Aaron Judge (2022)
Aaron Judge 🇺🇸 (2022)
Aaron James Judge (born April 26, 1992, Linden, California), nicknamed "The Judge," is a professional American baseball player who has been playing since his debut in 2016 with the New York Yankees. Winner of the 2017 Home Run Derby, AL Rookie of the Year in 2017, holder of 3 AL Silver Slugger awards, with an average of 49 home runs per regular season (162 games) and 5 All Star Games
In 2022, Aaron Judge broke a new record with 62 home runs in the regular season, surpassing the record for the most home runs in the American League previously held by Roger Maris (61 home runs in 1961). As an interesting fact, he also secured the top spot in the category of "Most total HR distance in a season" with 25,520 feet ( 7,7 km ), surpassing Giancarlo Stanton's accumulated distance of 24,641 feet in 2017. You can see more records that Aaron Judge achieved here.
In this post, I will analyze Judge's batting performance durind the regular season, his plate discipline, and of course, his home runs, highlighting that Judge's strength is monumental. I will also compare his numbers with other players.
In 2022 he made 62 Home runs(ranked 1th), 131 RBIs(tied 1th with Pete Alonso), .311 AVG(ranked 5th), 1.111 OPS(ranked 1th).
If you have any questions regarding the types of pitches (Fastball, Changeup, etc.), here is all the necessary information
Enjoy it 🙌
1-Hits
Aaron Judge received a total of 2,905 pitches in 2022, ranked 1th with most pitches in the MLB during 2022 season. With 12 different types of pitches, the vast majority of which were FS Fastballs at 27.37%, followed by Sliders at 20.59%, and Sinkers at 15.90% of the total.
With 177 hits, Judge was able to made 131 runs, in addition to achieving 82 singles, 28 doubles, and 62 home runs. The vast majority of his hits came from FS Fastballs with 56 hits and Sinkers with 35.
Now, we will see a spray chart displaying the direction of his hits
34.3% went to left field, 51.5% to center field, and 14.3% to right field.
61.8% of his hits were at 95 mph or higher, and he had an average hit velocity of 95.9 mph (ranked 1st in both categories).
In the chart below, we can see that Judge's favorite pitches to get hits were the FS Fastball and Sinker.
Judge's power can be seen in various statistics, and one of them is ISO (Isolated Power), where he ranks first in MLB with .375.
ISO measures hitter's raw power and indicates how frequently a player hits for extra bases.
In the graph below, we can see that Judge has his defined style. He had the most hits in 2022 in the central and lower part of the strike zone. The upper part inside and outside the strike zone is where he had the fewest hits (27).
On the left side of the chart, we can see the percentage of hits by Launch Speed angle, where incredibly he had the most Barrels with 46.02% of the total, also ranking first in this category with 107 barrels (you can see more information about Barrel here), basically a Barrel is a well-hit ball that combines both a high exit velocity and the ideal launch angle.
Followed by 30.11% of Flare/Burner hits. Flares are hits with a low trajectory, while burners are hits with both low trajectory and high exit velocity. You can find more information about launch speed angle here.
Judge has a well-defined ability to hit the ball with his characteristic power; 44.61% of his hits were made in the central zone of the strike zone.
Something very impressive is that he ranked first with the lowest percentage of poor/weak hits, with only 0.5%. This means that only that percentage of his hits were poorly hit or had low velocity. Additionally, Judge and Jordan Alvarez were the only two batters in 2022 with an average below 1% (Alvarez with 0.8%).
Now, with this radial chart below, we can see that the vast majority of his hits were within the 25 to 35-degree range, with an average exit velocity of 102 mph. This also reflects his impressive ability to make hard-hit balls, and despite not all hits resulting in home runs, a significant portion had an impressive exit velocity.
With runners in scoring position (RISP), Aaron Judge managed to hit 11 home runs, a batting average of .346, and only 26 strikeouts in 2022.
You can see his team contribution year by year on Baseball Reference at this link.
For more team contribution stats, I can also mention WAR (Wins Above Replacement), where Aaron Judge ranked first with a 10.6. This means he was the top contributor in the entire MLB.
Home Runs
Before analyzing his home runs, I want to show you a compilation of his season, so we can have a reference of the performance he had in 2022.
10 home runs were connected on 0-0 counts. Right-handed pitchers were the most affected as they gave up 48 home runs. It's interesting that Judge managed to hit at least one home run on every count.
In the heatmap graph below, you can see that 14 home runs were hit in the middle of the strike zone, with only 3 being hit outside of the strike zone.
Something very interesting we can add is that if we look at the distances of his home runs, 22 of them were "No doubter", which means they would be a home run at every single ballpark(30 in total), tied for second place with Kyle Schwarber in this category and trailing behind Christian Walker with 24 "No doubter" home runs.
And based on the hits he connected (including the outs), Judge should have finished the season with 64 home runs (if we compare it to other ballparks where it would have been a home run).
2- Plate Discipline
Now that we've seen the most impressive aspects, it's time to focus on plate discipline. Aaron Judge was struck out 175 times, ranking seventh among players with the most strikeouts in 2022.
Since he is a player with a lot of power and a tendency to hit home runs, part of the trade-off that is taken into account is the number of strikeouts he receives, and in some cases, his batting average.
It's worth noting that Judge is an exception, as despite having many negative stats, he was a crucial piece for the Yankees and ranked in the Top 5 in statistics that reflect his contribution to the team.
We can see in the chart below Judge's strikes, taking into account called strikes and swinging strikes.
27.24% were with the FS Fastball, followed by the Slider with 21.54% of the total. In the heatmap, it can be observed that a significant portion of his strikes were in the lower part inside and outside the strike zone.
In the bottom right corner, we can see that it was the location where he received the most strikes (146); furthermore, it was where he struck out the most, with 44 strikeouts, 15 of which were with the Slider, followed by 10 strikeouts with the Changeup. Despite his offensive power, it's clear that fastballs and breaking balls are Judge's weakness when it comes to striking out.
45% of his swinging strikes occurred in the low area outside the strike zone. It's important to note that a high percentage of Whiff (29.8%) indicates that Judge had a high likelihood of swinging and missing(ranked 14th in this category).
Here I'm showing you a video where some of his strikeouts are displayed. In this case, it shows the strikeouts Aaron Judge received against the Baltimore Orioles in 2022.
In the graph below, we can once again see the types of hits based on launch angle Aaron Judge faced in 2022, this time comparing hits and batted ball attempts (any ball that Judge made contact with but did not result in a hit). Launch speed angle link
We can see that the percentage of Barrels was more likely to result in a successful hit. This type of graph showcases his batting style, which demonstrates that when Judge bats, he does so with tremendous force.
We can also observe further down the chart that Judge managed to connect 73 hits with 0 outs, 61 with 1 out, and 43 with 2 outs, being more inclined to have his batted balls fail to result with one out (101 attempts).
To add more information to the historic milestone achieved by Aaron Judge, I would like to compare the top 5 players with the most home runs in 2022, allowing us to better appreciate Judge's prominence among the best.
The top 5 in the entire MLB are as follows: 5- Austin Riley (Braves) with 38 HR, 3- Mike Trout (Angels) and Pete Alonso (Mets) with 40 HR each, 2- Kyle Schwarber (Phillies) with 46 HR, and 1- Aaron Judge (Yankees) with 62 HR.
Aaron Judge not only leads in home runs but also tops this Top 5 in batting average with .311, OPS (1.111), hits with 177, tied with Alonso in RBIs with 131, and he also holds the highest average exit velocity with 95.9 mph.
It's also important to mention that these five players are at a higher level than the rest, and the green line represents the average of 318 players in 2022 with the best numbers for these stats.
The members of the Top 5 have significant trajectories within MLB, with Mike Trout holding 3 American League MVP awards, Pete Alonso winning the Home Run Derby in 2019 and 2021, in addition to hitting 53 home runs in his rookie season, Judge winning a Home Run Derby in 2017 with 52 HR in the same season.
And Kyle Schwarber and Austin Riley, participants in at least one All-Star Game, each holding a Silver Slugger award as well.
As I mentioned earlier, these types of players are highly prone to striking out frequently and experiencing a significant rate of swings and misses.
The five players had very high strikeout averages, with over 20%, and whiff rates exceeding 24%.
However, the offensive numbers speak for themselves, and in the end, that's the most crucial aspect, which can potentially be dangerous when the opponent becomes familiar with your playing style.
Thanks for the support, Twitter @yucaball
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