Yankees take over MLB with Player of the Month awards after claiming best record

Officially anointed with the best record in Major League Baseball on Monday, the New York Yankees drove the point home with two honors for their top performing players. Usually, we wouldn't pay much attention to it, but it's hard to ignore when your team legitimately owns the American League.

Aaron Judge, the hottest hitter on the planet right now as he endures a Barry Bonds-esque streak, was named the AL Player of the Month. He finished with a .361 average and 1.397 OPS with 28 runs scored, 14 homers and 27 RBI (nine of which were go-ahead runs).

He powered the Yankees over the weekend in San Francisco after spurning the Giants in free agency last year, and he put the early-season struggles in the rearview with authority.

Remember that? Even rational fans were driven to the brink, wondering if there was an underlying health issue affecting his performance. The outside haters had a field day speculating whether or not Judge hit a massive drop-off that would define the rest of his career. Sad for those people.

Yankees take over MLB with Player of the Month awards after claiming best record

Juan Soto carried the team throughout April. It was Judge's turn for May, and he somehow did it more emphatically. Perhaps that's why he's the Captain.

On the pitching front, Gerrit Cole's replacement earned AL Pitcher of the Month and AL Rookie of the Month honors. Take a bow, Luis Gil. You, my friend, are ABSURD! The right-hander battled for the No. 5 spot in the rotation during spring training after Cole went down, and he's since doubled as Cole since Opening Day.

Obviously, what Gil accomplished in May was unmatchable, but on the season he's 7-1 with a 1.99 ERA, 2.99 FIP and 0.95 WHIP. He's struck out 79 batters in 63 1/3 innings (11 starts). He's allowed a league-best 4.1 H/9 and just 0.6 HR/9. At this point, he can only be criticized for his walk rate (4.4 BB/9), but that's only improved over the last few weeks!

Any Yankees fan complaining about anything right now needs to get their head examined. Nobody has it better than us through the first two months of the season. We know that can change on a dime, but ride the highs while you can.

No better time to do it. New York is 42-19, which is tops after the Phillies lost on Sunday night, and Juan Soto and the rest of the league-best pitching staff is playing a supporting actor role to Judge and Gil, who just swept the league's honors.