Yankees: Let’s laugh at the buffoons comparing Aaron Judge and Max Kepler

There’s been a debate on social media regarding Yankees star Aaron Judge and Twins slugger Max Kepler.

We didn’t want to even acknowledge this because we know how dumb it is, but at the end of the day, whoever started the debate simply shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it, Yankees fans.

New York Yankees star Aaron Judge has lit Major League Baseball on fire with his scorching hot start to the 2020 season (he leads all batters with 11 runs scored, 6 home runs, 14 RBI and a whopping 1.270 OPS), which, as you can imagine, has prompted Yankee haters to come out of the woodwork in an attempt to minimize that success.

There’s a sect of people on social media comparing Judge to Minnesota Twins slugger Max Kepler. Honestly, all of those involved and backing Kepler should be banned from any further baseball debate.

Ohhh ok, yeah, let’s live life based on your last 162 games? Did we forget Judge played in only 214 combined games between 2018 and 2019 due to significant injuries? The graphic man must have left that tidbit out of there. So, with a broken wrist, injured shoulder, punctured lung and broken rib, Judge has been able to pretty much match Kepler in their last full season’s worth of games.

I think that’s how we better frame the argument, right?

These 162-game samples are relevant for breakout stars or players on the decline, but this is selective hearing at its finest. Yankees fans aren’t “soft” for entering this debate and swiftly shooting it down — they’re merely doing their duty to police baseball discourse that has no place … anywhere.

Judge is about a year older than Kepler, who made his debut a year before the Yankees slugger. If you want to compare the last 162 games, you can’t leave out the career numbers. Let’s dive in to shut this down once and for all.

• Judge: .274/.394/.566 with 301 runs scored, 116 home runs, 260 RBI, 18 stolen bases and 555 strikeouts in 405 career games
• Kepler: .239/.319/.447 with 304 runs scored, 95 home runs, 286 RBI, 17 stolen bases and 221 strikeouts in 562 career games

In 157 fewer games, Judge pretty much crushes Kepler in every stat with the exception of strikeouts and RBI. Judge has three fewer runs scored over that span and has even managed to steal more bases than Kepler. So, no, when you look at Judge smacking 116 home runs through 405 games, you can’t compare that to Kepler hitting 95 through 562.

We can’t believe this even had to be brought up, but such is life on social media in 2020.

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