Then the 2017 season came around, with Judge named the Opening Day right fielder. Judge began tearing it up instantly, becoming the youngest player ever to reach 13 homers in the first 26 games of the season. Since then, Judge has maintained a ridiculous .335 average (2nd), .445 on-base percentage (1st), .699 slugging percentage (1st), to go along with 23 home runs (1st).
Needless to say, the guy is crushing baseballs this season. Some may believe it’s beginner’s luck, but these three stats should be enough to convince anybody that Judge is a legitimate MLB slugger.
1 – Longest homerun of 2017 so far
Not only does Judge have the most home runs so far this season, he also has the longest home run. On June 11th, Judge took Logan Verrett up onto the left field concourse for a home run that measured out to 496 feet, the longest home run this season.
And that was only in-game, during batting practice he actually breaks that mark.
2 – Hardest hit ball(s) of 2017 so far
On June 8th, Judge crushed this single up the middle, which ran the radar gun up to 119.8 mph.
That was the hardest hit ball of the season up until that point, but Judge actually went on to best himself with a home run on Saturday that clocked in at 121.1 mph, the hardest hit home run ever recorded by Statcast.
Not only does he have those two heavy hits, but of the 16 hardest hit balls of the season, more than half were hit by Judge (9).
3 – The longest home run drought he’s encountered is just six games
Hitting 13 home runs in your first 26 games may indicate to some that Judge is benefitting from a blistering start that has disguised his lows. As it turns out, there really haven’t been any lows for the Yankee rookie. The longest amount of games he’s gone without a home run is six.
To be fair, he has had two six game droughts (May 21-27, and June 3-9). Coincidentally, there were exactly six games between those two droughts. Judge hit three bombs during that span.
Every 10.3 at bats is seriously impressive, but for clarification sake the best current streak is actually every 9.2 at-bats by the Dodgers’ rookie sensation Cody Bellinger.
Yankees fans are enjoying the ride as Judge continues to launch moonshots. Here are a few more ridiculous stats from his historic season.
He has even managed to match another Yankee great’s beginning to the season
For all his hard work, Judge has earned a top spot in the MVP discussion; he even gets the chants when he’s on the road.
