The Yankees slugger has always feasted on fastballs in the strike zone, but that’s been far from the case this year. Let’s figure out what’s going wrong.
They were just two pitches in a long season in which New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge might see more than 2,000 of them. But those two pitches from Oakland Athletics pitcher J.P. Sears on Monday told you why for this very weird moment in time Judge, while at full health, is broken.with a resolute approach: force pitchers to throw fastballs in the zone. And when they do, he devours them. Judge slugged a ridiculous .852 last year when pitchers dared throw him a heater over the plate.
Undeterred, Sears came back with another fastball, this one a 92-mph four-seamer belt high on the outer third. Working under the ball again, Judge flied out to right field with a 59-degree launch angle. Those two pitches are the CliffsNotes to Judge’s slump. He is getting beat by fastballs in the zone, especially on the outer third. His timing is off. He is popping up the ball more than ever before.
New York’s 2–0 loss Monday was another brick in the wall Judge is up against this month. He saw seven fastballs in the zone and did nothing with them: four whiffs, two fouls and the flyball to right field. , Judge has moved a few inches farther from the plate, as you can see here by the position of his left heel in relation to the outside line of the batter’s box.The difference, however, does not appear to be very significant. If I’m the Yankees, I’m not worried.
You’ll know Judge is back and ready to catch fire when he takes one of those fastballs Sears threw to him at 2-and-1 and 2-and-2 and rifles a line drive to right field without his bat getting too far under the ball. That is the default swing that gets Judge back on time. And once that happens, then he can return to catching more pitches out front with power to the pull side, as he has done more of since 2022.
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