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The theories behind Aaron Judge being ‘lost’ at the plate as the Yankees face the World Series, must win
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The theories behind Aaron Judge being ‘lost’ at the plate as the Yankees face the World Series, must win

Yankees superstar Aaron Judge has heard it all by now. The game’s biggest hitter, by far, barely touches the ball.

Are they the big October throwers? Is the judge doing something different, or wrong?

Is it the pitches or the pressure? The mechanism or the approach?


Aaron Judge has one hit in the World Series.
Aaron Judge has one hit in the World Series. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn images

Hearing about it, I can only imagine what he’s dealing with. The theories are nearly endless — that is, until he starts becoming the righty who led the majors in home runs (58), on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.701) and OPS (1.159). The current draft entered Game 3 of the World Series hitting .150 in October, with nearly half of his at-bats resulting in strikeouts (19 of 40).

It is both his mechanics and his approach, according to an NL scout.

“The reason Judge is so streaky is his mechanics and his approach: 1) he swings uphill, hangs back with his lower half…zero adjustability,” the scout said. “Limited running accuracy with this swing. He gets away with it sometimes because he’s the greatest human to ever play and he can hit balls over the fence, and 2) his approach is to get rid of his A-swing, on every swing, no matter what.

“When was the last time you saw Judge lose his balance and take a hit? He can’t do that. His mechanics don’t allow for adjustments and his approach is to swing as hard as he can regardless of the field. There’s just no fight right now.”


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That’s one of the more insider explanations, but it’s also quite insightful. There are many more thoughts.

“He’s lost,” says one longtime baseball expert. “He can’t see anything in the zone of spin.”


The righty has a lot of strikeouts this postseason.
The righty has a lot of strikeouts this postseason. Jason Szenes/New York Post

An AL scout said he saw the same thing in April before Judge corrected it.

“He has moved away from his regular-season approach of trying to hit the ball to right or right-center.”

The pressure to deliver great regular seasons could be intense for some, an NL scout said. “For some great players, the first time on this stage can sometimes go a little quickly, even for them.”

Another NL scout agrees. “He’s in between the fastball and the breaking ball. A bit of guessing. I saw it in Cleveland. Urgent… no doubt.”

Others say it’s the opposition, and in this case the Dodgers, known as an analytics team, had at least five advance scouts in the championship series.

One AL scout says the Dodgers have his number.

“Such a dangerous hitter if he can stretch his arms,” ​​the AL scout said, “but his primary weakness has been there all year. I feel like playoff teams tend to be better at preparing and executing the main weakness of every team.”