Yankees’ Aaron Judge, Aaron Boone bash Orioles’ changes to Camden Yards

And just like that, there’s a new AL East ballpark to complain about. Except this time, the stadium’s dimensions emphasize everything baseball should be trying to avoid: long flyouts and injury concerns!

As hypocritical as it might seem to hear the New York Yankees complaining about the way a team chooses to draw up their stadium, Baltimore took Camden Yards this offseason and made left-field into the Green Monster (if the Green Monster were 384 feet away from the batter at its closest point).

The Yankees, for better or worse, have always had a short porch in right at every iteration of their stadium. It takes long fly balls and flips/shanks off the bat and turns them into instant offense. It’s an advantage for both the home and road team. And if you asked Rob Manfred and MLB about it, their mouths would lock agape, drooling dollar signs. Home runs are fun! Frustrating if you allow them, but fun.

What Baltimore did — mangling a classic stadium by adding an Injury Cove because they didn’t feel like signing any pitching — is an interesting strategy, but makes the game much stranger.

Camden Yards has been a home run haven for the 30 years it’s been a venue. Now, it’s surrendering one dinger per game (!), which is a perfect side dish to the league-wide offensive malaise that’s threatening to sink baseball’s popularity.

On Tuesday night, both Aaron Judge and Aaron Boone played the role of Rangers manager Chris Woodward, complaining about Baltimore’s Long Porch after a game where Judge hit a pair of bombs, as well as a 380-foot rocket to left that just kind of rolled around.

Yankees’ Aaron Judge, Aaron Boone angry about Camden Yards’ “Create-A-Park” energy

Even if you don’t appreciate them complaining about not being catered to as a road team … you have to admit … it’s weird to just uproot a wall and change a building.

The Orioles Roller Coaster Tycoon’d their way into a surprising start to the season, but have since slipped into familiar territory, sitting a half-game behind the Red Sox in the AL East (typically a good thing, but that currently means “last”). Their All-Star left-hander John Means is on the shelf, meaning their rotation features Bruce Zimmermann, Jordan Lyles, and a few young lottery tickets like Kyle Bradish and Spenser Watkins (14 strikeouts in 30 innings pitched).

So far, the wall’s keeping the ball in the park, but it’s not improving the team’s rotation numbers across the board. Or maybe it is, and otherwise, they’d be really rough.

For Aaron Judge, the wall only works once in every three opportunities, as noted by Boone in the postgame.

Nobody hits the ball harder than Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. It’s science. If the fence is robbing one home run per game from each of those fellows (Stanton lost one that became a double in the opener), then you’re doing something “right.”

When laid out starkly, the numbers really tell a Stephen King-esque story for Manfred and the Suits.

Yes! Let’s artificially bring home runs down further! Let’s de-juice the grass! Let’s make the infield dirt out of mud! Ban the shift, but add four more infielders!

Theoretically, a funky carom could be more interesting — in the moment — than a homer, especially if that homer is hit by an opponent you hate. But nobody’s going home three hours later discussing a bounce. Judge and Boone are right. You can’t just pack up and move things if you’re struggling to build a roster.

This isn’t the Baltimore Colts.

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