Only God Can Judge Judge

jon abbey

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Just for the record, he's even bigger than Howard, or Frank Thomas, or Dave Winfield, or any other position player who has ever played. He is listed at 6'7", 282, and evidently no other position player has ever been that big.
 

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Tony Clark was 6'8".
Nate Freiman shares this height. With respect to the weight column, only five position players all-time have been heavier than 282: Calvin Pickering at 283, Adam Dunn at 285, Kennys Vargas at 290, Dimitri Young at 295, and all-time leader Walter Young at 320.

That said, it's a B-Ref specific search, to find players bigger than 79 inches -and- 282 pounds, which is why Jon put that qualification in his post. Closest I found to these measurements was OF Steven Moya, who is listed at at 6'7", 260 pounds, and Detroit's 10th best prospect by SB Nation's John Sickles, of MinorLeagueBall, going into the season. Moya interestingly has a line in his write-up you'd think was Judge's if you didn't know better, at the time: "skills haven’t changed a bit, still has enormous power with serious contact problems[.]"
 

jon abbey

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Right, it's the height/weight combo. I read this somewhere recently and looked for the citation when posting, but couldn't find it, sorry.
 

Wingack

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Judge with another long HR today, his tenth this month. I think people are expecting him to come crashing down but throughout his minor league career he has shown the ability to adjust. Yes, he will probably go into some pro-longed slumps where he K's a ton, but he is really looking like a 40 HR bat.

I also kind of like that they have him buried at the bottom of the lineup. It is nice to have a threat like that just sitting in the 7th spot. It doesn't let the pitcher take a breath. He is really, really exciting to watch.
 

jon abbey

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Two more HRs tonight, what he's done so far is superhuman, his league-leading 1.219 OPS masks the fact that he started off 2-15, but since then has 12 HRs in 19 games. He has been even more locked in on this homestand (5 games so far), .500/.667/1.438 (8-for-16) with 10 R, 5 HR, 10 RBI and 8 BB.

And as an added bonus, he has looked quite good in the field, a cannon for an arm although not tested much so far (he did gun out Bautista at third yesterday) and what seems like a ton of range. UZR has him at an impressive 21.0/150.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=15640&position=OF
 

jon abbey

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The power isn't surprising, the pitch recognition for the past week or so has been remarkable. That Grilli AB last night was a thing of beauty, down 0-2 quickly, took 3 just off the plate, fouled off 4 pitches, and then pulverized the 10th pitch of the AB.
 

steveluck7

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Hearing about him and his size, i thought he would have a long swing full of holes, a la Richie Sexson or some other very tall hitters. I was impressed at how compact his swing is. Not to mention his effortless power to the opposite field (His HR into the Fenway bullpen)
 

Wingack

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The Ringer had a great article on Judge today. They highlighted how unique his size really is:

"Only two hitters have been listed as taller than Judge in MLB history — Tony Clark and Nate Freiman, both 6-foot-8 — and a handful of players who weighed more — Walter Young is the record holder at 320 pounds, and Dmitri Young’s bio has him at 295. The only player of comparable build was Adam Dunn, who was heavier than Judge at 285 pounds, and shorter at 6-foot-6. Even Baseball Giant prototype Giancarlo Stanton stands a mere 6-foot-6, 245.

We should take any team weight listings with a grain of salt. A lot of times, franchises will list players as lighter than they are; the Red Sox listed David Ortiz as 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, and if you think he was only 230 pounds, I have a bridge and a pile of Dominican boner pills to sell you. But Judge’s listing seems accurate. Judge has no pudge: It’s just that his entire body seems proportionally larger than an average human’s body. He is like a giant schnauzer who’s surrounded by miniature schnauzers. The bodies are proportional. One is just bigger.

Judge looks like he belongs in a different sport, starting with his uniform number — his no. 99 looks more at home on Warren Sapp, J.J. Watt, or Wayne Gretzky than it does on a baseball player. And even as the Yankees’ penchant for retiring numbers has rendered many of them off-limits, few have strayed into the 90s; wearing 99 is a choice for a rebel like Manny Ramírez more than for a staid True Yankee.

Honestly, though, Judge would barely seem average in any sport. While 6-foot-7 is a perfectly normal height for an NBA player, almost the ideal basketball height, Judge’s weight would be uncommon in hoops. Of the 45 players in the NBA this season who were listed at 6-foot-7, the heaviest was Pistons forward Stanley Johnson, who weighs 245 pounds — making him about 85 percent of the human that Judge is. There have been a few NFL players listed at 6-foot-7 and between 280 and 290 pounds, but in the modern game most guys that size are asked to either bulk up and become offensive linemen or slim down and become tight ends or defensive ends."
 

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It has been a long time since a Yankee terrified me. Judge Terrifies me....and it's going to be for a loooong time.

And he seems like a great kid. Good for you guys.
 

jon abbey

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He is carrying the team from the bottom half of the lineup, NY now 11-0 when he homers, 6-9 when he doesn't.
 

Murderer's Crow

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He is carrying the team from the bottom half of the lineup, NY now 11-0 when he homers, 6-9 when he doesn't.
Hard to say he's carrying the team but his presence is obvious. Pitchers have no idea what to do with him right now and Girardi has brilliantly managed where to place him in the lineup. Slowly but surely he's getting pushed up.
 

jon abbey

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It's baseball, not basketball, so one guy can only do so much, but he is leading MLB in WAR, not easy to do from RF.

Girardi pretty much said he is putting Sanchez back at 2 starting Friday, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the lineup falls, although no DH for the next 5 games will push off us seeing 9 man lineups until next Thursday against the Astros.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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Which WAR are you using? Sale is ahead of him in bWAR and there's four guys ahead of him in fWAR.

Edit: not trying to be dickish, just wondering where you're pulling that from.
 

jon abbey

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He has crazy home/road splits so far, 1.586 OPS at home, .791 on the road. One's first thought would be that he is taking advantage of the short RF in YS, but he has only hit one over there so far, will be interesting to keep an eye on this as PAs add up.
 

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There goes his season
All kidding aside, he's entering the portion of his major league career where he has been seen enough that pitchers begin to develop a "book" on him. For the next couple of months, they will pound his weak spots and his numbers will fall off. The key question is whether he is able to adjust and force pitchers to play to his strengths.

From the little I've seen of him, I am impressed by his approach and think that he'll make the necessary adjustments to be a very effective hitter at this level.
 

jon abbey

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In case anyone didn't see his game-saving catch against TB on Sunday, NY up 3-2 in the 6th, no outs, man on first. This changed it from a 3-3, no outs, guy on second or third to still NY 3-2, two outs, no one on. Dickerson had the play right in front of him and was so sure it would drop he was past third already and didn't even try to get back.

 

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That catch was ridiculous. He's like some giant mega Mickey Mantle baseball mutant. He's so awesome and yet it is so awful to watch him do it against your team.
 

Big John

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Is it just me, or does he look alot like Shrek? IMHO that should be his nickname.

He may not turn out to be the next Mantle, but I'll settle for Dwight Evans. The kid can really play the outfield and he has a cannon for an arm. That catch last night wasn't his only great defensive play. The earlier play where he dove into the stands to catch a foul fly was ridiculous.
 

ronlt40

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Really?? Can the kid maybe make an all star team first?? or win ROY. This is the exact kind of thing i as a yankee fan make fun of other teams for doing.
 

jon abbey

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I mean it is really quick but stories like this don't come around too often. Maybe he will end up being a one season flash-in-the-pan like Mark Fidrych or Joe Charboneau but there's no reason to think that now.
 

terrynever

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Really?? Can the kid maybe make an all star team first?? or win ROY. This is the exact kind of thing i as a yankee fan make fun of other teams for doing.
Yankees' p.r. response is they are trying to make the park more fun for younger fans.

Truth is, they could fit the entire New York court system into the empty seats behind home plate.
 

ThePrideofShiner

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Mark Feinsand said on Twitter that the Yankees plan to give away those seats to youth organizations every game. Seems like a fun thing. As the most cynical Yankees fan here, it seems like it is OK for the team to have some fun with this thing.

I mean, the guy is leading the majors in homers afterall.
 

Wingack

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I love that Judge's Chambers thing! Even more if they make it a kids thing, but why not?

I just hope he doesn't get hurt on one of those fielding plays.
I do too. The Yankees as an organization haven't embraced fan friendly and fun ideas, like they are almost too good for it, so I am glad to see they are doing this.
 

terrynever

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Judge may be opening the door to athletes his size choosing baseball over football, especially with the concussion problem in play for gridders. If he sustains success for five or 10 years and makes big money, that is a helluva statement to younger athletes, and their parents.

Today's grand slam home run was an example of how his strength plays in baseball. He smoked a line drive to the gap in right. Except it went 15 rows up in the bleachers. For most normal-sized hitters, that's a double.
 

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Dude is the Greek god of hard contact. He's got 4 of the 10 hardest hit balls in MLB this season, including the top 2. Nobody else shows up more than once.
 

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6 of the top 16 according to other posters in this thread.
Should have known abbey would have been all over that. I'm only a month late with the point. Anyway, 3 weeks into the season, maybe that's a fluke....having it hold steady 2 months in, I think it's safe to say the dude just straight up mashes at a level above the rest of the league.