Palladino: Don't Blame Home Run Derby For Judge's Problems
By Ernie Palladino
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Heading into the All-Star break, Aaron Judge was hitting .329 with 30 homers, 66 RBIs, and a 1.139 OPS. Rookie franchise records were falling like autumn leaves, and Judge's cheering section in the bleachers was wild with excitement.
Since the break, things haven't looked so great. Paul Bunyan has turned into Inspector Clouseau, stumbling around and looking for a clue. The line reads .161 with five homers, a double, and 12 RBIs. Most telling, he had 43 strikeouts in 27 games after fanning only 109 times in the first 84.
Joe Girardi can't seem to find an answer to the kid's prayers. Judge certainly can't.
But everyone else seems to have an opinion, and many of them center around the infamous Home Run Derby.
Sure, that's what did him in; the competition that draws TV watchers by the droves as they view their favorite power hitters drill one batting practice ball after another over the fence.
That All-Star Game prelude has already been blamed for several stars' second-half declines. Stars that have a heck of a lot more major league experience than Judge. But the blame for the 25-year-old rookie's reversal to his 2016 strikeout form, in many minds, at least, goes to the Home Run Derby.
It's a lot of hooey.
The Home Run Derby, while strictly a gimmick inspired by the 1960 offseason show of the same name -- minus the The -- to revive interest in a fast-fading tradition, is no more to blame for Judge's current issues than a bad case of beriberi.
Of course, it didn't help that the derby had become a source of concern before it even took place. Judge himself didn't make his intentions to participate known until almost the last minute. Then he went and won the darned thing, totaling 47 homers that traveled a cumulative 3.9 miles. Four of those traveled 500 feet or more.
But think about this. Could it be that Judge has simply settled down to earth?
For one thing, after last season's brief appearance in which he struck out 42 times in 84 at-bats, no right-thinking person would have expected Judge to hit .347 for the season. So his decline to his current .289 since he hit that mark on June 12, though precipitous, had to be expected.
Whether the Home Run Derby helped push him over the cliff is debatable. More likely, the pressures of second-half baseball, especially for a team that remains in the thick of a division race, have taken their toll on him.
The strikeouts are indicative of that. Once selective, Judge now flails at pitches issued by men who have gone to school on him for a whole half a season. One of the keys to his lofty first-half BA was his 61 walks. His 24 post-break walks going into Sunday night's finale against Boston put him on a similar pace, except that the strikeouts have offset them.
He is clearly pressing, and why shouldn't he? He hasn't been through a division race before. By the time he came up on Aug. 13 last year, the Yanks were already well-embedded in fourth place. And that's exactly where they finished.
It's only natural, then, that someone who so dominated a pressure-less first half to become part of the Rookie of the Year and MVP discussions would drop off when the real heat came up in the second half.
It's called being a rookie. They look good. Then they look bad. And most of them don't need the Home Run Derby to push them down the hill.
So let's not blame all this on one night of glorified batting practice in July.
Blame it on being a rookie.
One whose amazing first half created some rather unrealistic expectations for the second half.
Follow Ernie on Twitter at @ErniePalladino
