Aaron Judge’s MLB career might have started off slow back in 2016, but he’s made up for it, and then some, since. While he hit just four homers in his first 97 plate appearances and 27 games, he mashed 52 dingers in 2017, earning himself Rookie of the Year honors and a second-place finish for the American League MVP. Now, just 15 games into the 2018 season, Judge has gone deep four times, with the most recent of those the 60th of his career.
Aaron Judge is the fastest player ever to 60 dingers
Tuesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at baseball’s biggest boy and his latest dinger.
Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
It took just 197 games to get to 60, and that’s the fastest anyone in MLB history has ever reached that mark. Mark McGwire was the previous record holder, with 60 blasts in his first 202 games.
Sure, 60 might seem like a random number to celebrate, but a McGwire record involving dingers is no small thing, and Judge already snapped a different one last season, when he passed McGwire’s rookie record for homers by going deep 52 times compared to the former mark of 49. Given everything McGwire accomplished tends to be looked at with a critical and untrustworthy eye these days (though McGwire’s rookie year was well before 1998, he was also around steroid enthusiast Jose Canseco as well as the curiously always unaware Tony La Russa from the start, sooooo if you’re feeling a little pessimistic about the source of McGwire’s early career homers, it’s understandable ) seeing Judge break his record could be a small comfort to you.
Or, you don’t care about McGwire using, and you just like dingers, and any home run record being broken is good. Baseball is a big tent sport.
Also, come on y’all, it’s April 17 and there are only so many meaningful things happening. Cut me some slack here.
- In this week’s Grant Land, the name of which is totally original, Bartolo Colon gives Grant Brisbee reason for some deep thoughts. Also, Khris Davis is a versatile meme.
- Bryce Harper is good at baseball. He’s also very strong. Probably specifically to keep all of us from just focusing on how strong Judge is all the time, he hit a homer using a broken bat, and he hit it 406 feet, even.
- Cleveland’s Francisco Meija filed a lawsuit against Big League Advance, and you are going to want to read the details Sherly Ring wrote up about it.
- The Royals’ team bus was hit by a piece of ice so large and moving so fast that it briefly incapacitated the driver, forcing reliever Blaine Boyer to grab the wheel. Thankfully, everyone is fine, besides the bus’ windshield.
- The Rays will be without Kevin Kiermaier for the next two-to-three months, as he’s undergoing thumb surgery.
- Shohei Ohtani fans were asked to be quieter during his plate appearances, which is pretty dumb if you ask me. You didn’t, but you are reading this, so I’m going to say it anyway.
- Also, they weren’t asked to quiet down by Ohtani, he’s still cool.
- Bless You Boys is wondering if JaCoby Jones’ start will last.
- Dansby Swanson is playing well in 2018, and Talking Chop looks to see what’s changed.
- Let Michael Baumann introduce you to Jordan Hicks, who has the eight-fastest pitches of 2018 so far.
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