Is Aaron Judge the best pure home run hitter of all time?
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David Schoenfield, ESPN Senior Writer
Remember Aaron Judge? The guy who hit 58 home runs? Had the highest single-season WAR for a New York Yankees player since 1957? Had a 50-game stretch in which he hit .403 with 26 home runs? With the Most Valuable Player Award being announced today, here’s a reminder that Judge had a season for the ages and that he will win the American League award for the second time.
While the lasting memory of his season will be his struggles in October, when he hit .184 with three home runs in 14 games, Judge had an amazing regular season — and that’s all that counts in MVP voting. He hit .322/.458/.701 with 58 home runs and 144 RBIs. For the second time in three years, Judge topped 10 WAR and advanced metrics point to the historic nature of his 2024 performance: the highest adjusted OPS ever for a right-handed batter, the highest adjusted OPS ever for a center fielder, the highest adjusted runs created for any hitter besides Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams and Barry Bonds.
With his third career 50-homer season, Judge became only the fifth player to do that at least three times, joining Ruth and three others whose numbers now exist in a cloud of suspicion (Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez).
It’s this fact that raises a fun question as we await the MVP announcement: Is Judge the greatest pure home run hitter of all time? Let’s put his numbers into perspective and compare him to some of baseball’s greatest sluggers.
NEW YORK — Dan Iassogna will be the umpire crew chief and work the plate during Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at Atlanta’s Truist Park.
His crew will include Marvin Hudson at first, Chris Segal at second, Jansen Visconti at third, Jeremie Rehak in left and Erich Bacchus in right, Major League Baseball said Thursday.
Iassogna, 56, will work his second All-Star Game. He was at third base for the 2011 game at Arizona.
He worked his first big league game in 1999, was hired to the major league staff in 2004 and appointed a crew chief ahead of the 2020 season. Iassogna umpired the World Series in 2012, ’17 and ’22 along with eight League Championship Series and seven Division Series.
Segal, Visconti, Rehak and Bacchus will work their first All-Star Games and Hudson his second after being in left field in 2004 at Houston.
Tony Randazzo will be the replay umpire in New York.
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Athletics slugger Brent Rooker is adding his name to the list of Home Run Derby participants.
Rooker announced Thursday that he’s participating in the event, which takes place Monday in Atlanta. He will become the first Athletics player in the Home Run Derby since Matt Olson in 2021.
“Competing in the Home Run Derby has always been a dream of mine,” Rooker said in an Instagram post. “Can’t wait to make it happen next week in Atlanta! See ya there!”
Rooker, 30, entered Thursday with a .270 batting average, 19 homers and 50 RBIs, putting him on pace for a third straight season of at least 30 homers. He went deep 30 times in 2023 and had 39 homers in 2024.
His 58 homers since the start of the 2024 season rank him third among all American League players.
The only A’s to win the Derby were Mark McGwire in 1992 and Yoenis Céspedes in 2013 and 2014.
Other announced participants include Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr., Minnesota’s Byron Buxton, Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and Washington’s James Wood.
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