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Aaron Judge Being Atrocious in the Postseason Just Makes His Regular Season Success More Impressive

And 4 Takeaways From Games 1 and 2 of the 2024 World Series

aaron judge

Aaron Judge almost won the Triple Crown this season. He finished 1st in homers (58), 1st in RBIs (144) and 3rd in batting average (.322). He also led all of baseball in on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, OPS+ and wRC+.

And all of this was a season after he won the MVP and set a new record for single-season homers in the American League.

Anddd he’s currently in the World Series for the first time in his 9 year career, playing like it’s his first time ever holding a bat.

This postseason, Judge is batting .150 with 19 strikeouts in 40 at-bats, including an 0-for-4 Game 2 with 3 strikeouts as the Yankees went down 2-0 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

Judge’s plate appearances are automatic outs.

He swings at any pitch.

Fastballs are too fast for him. Breaking balls out of the zone fool him like a child frantically touching his (missing) nose and desperately begging you to return the thumb tucked between your fingers.

To cut Judge a little bail, he’s 9 feet tall so umpires get real imaginative with his strike zone. If Judge doesn’t swing through everything, they’ll call him out looking even if the pitch barely avoids the dirt.

But truthfully, in the playoffs the pitchers throw their best stuff, the pressure’s at its highest, the stakes are through the roof, and Aaron Judge gets too nervous to perform.

And all I can do is think about how much more impressive his regular season dominance is.

Judge’s last two seasons are arguably two of the greatest years in the history of the sport that’s been around since Hitler was taking art classes. He is so naturally gifted that he can straight sleepwalk through 162 work days and end up with a couple MVP trophies.

My guy is just going through the motions every day, not stressing or thinking about being the captain of the most successful baseball team ever. Judge clocks in, hits bombs, clocks out.

Then the postseason starts and all of a sudden, Judge goes from swinging at balls out of the zone 18.7% of the time—4th best in 2024—to nearly 30% in the playoffs.

Aaron Judge is still one of the greatest hitters I’ve ever seen and nothing that happens in this World Series is going to change my mind. There are 8 other hitters in this lineup and he’s not the one pitching beach balls down the middle to Freddie Freeman.

It’s okay.

So now that we’ve sufficiently coped, let’s run through some other takeaways from the first two games of the 2024 World Series.

aaron judge

1. Aaron Boone isn’t ready for the moment.

When Boone took over for Joe Girardi in 2018, he effortlessly coached the boys to back-to-back 100-win seasons. But whenever the team made the playoffs, they’d lose to the Red Sox or the Astros or the Rays.

In 7 seasons, this is Boone’s first World Series appearance which explains his insane decision that lost Game 1.

In the bottom of the 10th inning, Boone called for a starting pitcher recovering from an elbow injury that had kept him off the mound for over a month.

Here’s what shockingly happened:

Why the fuck is Nestor Cortes even on the World Series roster?

It’s not like he’s Paul Skenes or Max Fried. At best, Nestor is like, the 60th best starter in the Majors.

You absolutely do not need to rush him back for a big World Series relief outing as if his stuff is unhittable or like he’s contributed so much that he’s deserving of a meaningful World Series moment.

No idea why Marcus Stroman is here either. I don’t think he’s starting a game.

But these are the silly decisions of a manager who’s never coached games this important going against Dave Roberts who’s had to fail in the World Series TWICE before finally winning (the lame Covid season that doesn’t count).

Perhaps if Boone had reached this pinnacle earlier then he’d be more prepared now. I blame the Houston Astros but regardless, here we are and Boone is cooking with dogshit. As expected.

2. Shohei Ohtani is too JACKED to slide

For most players, this is a routine slide into second base but Shohei Ohtani is built like an action figure so his gigantic shoulder popped out on the dirt.

3. Tim Hill got out Freeman.

Sorry, I don’t mean to re-hash this game 1 mistake but lefty specialist and background character from a Wallace and Gromit film, Tim Hill, easily got Freddie Freeman out on 2 pitches in Game 2 after Boone decided to leave in Nestor to send a ham sandwich down the middle of the plate for him.

4. Dodgers pursuing Juan Soto

Obviously, I’d prefer Juan Soto re-sign with the New York Yankees.

Let’s make that astronomically clear.

But the only other acceptable outcome is Juan Soto joining the Dodgers.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post, reported that thanks to Shohei backloading his entire contract (which he probably did to avoid a massive financial penalty from MLB because he’s a gambling addict and threw his interpreter under the bus), the Dodgers can afford to pay Juan Soto whatever he wants.

Fuck it. The Dodgers should have All-Stars at every position. Who cares? The sport was over when they landed Ohtani and Yamamoto the same winter. Not sure what other team stands a chance anyway. Add Juan Soto. Whatever. As long as there are like, 26 owners pretending to be poor, this league will always be top heavy. Shrug. Take Soto. Sure. Trade for Bryce Harper too. Whatever.

 

 

 

 

 

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Written by thelesterlee

Creator of Deadseriousness. Diehard Knicks, Yankees and Giants fan who wants to create a sports and pop culture space that isn't the same copy and pasted AI content you see everywhere else.

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