Where he ranks.

You don't need me to tell you about the season that Aaron Judge is having—but I'm going to do so anyway.

Right now, Judge leads the American League in 19 different hitting categories, some of which...I'm not even sure what they mean.

Judge is leading the AL in WAR for position players, offensive WAR, OBP, slugging, OBP + slugging, total bases, home runs, walks, adjusted OPS+, runs created, adjusted batting runs, adjusted batting wins, extra-base hits, times on base, offensive win percentage, (fewest) at-bats per home run, base-out runs added, and situation wins added.

He was also named the top batter at the World Cricket Championships, and filled in for Aaron Rodgers at the Jets' "mandatory" mini-camp. Rumor has it he will be taking Krisnaps Porzingis' place in Game Four for the Celtics.

No, Judge cannot possibly keep up this incredible pace (he wrote, placatingly, obsequiously to the juju gods). But let's consider where it would rank him among the all-time greats, if he somehow did.

What are the all-time greatest seasons by a batter for OPS, on-base percentage-plus-slugging, currently the gold standard for judging a hitter's performance?

Right now, Judge's 1.135 OPS for 2024 would rank him...88th, just ahead of Mickey Mantle's 1961 season. 

At least, that's the official measure. But let's get serious for a moment.

As you know, MLB recently decided to count in all the known statistics for the old, force-segregated Negro Leagues. That was a fine gesture by an institution that specializes in little else but fine gestures, but it doesn't tell us much.

Undoubtedly, the best Negro League players (and many others excluded from the game for so long because of color) were at least as good as those in the major leagues. But 23 games—which is what the official Negro League season often were—just does not a real season make.

So let's throw those figures out for the sake of argument. Let's also, though, throw out the stats for all the white players who played the old, segregated baseball. (I would include in this Stan Musial, whose National League was barely integrated during his great, 1948 season. Sorry, Stan the Man.) 

Let's also get rid of the juicers—cough, cough, head-actually-grew Barry Bonds, cough—and those who played most of their games at altitudes above low cloud cover (looking at you, Larry Walker and Todd Helton). Also the abbreviated Covid season and the 1994 strike season must go (apologies, Juan Soto and Frank Thomas).

And even...an extraordinary cheating event, such as Norm Cash's corked bats in 1961.

By my lights, this gets us down to the very best, on-the-level, playing the game fairly against all comers, best seasons there ever were, as measured by OPS:

1—Ted Williams, 1957, 1.257

2—Mickey Mantle, 1957, 1.177

3—Mickey Mantle, 1956, 1.169

4—Aaron Judge, 2024, 1.135

5—Mickey Mantle, 1961, 1.135

Not too rooting bad, as an Aussie cricketeer might say.