Aaron Judge Hits 48th Homer, On Pace for 61

August 23, 2024 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

Superstar outfielder Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees hit home run number 48 in last night's 6-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians. The two teams with the best two records finished up their series in The Bronx with the home team taking the last two after falling 9-5 in Tuesday's series opener that went 12 innings. New York prevailed 8-1 on Wednesday night.

Judge, who belted 52 in 2017 and won the Rookie of the Year award, topped that campaign by slugging 62 in 2022 and taking home the Most Valuable Player Award. The 62 homers topped the former Yankee great, Roger Maris, who hit 61 home runs in 1961 to erase a record that had stood for 61 years.

Judge (-3000) is baseball's 2024 MVP favorite, easily outdistancing the player with the second-best odds, Bobby Witt, Jr. (+850) of the Kansas City Royals.

The 6-time all-star is on track for another 60 home run season during a campaign that has already seen him reach 300 homers (now 305) faster than anyone else. On August 14 at the Chicago White Sox. he hit the 300 mark in his 955th game and 3,431st at-bat. Ralph Kiner needed 132 more games(1,087) and Babe Ruth needed need 400 more trips to the plate to reach 300 on his 3,831st at-bat.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Bobby Witt, Jr. is tearing it up for the Kansas City Royals.

An article by C. Trent Rosecrans, Stephen J. Nesbitt and Sam Blum at theAthetic.com notes that the 24-year-old All-Star shortstop leads the majors with a .352 batting average and rates as both the fastest man and best defender in the game. He and Judge are the only players above 8 WAR this season. He has also proven to be Cal Ripken-like in durability by hitting in the two-hole in every single game this season. He's batting .405 at home and is on track to be "the first major leaguer in 20 years to bat .400 at home".

The article points out that Ted Williams batted above .400 at Fenway Park in 1941, 1951 and 1957. Since then, only nine hitters — four from the pre-humidor days in Colorado — have hit .400 in at least 275 plate appearances at home: Joe Cunningham, Rod Carew, Wade Boggs, Kirby Puckett, Andrés Galarraga, Eric Young Sr., Larry Walker, Jeff Cirillo and Barry Bonds.

Judge would certainly be among the best home run prop bets today, along with teammate Juan Soto as the Yanks stay home to begin a 3-game series with Colorado tonight.

In other MLB news this week, the Dodgers designated Justin Heyward for assignment to clear a roster spot for Chris Taylor. Heyward, a 15-year veteran, left the team with an exclamation point when his last at-bat on Tuesday was an 8th-inning pinch hit 3-run homer in a 6-3 win over Seattle.

Speaking of Seattle, Scott Servais, the club's manager since 2016, was unceremoniously dumped on Thursday and replaced by Dan Wilson. Wilson spent 12 of his 14 season in the big leagues with Seattle. The 55-year-old former catcher was an in-house promotion as had been serving as a special assignment coordinator for spring training.

Servais was 668-624 (.517). During his tenure, the Mariners only made the postseason one time (2022) when they fell in the ALDS to Houston.