Yankees: Despite Impressive Start, Aaron Judge Needs To Improve

The Yankees Aaron Judge has taken the baseball world by storm, homering ten times in April. Despite hitting baseballs nearly 120 miles-per-hour, he is still striking out a good amount. Judge is hot right now, but if he falls into a slump, he might not be able to climb out of it.

Aaron Judge currently leads the American League in home runs with 10 and is fourth with 21 runs batted in. He has emerged as one of the best power hitters of the young 2017 season, just what the Yankees needed. He leads the Yankees in almost every statistical category and has proved he can be the guy after

He leads the Yankees in almost every statistical category and has proved he can be the guy after Gary Sanchez went down in early April. Even though Judge has shown his incredible power, he is still striking out at an alarming rate.

Judge has struck out 25 times so far in just 80 at-bats, which is an improvement from his 2016 campaign. In 84 at bat in 2016, Judge went down on strikes 42 times, exactly half of his at-bats.

While every other aspect of his game has improved, his strikeout rate on paper looks better. So why is this an issue? Judge is hitting well and striking out less.

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It’s not hard to improve upon a 50% strikeout rate. The only reason his strikeout problem is being pushed under the table is that he is hitting .300 with ten home runs. If those numbers were around his career average, .238 with five home runs by April’s end, then the 25 K’s would seem worse.

To avoid a monumental slump, Judge needs to be putting the ball in play more while he is hot. Being on a hot streak indicates that a player sees the ball well, and striking out shouldn’t happen a lot. If Judge is striking out in 32% (25 of 80) of his at-bats during a hot streak, then when he slumps, that will jump up a ton.

Now, this isn’t meant to bash Judge; I believe he is an outstanding ballplayer and wish him continued success. But the reality is that players go through hot and cold streaks. It’s just part of the game and happens to the best and worst ballplayers.

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Judge is no exception. He won’t hit .300 for the rest of the year. As much as I wish he could, he won’t hit ten home runs a month for the rest of the season, which would give him around 60-65 for the year. He will have good games, as well as bad games. He just needs to make it better games then worse.

Aaron Judge’s biggest problem has always been his strikeout problem, and its hard to cover a strike zone when you’re six feet seven inches tall. But thus far in 2017, he has done a good job at limiting his k rate from last year, but it’s not enough.

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His strikeout rate needs to continue to go down, to avoid a terrible slump. Hopefully, Judge can continue his hot hitting into the later part of the season, when Gary Sanchez returns, and Greg Bird finds his swing again.

The Yankees Aaron Judge has taken the baseball world by storm, homering ten times in April. Despite hitting baseballs nearly 120 miles-per-hour, he is still striking out a good amount. Judge is hot right now, but if he falls into a slump, he might not be able to climb out of it.

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