In their latest piece for the Village Voice, writer Allen Barra covers Yankee slugger Aaron Judge and his journey to potentially surpass the pre-steroid record for home runs. As of this article’s September 9, 2022 posting, Judge leads the MLB in Home Runs, Runs Batted In, Runs Scored, Total Bases, On-Base Percentage, Slugging Average, and more. “Most spectacular, of course, is the Yankee outfielder’s 55-home-run mark, a whopping 19 dingers ahead of second-place Kyle Schwarber, of the Phillies,” writes Barra. “Judge is having the kind of season where any stat he’s not leading the league in doesn’t matter.”
“There’s no doubt that Judge is the leading candidate for the American League MVP, even in a season where Shohei Ohtani, of the Angels, has hit 33 home runs and pitched 136 innings to win 11 games with a 2.58 ERA,” continues Barra. “As of today, the Yankees are currently leading the AL East by 4.5 games and are headed for the playoffs (despite their dismal performance since the All-Star Game). Without Judge, they would be more like the fourth-place Baltimore Orioles (10.5 games out of first place), wondering if they’d have any shot at catching the third-place Toronto Blue Jays.”
