From Steve Schaeffer:
On the day he turned 34, Aaron Judge wasn’t short of birthday presence.
Judge sent a Spencer Arrighetti sweeper a Statcast-projected 401 feet to left-center field for his 10th home run of the season. Unfortunately for the Yankees, their offense wasn’t able to keep up with the Astros, who brought New York’s eight-game winning streak to an end Sunday with a 7-4 victory at Daikin Park.
Houston roughed up Yankees starter Luis Gil for six runs in four-plus innings. Gil surrendered five hits and three walks and did not record a strikeout.
Luis Gil was going to be sent to the minors as soon as either Carlos Rodon or Gerrit Cole returned from the IL, but I am impressed that the Yankees just said, “Fuck it, we can’t wait until then.” Gil just is complete garbage, and the team is better off with him being off of the active roster.
Whatever, injuries happen sometimes, ya know?
Speaking of injuries, the Martian is back to DH against righties with Stanton likely headed to the IL. That should be fun. Figure it’ll be Rice and Dominguez against righties, and Rice and Goldy against lefties (with Judge occasionally getting some DH starts, as well).
Well, it was fun while it lasted!
The messed up thing is that the Rays have been winning a lot, too, so the Yankee lead in the division is only a game and a half!
Featured image is Gil’s dumb face watching Walker’s home run in the first.
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I guess some guys have the Good Face and some have the Dumb Face
Is he a Gil or a Face?
as always, VJ cuts to the heart of the matter
Martian final AAA numbers 326/893
In 18 ABs as a RHB The Martian was 389/450/722. Super small sample etc. but has he ever had a 15/20 AB sample against LHPs where he hit that well?
Jomboy noted that Judge hits great in his first plate appearance of the day (.391 average, 1.087 slugging, >1.500 OPS, on a 18% K rate), then terribly in subsequent PAs (.178, .370 slugging, on a 31% K rate). So maybe pitchers are adjusting and he’s not; or maybe he’s getting tired and losing his focus. Makes one wonder about the quality of his sleep. (A pile of money may not make the most supportive mattress; plus he’s got a toddler who might be waking him up; plus big people may be more likely to get sleep apnea.)
If that decline after a first at-bat holds up going forward, it would seem like like decent evidence that he doesn’t have a TUE for amphetamines, at least.
“then terribly in subsequent PAs”
Over what period of time? This year? Can’t be his whole career.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=judgeaa01&year=Career&t=b
scroll down to splits by inning
Yeah, it’s just this year. So the sample is quite small. Just 27 PA’s have been first of the day, and 92 have been subsequent PAs. Still it’s an interesting split and, if it continues, would suggest possible interventions to get him back on track.
That’s awesome, UJD. Had no idea they had splits that detailed.
It’s kinda funny how the same statistics might be interpreted so differently by two people. Some folks might argue Judge is “unclutch” because in the 9th inning, his OPS is so much lower than his usual. It’s still well above league average, at .858.
Jasson is the DH tonight, hitting 6th.
Kinda rather see him get some reps in the outfield. Especially over Grisham, Grichuk and whatever other invalids they’ve been trotting out there. Get Judge a solid week at DH for fucks sake.