Aaron Judge, the rookie sensation may have missed the MVP, but this giant seemingly carried the Bronx on his back and took home the Rookie of the Year award!
Aaron Judge, the giant from the Bronx is only known as gentle from his personality. When it comes to being in the batters box, this 6'7 mammoth of a man only knows how to dish out nothing but abuse to the baseballs heading his way.
Although Judge made his debut in 2016, he was starred towards the end of the season and never had a chance to get his feet wet. Batting at around a .179 clip for around 27 games. Easy to say he needed time to adjust, well he did just that.
In 2017, Aaron Judge made himself known and really had people stepping into his court.
Prior to the All-Star break, Aaron judge stomped over his competition, batting in around .329 for 301 plate appearances; towering a total of 30 homeruns and collecting 66 rbi during this time period.
Seemingly unstoppable, Judge collected fans as quickly as he collected homeruns, almost gaining mass popularity over night, in a city and town that isnt exactly easy to win over.
However, despite all of his glory for the first half of the season, the Bronx Giant took a dive after the All-Star break.
Just as quickly as he rose to stardom, Judge took a massive hit to his stats following his trip to the Homerun Derby; an event which has been known to throw off some of the greatest hitters timing and throwing them into slumps, once they go back to real game pitching.
Although hitting slumps in the MLB arent very long lived due to the nature of professional hitters and the aid of professional help, Aaron Judge just couldnt seem to wake up from his second half struggles.
During the second half Judge's average took a drastic fall, batting in at only .228 this time around. This is mainly to blame on Judge's struggle with discipline, as his 99 strikeouts in this span eludes to.
However, despite the struggles with contact and getting on base overall, Judge's power numbers didnt take too huge a dive as compared to his other stats; slugging at around .548 with 22 homeruns and 48 rbi.
This however could not save the damage that had been already done. This tumble in Judge's performance cost him his MVP chances, as the ever dangerous Jose Altuve kept on applying the pressure, racking up yet another 200 hit season.
However, despite all the adversity Judge had to endure during the season, without a doubt his performance is the reason the New York Yankees were able to land a spot in the playoffs, making it to the second round.
This effort allowed Judge to pull away fairly easily witht the American League Rookie of the Year Award.
