Aaron Judge keeps getting walked … which is how it should be

By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

For every ball, a boo.

More than 120,000 Yankees fans braved crummy weather this weekend to see a tall guy hit a home run. Heading into New York’s three-game set against Baltimore, Aaron Judge needed just one measly big fly to pass Roger Maris for the American League record.

But while the pinstripe faithful arrived hopeful, they went home disappointed and drenched. They came to witness history but saw nothing more than a pair of Yankees losses and an avalanche of bases on balls. In 13 plate appearances against Baltimore, Judge walked five times and was plunked once. Of the 68 pitches he saw across three games, only 20 were within the strike zone.

That has been the case for a few weeks now. Ever since Judge walloped No. 60 on Sept. 20, it has been slim pickings, nothing but scraps in the fridge. No one wants to let the big man eat. In fact, only 25.7% of pitches thrown to Judge over that span have been in the strike zone, compared to 39.2% before that milestone blast. Judge has walked 18 times in his past 49 plate appearances, including a four-walk masterclass against the Blue Jays.

Put simply: Judge is being pitched around. And Yankees fans are not pleased.

In the first two games of the weekend series, Orioles pitchers — understandably wary of Judge’s intergalactic home run power — gave him precious little to hit. Game three was a slightly different story, as the O’s K’d Judge three times, but each time a Baltimore hurler missed the zone against the MVP-to-be, the Yankee Stadium crowd responded with a thunderstorm of boos. 

Every home game of the Judge-mania circus has been a soundboard of crowd noises, a symphony of sports fandom: raucous cheers when he struts up to the plate, anticipatory silence in the seconds before the pitch is thrown, a communal “ahhhhh” whenever Judge swings and misses. But nothing has been quite as loud as the base-on-ball boos.

The night after No. 60, when Pittsburgh mop-up reliever Eric Stout walked Judge with the Yankees up nine in the eighth inning, the crowd booed. When Red Sox starter Michael Wacha threw four straight balls to Judge to open the game, the crowd booed. And when the Orioles intentionally walked Judge up one in the eighth with first base open after reliever Félix Bautista threw three balls — you guessed it — the crowd booed. Sometimes it feels like Joey Gallo never left.

But the king recipient of Judge walk hatred was Orioles hurler Spenser Watkins. When Watkins missed with a 3-1 pitch to Judge in New York’s blowout win Saturday, the Yankee Stadium crowd serenaded him with unfriendly chants.

To his credit, Judge has remained patient through it all, steadfastly refusing to chase outside the zone, despite the eager and unruly masses who’ve shown up to see him bash past Maris. Sunday’s three-strikeout game against Baltimore was the first game of the season’s stretch run in which he looked even remotely out of sync with the moment.

For the most part, Judge hasn’t been tempted by the daily deluge of waste pitches. He hasn’t expanded, hasn’t deviated from the strategy that got him to this point. In the face of so much noise, the AL MVP in wait has stayed calm, unwavering, totally committed to his disciplined approach.

The uptick in Judge’s walk rate should come as a surprise to absolutely no one. It’s not hyperbole to say that Judge is having the single greatest offensive season since Barry Bonds. Accordingly, he’s getting the Bonds treatment. There’s a reason Bonds walked a total of 578 times in the three seasons after he hit 73. He was dominant, he was destructive, he was worth avoiding.

And so is Judge. 

The dearth of hittable pitches Judge has seen isn’t about cowardice on the part of the pitchers, regardless of what Yankees fans and prognosticators would like you to believe. Sure, in a baseball sense, pitchers are “afraid” of Judge. And why wouldn’t they be? The guy has hit 61 home runs. He’s the best hitter on the planet. Of course hurlers are careful not to serve up meatballs to the hungriest man in the world.

And while none of them would ever admit this, there have been a few bodies on the Yankee Stadium mound recently who clearly felt the weight of the moment. Two weeks before he walked Judge in front of more than 40,000 angry fans in the Bronx, Eric Stout was playing Triple-A baseball in Nebraska against the Omaha StormChasers. It’s only natural that he might be a bit woozy from the whiplash.

All three opposing managers who stumbled into the Big Apple for Judge-fest over the past few weeks — Pittsburgh’s Derek Shelton, Boston’s Alex Cora and Baltimore’s Brandon Hyde — claimed their teams would attack Judge if the situation warranted it. And that’s what has happened; it’s just that more often than not, the smart money is to do everything possible to avoid Judge’s wrath.

Because no matter the game situation, no matter whether the team facing the Yankees is contending, no matter how many anticlimactic live look-ins Judge gets on cable TV, opposing pitchers facing the 11-WAR man have absolutely zero moral or competitive obligation to give him anything to hit.

With four games left in the Yankees’ season and Judge still level with Maris atop the American League home run leaderboard, there’s no reason to expect the Texas Rangers will deviate from the playbook. This week in Arlington, the gargantuan outfielder will probably see 20, maybe 25 balls in the zone. Maybe he sees one he likes and hits No. 62; maybe he doesn’t and walks 15 times instead. Who knows? Who can say?

But just remember: Pitching around Aaron Judge isn’t weakness or an affront to baseball history. It’s not cowardice or fear. It’s not the sign of an uncompetitive bed-wetter.

It’s simply an intelligent business decision.

Jake Mintz, the louder half of @CespedesBBQ, is a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.