If you have been following the 2022 New York Yankees, like everyone else in the baseball world, we all know that OF Aaron Judge is having a monster year. But it’s even bigger than that, he is having a season you only see in the video games.
In Judge’s first full season in 2017, he hit 52 home runs, drove in 114 RBI’s, batting .284 and was unanimously awarded the Rookie of the Year. Now five years later, he sits at 43 home runs on August 3rd and with the pace he is on, he will surely surpass his rookie year numbers most likely by the time August is over. Can he catch Roger Maris‘ Yankee record of 61?
When comparing with some of the great home run hitters in the game over the last 24 years, this season Judge hit 33 home runs at the All Star break. In 2001, San Francisco’s Barry Bonds hit 39 home runs at the All Star break and finished with an MLB record 73 Home runs. Chicago Cubs OF Sammy Sosa hit 33 and 32 home runs in 1998 and 1999 and finished with 66 and 63. In 1999, St. Louis Cardinals 1B Mark McGwire hit 28 home runs at the break and finished with 65 dingers.
So with looking at some of the home run hitters who surpassed the 60 mark for a season, its safe to say that Judge is on pace to at least become the Yankees single season all-time home run hitter. To say he may even surpass Bonds 73 home run record, that would be a sight to see.
Since the All Star break, with action resuming on July 21st, Judge played in 10 games and hit nine home runs. In one span, he hit home runs in three straight games (4 total). He recorded 13 for the month of July and already as of August 3rd, he has one for the month.
In his rookie season, Judge managed just three home runs in the month of August, but finished strong with 15 in September. Barring any setbacks or the Yankees resting him for the playoffs, this August should be a record setting month for the Linden, CA native. Looking at the numbers, he needs just nine home runs to match his 2017 total of 52 dingers, which would leave him with just 10 more to over take the Yankees all time leader Maris.
But why settle for Maris, when Bonds 73 may not be out of reach.
It will take a monster feat for Judge to hit 30 home runs in the next 56 games, but at the pace his balls are flying out of the park the last two weeks, he, more than anyone else in the league, has the best opportunity to make it into the record books.
It will be an exciting second half of the season, as all of baseball and Yankee fans will be counting down after every ball that flies off his bat and over the fence. Can Aaron Judge make history? We will all see.
