New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has been one of the best players in baseball in the first half.
He is slashing a robust .284/.364/.618 with a league-leading 33 home runs and 70 RBI.
His .983 OPS is among MLB’s best, and very close to his career-high.
Yet Judge’s numbers could be even better if he received a fair treatment by umpires.
Judge, a large man, has a broad strike zone by definition.
Umpires, however, insist on making it bigger than it is, often calling strikes on very low pitches that are clearly out of the zone.
Codify Baseball had some things to say about this, and showed us a video of some of the most egregious calls of the season on Judge.
“Aaron Judge already has the largest strike zone in the big leagues but umpires seem insistent on making it even larger. Most first-half called strikes on out-of-zone pitches: Aaron Judge, 58. Robbie Grossman, 52. Eugenio Suárez, 51. Eduardo Escobar, 48. Luis Arráez, 45,” they tweeted.
Aaron Judge already has the largest strike zone in the big leagues but umpires seem insistent on making it even larger.
Most first-half called strikes on out-of-zone pitches:
Aaron Judge, 58
Robbie Grossman, 52
Eugenio Suárez, 51
Eduardo Escobar, 48
Luis Arráez, 45 pic.twitter.com/7J7MhALfCd— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) July 18, 2022
Judge Deserves A Fair Strike Zone Just Like Everybody Else
The majority of these mistakes are in the low part of the zone.
Umpires often fail to adjust the zone to a bigger guy like Judge, and this is something that Yankees manager Aaron Boone has often fought about with officials.
He repeatedly asks umpires to make adjustments in the zone for Judge because of his size.
Yes, he is big, but that doesn’t mean pitches below the knees have to be called as strikes.
If Judge is having perhaps the best season of his life with this problem, can you imagine how dominant he would be with fair umpires or an automated strike zone?
It’s certainly fun to think about.
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