The New York Yankees need Aaron Judge

Aaron Judge has long been sold as the future of the Yankees. Sold as the New York version of Giancarlo Stanton. But we have been told that the Yankees don't think he is ready for the major leagues. That they have good outfielders and that Judge wouldn't get a chance to play. Well Aaron Judge is now making the case to be called up that the Yankees can no longer ignore. Aaron Judge has been phenomenal this season in the minors. Even better than advertised. Yes, Judge has to cut back on his strikeout rate, but that will work itself out over time. There is no denying that the Yankees need a spark of offense and that the Aaron Hicks project has been an utter failure. The other outfielders besides Carlos Beltran have been disastrous. The Yankees need players like Judge and Refsnyder to show that the future is not as bleak as the present. 

To say that Judge's numbers are impressive is an understatement. In 76 games in Triple A, Judge has hit 16 homeruns, 50 RBIs, 15 doubles, 27 walks, a .362 on base percentage, and a .491 slugging percentage. His month of June was eye popping. He hit .343/.477/.686/1.163 35 for 102, 6 2B, 1 3B, 9 HR, 25 RBI, 30R, 4SB, 21 BB, 24K. Oh and he won the International League Player of the Month. He has combined power and speed, things the Yankees have been missing. He has 9 stolen bases in the minor leagues, the Yankees stolen base leader this season is Ellsbury with 14, Gardner comes in second with 11. So Judge's 9 would currently be the third best in the team. He's not all just power, but posses the famous five tools that make a player a superstar in the traditional metric sense. 

So what about the advanced metrics? You know the one's that the Yankees have completely ignored when it comes to bringing in players. Well Judge remains impressive. In Weighted Runs Created (WRC), Judge has 51. In WRC+ Judge is at 150(100 is the average for a player and a percentage point is considered above average when the player is above 100. So in lay man's terms Judge is really friggan good).   In wRAA, a stat that is widely considered to be one of the best measures of if a player is above average, Judge has a 15.5. Again well above the average. His wOBA is .380. Some will say that this is done in the minors, but all in the same this is impressive and far superior to what the Yankees have on the current roster.

Let us compare Judge's stats with that of Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury. Aaron Hicks will not be included since he has been an utter disaster. Before we begin, allow me to say that I know that minor and major league pitching are very different. However, we can project how Judge will do in the majors based upon the saber metric stats. Anyways, let us start with Ellsbury. In Weighted Runs Created, Ellsbury has a 35. In wRAA, he sits at a 0.4 and in wOBA he has a .320. So in layman's terms Ellsbury is barely playing better than your average to below average outfielder. Certainly not the player the Yankees bought when they gave him that massive contract. Now onto Brett Gardner, the former fan favorite turned favorite trade piece. His wRC is 35, his wRAA is -0.6, his wOBA is .319, and his wRC+ is 94. Basically Gardner is a below average player at this point. In fact the Yankees would be better served with calling up a minor leaguer than trotting out Gardner according to these numbers.

I am not one that believes conspiracy theories. But there is one that I am starting to subscribe to. That being that the Yankees hate youth development. I am utterly convinced of this now. Some will say that well the Yankees have given Rob Refsnyder a chance. But tell me how many starts has Refsnyder had since Teixeria returned?(the answer is 1). Instead Joe Girardi trots out useless veterans that are either over the hill or are performing poorly. Girardi and Brian Cashman need to learn the dirty secret that the Yankees do not have a single position player that is an all star. There is no point in holding onto and playing the older players while prospects like Aaron Judge toil in the minors.

I am not saying that Aaron Judge is the perfect player. His 74 strikeouts and K rate is troubling. He needs to work on his plate discipline, but he sure as hell won't learn that in the minors. Judge has already conquered the minors and it's time that the Yankees call him up. Aaron Judge has nothing else to prove in the minors and the Yankees are a dumpster fire. It's time to see if Judge is the building block of the franchise that he was sold to be.