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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 20: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees hits a single in the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Yankee Stadium on April 20, 2023 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Finally, we get to Aaron Judge. The captain has been living up to his new title and position. Through the first 19 games of the season, he has improved his strikeout rate, hitting .263 with six home runs. That puts him on pace for 51 trips around the bases this season.
Hosting the Los Angeles Angels, Judge didn’t get off to a great start. He was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and left two runners on base, plus two strikeouts, in the Yankees’ 5-2 loss in game one.
In game two, Judge asserted his dominance and showed MLB fans who was who. Ohtani announced his authority in the first inning by rocketing a pitch 411 feet to center field. The wall in center sits at 408 feet. Judge vaulted his giant 6-foot-7 body and robbed Ohtani of all the glory. It was beautiful and will be one of the biggest highlights of the 2023 season. We will see it again when the MVP debates start up later this season, but watch it now in the video below.
Saving a home run wasn’t enough heroics for the captain in the first inning. After Anthony Volpe singled in the Yankee’s first at-bat, Judge clobbered a 412-foot shot to left center with an exit velocity of 111 mph. If you want to watch it, I added it below.
Judge ended the three-game series against the Angels with a .416 OBP with a homer and three RBI. Judge out-contributed Trout and Ohtani with five runs to their two combined as the Yankees outscored the Angels 14-10 in the 2-1 series win by the Yankees.
With his glove and bat, Aaron Judge single-handedly won that series against the two players he thinks are better than him. I say Judge>Trout/Ohtani.
New York Yankees</a> captain, Aaron Judge, does not think he is the best player in baseball. Instead, Judge believes he is only MLB’s third-best player, at most.</p>
<p>The Yankee captain told <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://nypost.com/2023/04/20/gerrit-cole-aaron-judge-awed-by-shohei-ohtanis-two-way-stardom/">the <em>New York Post</em></a>, “I’ve got (Mike) Trout and (Shohei) Ohtani above me. Ohtani is doing both pitching and hitting, and Trout wins an MVP every other year. I’ve got some work to do.”</p>
<h2>Trout and Ohtani vs. the New York Yankees</h2>
<p>I beg to differ. Mike Trout and Ohtani visited 161st and River Ave. for three games against the Yankees this week. Let’s see who ended up on top in the head-to-head match-up of arguably the three best players in the league.</p>
<p>Let’s start with <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://www.mlb.com/angels/player/mike-trout-545361">Michael Nelson Trout</a> performing to his standard, having five hits in 13 at-bats for six total bases. A .384 average against the Yankees is very Trout-esque. He’s a legend, yet he could only convert all those hits into just one run and zero RBI. Trout’s wRC+ was 140 for the series in the Bronx.</p>
<p>Now, let’s do Shohei Ohtani, who was warmly received in the Bronx, with some saying the Yankees were courting him. His Jersey was even on sale throughout the stadium shops, odd for a visiting player. Unfortunately for baseball fans, we did not see Ohtani pitch in the series, as he has been lights out in his first four starts this year.</p>
<p>He has been his legendary self at the plate as well this season. He is hitting .269 with four home runs so far. As for his trip to Yankee Stadium, he had only one hit and two walks in his 12 plate appearances, but that one hit was a two-run dinger. You can watch that shot in the highlight below.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Shohei Ohtani with a two-run homer and the <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Angels?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%22>#Angels</a> are up 2-0 in the first. Still nobody out. It’s his fourth of the year and his fourth career homer at Yankee Stadium. <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://t.co/fWWQ7JW0jZ">pic.twitter.com/fWWQ7JW0jZ
<p>— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://twitter.com/RhettBollinger/status/1648464680153923585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%22>April 18, 2023</a></p></blockquote>
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<p>He struck out three times and left New York with an abysmal slash of .083/.250/.333. Shohei Ohtani’s wRC+ was 110, slightly above average for an MLB player.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #58595b" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> O captain, my Yankees captain </a>
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<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:3200px;">NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 20: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees hits a single in the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Yankee Stadium on April 20, 2023 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Finally, <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/16/yankees-aaron-judge-home-run-king-2023/">we get to Aaron Judge</a>. The captain has been living up to his new title and position. Through the first 19 games of the season, he has improved his strikeout rate, hitting .263 with six home runs. That puts him on pace for 51 trips around the bases this season.</p>
<p>Hosting the Los Angeles Angels, Judge didn’t get off to a great start. He was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and left two runners on base, plus two strikeouts, in the Yankees’ 5-2 loss in game one.</p>
<p>In game two, Judge asserted his dominance and showed MLB fans who was who. Ohtani announced his authority in the first inning by rocketing a pitch 411 feet to center field. The wall in center sits at 408 feet. Judge vaulted his giant 6-foot-7 body and robbed Ohtani of all the glory. It was beautiful and will be one of the biggest highlights of the 2023 season. We will see it again when the MVP debates start up later this season, but watch it now in the video below.</p>
<div class="embed ">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="et" dir="ltr">AARON JUDGE ROBS SHOHEI OHTANI OF A HOME RUN!<a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://twitter.com/Casamigos?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%22>@Casamigos | <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://twitter.com/Yankees?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%22>@Yankees <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://t.co/bwny9ontOt">pic.twitter.com/bwny9ontOt
<p>— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://twitter.com/MLBNetwork/status/1648827553153466369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%22>April 19, 2023</a></p></blockquote>
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<p>Saving a home run wasn’t enough heroics for the captain in the first inning. After Anthony Volpe singled in the Yankee’s first at-bat, Judge clobbered a 412-foot shot to left center with an exit velocity of 111 mph. If you want to watch it, I added it below.</p>
<div class="embed ">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Top of the 1st: <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://twitter.com/TheJudge44?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%22>@TheJudge44 robs a homer.</p>
<p>Bottom of the 1st: He clobbers one. <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://t.co/o5O4vyG1IM">pic.twitter.com/o5O4vyG1IM
<p>— MLB (@MLB) <a href=https://calltothepen.com/2023/04/22/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-greatness/2/"https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1648831338802184194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%22>April 19, 2023</a></p></blockquote>
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<p>Judge ended the three-game series against the Angels with a .416 OBP with a homer and three RBI. Judge out-contributed Trout and Ohtani with five runs to their two combined as the Yankees outscored the Angels 14-10 in the 2-1 series win by the Yankees.</p>
<p>With his glove and bat, Aaron Judge single-handedly won that series against the two players he thinks are better than him. I say Judge>Trout/Ohtani.</p><!—pageview_candidate—>">