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RF Yankees Aaron Judge has quickly become one of the MLB's prolific power hitters. But his numbers have not been able to back up.
You might have noticed Judge's power numbers that season they should be. He has only totaled 12 homers and 12 doubles for his 24 extra-base hits over 69 games thus far.
So is it time for the Yankees to start to worry about that aspect of Judge's beats? Well, let's really take a look at the numbers.
We must note that Judge dealt with an oblique early in the season, which is why he missed so many games. And whether or not that is still bothering him down the road by GM Brian Cashman last week when he said all the boxes were checked. Judge says he feels good, so lingering injury can be ruled out.
Since he returned on June 21, Judge's slash line has been good at .256 / .380 / .428, as his 35 walks have kept that on-base percentage high. But he only has seven homers over those 49 games. In fact, since July 19, Judge has only seen two hits go over the fence.
From a wider spectrum, Judge's 12 homers over 253 at this season's rate of 4.7 percentage of hitting a ball out of the park this season. Last season in 413 at-bats, Judge hit 27 homers which comes to a 6.5 percentage. And he rookie season where he mashed 52 long balls, Judge hit a homer in just less than 10 percent of his 542 at-bats.
So Judge's average is not bad (.265 for the season) and he says he feels 100 percent. He also has not been chasing balls out of the zone, which he was hitting in his own way (he's hitting .222 in August thus far). Where could the issue lie then?
How about launch angle?
Thanks to Baseball Savant, analyzing Judge 's Statcast numbers shows that his 10.4 average launch angle is the lowest of his career. He had a 15.8 launch angle in 2017 and 12.4 last season. And on the other side of things, his exit velocity is the highest it's ever been at 96.9 this season.
Judge is hitting the ball hard, but he's just not getting enough of it to launch it into the bleachers. He has been tweaking his stance this season, moving his hands up and down and shortening his leg kick. But it's unknown if that's the reason why the launch angle has gone down.
Of course, power is not the only thing that matters for hitters. But with a player like Judge, who can always change a game with one swing, it does it's calling card. He has collected two hits, and has started the West Coast swing with the A's tonight, we're going to see you soon.
Judge is certainly more than due to a victory lap around the bases.
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