In February, the Yankees shut down Judge with a "shoulder injury," supposedly suffered at the end of last season. At some point - as crazy as this sounds - he was apparently working out this winter with a partially collapsed lung. WTF? Who was diagnosing this guy, Larry Kudlow? Judge's pain never left and now - after hot-tubbing for three months - he's still apparently in recovery.
Obviously, it's too early to panic - especially in this lost 2020 first-half. Also, it's wayyyy too early to punt on a 28-year-old slugger who plays Gold Glove defense, with no hint of clubhouse issues, who has performed for four years as the face of the franchise. Judge looks destined for Monument Park, if not Cooperstown. But but but... the guy has become a bag of broken glass. He has yet to last a full season without tweaking his myriad of gonads.
If 2020 was a normal year, the Yankees would still be waiting on Judge, still be diddling around with Zach Granite, while the whispers were becoming murmurs and the season was slipping away. For now, his inability to stay on the field remains masked by the pandemic. But like the virus, it won't just go away.
Since 2016, we've viewed Judge as a generational Yankee star, the kind that defines an era in the Bronx. But the careers of sluggers too often crash before their times. The Yankees have seen their share. Remember John Mayberry? Steve Kemp? Jesse Barfield? Danny Tartabull? At the end, Jason Giambi and even A-Rod. Around baseball, look at Justin Upton, Chris Davis, Joey Votto, et al. Once a guy starts chasing, once one pitcher compiles a vaccine on him, things unravel. Judge is still young, still heading into his prime, but it looks as though 2020 was going to be a lost year for him. Troubling. Not the word you wanted to hear.
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5 comments:
What the fuck are these guys juicing with?
Maybe the Yankees should have Blondie revamp "Heart of Glass" and call it "Various Body Parts of Glass." Could be fun.
By the way, have you seen the possible MLB realignment for a shortened 2020 season? I actually like it. It makes a lot of sense, and nobody plays anybody outside their division until the playoffs. The way God intended.
East: Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Miami Marlins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays and Washington Nationals
Central: Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins and St. Louis Cardinals
West: Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers
Agreed, Jimmy. Particularly with Stanton. He has spent all this time and energy sculpting what is not a baseball body.
Winnie, I think that Judge, at least, is not a juicer (though that's merely guesswork). He simply seems more breakable, much like Bill Walton was in the NBA.
That's not his fault, and it is a shame. As I've been saying here for over two years now, I love the guy to death, I loved his potential.
But the sad fact of the matter is, he's not Mike Trout. He may not even be Jason Bay, the perfectly serviceable, oft-injured player who, through age 27, baseball-reference finds him to be most like.
You can see how noticeably his game has changed already. What used to be jaw-dropping blasts into the third deck in left field have become, maybe, opposite field bloops into the short porch in right. I give him credit for adjusting to what are probably even more injuries than we know—but this is the adjustment of a 35-year-old, not someone in his 20s.
And he's not young, Duque, not in baseball terms. The sabremetricious tell us that 28 in the peak age in baseball. Judge turned that in April.
I said it two years ago: we should have traded him when he was at peak market value. Now, it's too late. I will root like hell for him, but thinking about it, this virus will likely help preserve his memory in amber. Looking back, we can all blame it on that key year or two when he would've been so great...
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