new york yankees rumors about Aaron Judge suffering through a second half slump appear to have some validity as the rookie outfielder has been struggling to get on base over the weekend. There are a lot of fans who believe in the Home Run Derby curse, where players who participate in it then suffer a power outage for the rest of the baseball season. Judge won the Home Run Derby, drawing a direct correlation to his struggles at the plate.
Judge is playing his third game against the Boston Red Sox this weekend and has gone 0-for-1 at the plate so far today.
He is now hitless in 13 plate appearances against the Red Sox, with three walks and four strikeouts. His batting average has dropped to .317 on the season, and he now has 113 strikeouts. Aaron Judge and his race toward a possible Triple Crown will be severely harmed if that batting average continues to slip.
Judge is still a star for the Yankees
Aaron Judge has already put up remarkable stats for the New York Yankees this year, hitting 30 home runs and posting 66 RBIs so far. If his batting average remains above .300, that would be an outstanding season by any measure. While there will be critics that say he is still striking out too often, this season has been a success. Judge doesn’t need to win an MVP Award to make that the case.
The Yankees are right in the middle of the playoff race and currently hold one of the two Wild Card spots in the American League. The team still has a good shot at making it back to the postseason, but it will be more contingent on the pitching staff than on what Judge does at the plate. As long as he can remain consistent in a lineup that also includes catcher Gary Sanchez, the offense should be just fine.
Does Aaron Judge strike out too much?
Aaron Judge has 113 strikeouts in his first 311 at-bats of the 2017 MLB season. That’s a lot of strikeouts, but it doesn’t detract from the power numbers that he has been putting up. The major question is whether or not that predicts a significant dip in his batting average. If he can fix the holes in his swing, then the strikeouts will start going away, but will that also impact his power output?
Fans and baseball analysts will be overseeing Aaron Judge as the second half of the season progresses, especially with how much buzz he created during the first half. Can he keep up this pace and set the rookie record for most home runs in a season? Or will New York Yankees rumors about the struggling pitching staff force his story to become a secondary issue?
