Best line of spring training so far comes, I think, from another site, the usually unreliable nj.com, and Randy Miller:
"Dr J could've kept the Yankees healthier."
Hey, credit where credit is due, and Miller gives a full-blast noogie to Coops & co. that is worthy of our own dear blog, writing that the Mad King would never have stood for this:
"You can almost hear Steinbrenner bellowing: 'Can anyone diagnose a (bleeping) injury around here?'"
Amen—and thanks to Miller, and Judge himself, we now have an exact date on when the big guy actually got hurt, just as we do on Severino (thanks to my expert gumshoe work, if I do say so myself).
Judge, it seems, heard a "crack" and a "pop" after diving to try, unsuccessfully, to glove a single by Albert Pujols in a meaningless game against the Angels last September 18th.
"Crack" and "pop," and all that's left is the "snap" for the full Rice Krispies treat.
Our crack medical staff could not find anything, of course, but the Yanks obviously believed that Judge was hurt, holding him out for a couple of games the rest of the way, and DHing him for several more. Remarkably, Judge played pretty well the rest of the season, hitting .296 and running up three homers, three doubles, and a triple.
However, he then went south in the playoffs—before, idiotically, launching into full blast, off-season workout mode, to try to "play through it." Dumb of him, and crazy dumb of our training staff. Heads should indeed have rolled for this.
But let's face the bigger problem.
This guy—dedicated as he is, lovable as he is, as terrific a ballplayer as he is—is too big to play effectively in the major leagues. This all-out dive for a ball that meant nothing, nothing at all, is Exhibit A-Z.
There are guys who can play like that, such as Ichiro, who often seemed to have the body of a cat out there. But not Judge, who much more resembles those NFL linemen who are so huge and so juiced that they injure themselves just by falling down.
I am NOT saying Judge is juicing. In fact, I would almost swear that he is NOT. But he's too big to play the way he does—and I fear he's too much of a real ballplayer not to keep getting hurt.
Bobby Abreu was a regular whipping boy of fans and press, if you'll remember, for not throwing his body constantly into walls. Bobby Abreu played 2,425 major-league games in a near-Hall-of-Fame career, in which he hit 288 homers, stole 400 bases, and batted .291.
Just to play in as many games as Abreu did, Judge, who is now 27, would have to play every single game the Yankees have for the next 12 1/2 years (assuming they have any, with these mega-viruses floating around).
Who would you rather have in right field? Bobby Abreu? Or whatever dumpster remnant or minor leaguer Cashman throws in next?
The sad, sad fact is that Aaron Judge's body is just not made for baseball at 6-7 and 282 pounds. The guys we grew up thinking of as superheroes loom large in our imagination, but most of them were considerably smaller than this. Mickey Mantle was 5-11, 195. Willie Mays was 5-10, only 170. Hammerin' Henry Aaron, 6 feet, 180, Joe, Joe DiMaggio, 6-2, 193.
Someday, when we perfect the nanobots and can fix any injury in an instant, we'll see players like Judge all over the place. But not yet. And it's foolish to deceive ourselves into thinking that he can ever be a full-time player.
A certain other blog we'll call SB Nation just ran a piece on how Christian Yelich has signed a 7-year contract extension for "only" $215 million, which this individual felt was a "relatively light amount." He delighted in how little, thus, we could probably get the big guy to sign for, considering that, "Judge is arguably a more complete player than Yelich..."
Yes, he is, and roses are arguably more beautiful than winter grass, but one's around just now and the other ain't.
I wanted to shove my hand through the computer screen and throttle this genius for even suggesting to Cooperstown Cashman that now would be the perfect time to ink Judge to a "cheap" long-term contract, the examples of Giancarlo Stanton and Jacoby Ellsbury notwithstanding.
Let's play Judge when we can, and thank the gods for those fleeting moments when we get to see him at his best—and they will become more and more fleeting, as the constant injuries take their toll. But to spend huge amounts of money that could go elsewhere just to watch him do the Florida rehab thing, year after year with Giancarlo?
No, thank you.
Posts
