New York Yankees: Judge’s second half slump and a solution for it

Aaron Judge had a tremendous, and almost historic first half of the regular season for the New York Yankees. But since he’s returned from his Home Run Derby, he’s been in mired in a rough patch at the dish.

The New York Yankees are back in the spotlight.

They sit just half a game behind the Red Sox in the American League East standings, winning seven of their last ten games. They recently made two huge acquisitions in Sonny Gray and Jaime Garcia. If you ask anyone that knows anything about baseball, they’ll say New York is on the rise.

Several players on the roster are on a torrid post-All Star Game stretch. But the team’s best hitter from the first half, Aaron Judge, hasn’t been a part of it, mired in a dreadful 10-for-63 slump with 27 strikeouts.

Some will say the 2017 Home Run Derby champion is cursed because of his participation in the dinger dome, but that wasn’t the case for most of the previous champs.

Home Run Derby Champions (post-All Star Game to end of July)

Aaron Judge 10-55 (.181), 26 K’s

Giancarlo Stanton 18-61 (.295), 15 K’s

Todd Frazier 11-54 (.203), 11 K’s

Yoenis Cespedes (2014) 15-56 (.267), 7 K’s

Yoenis Cespedes (2013) 9-34 (.265), 8 K’s

Prince Fielder 19-60 (.316), 7 K’s

Only Todd Frazier in 2015 compares to the numbers that Judge has put up, minus the strikeout rate. The rest didn’t suffer from a dismal stint, although Stanton did get injured for the conclusion of the season about a month after winning the competition.

Judge’s issues aren’t power-related, as he’s clobbered four home runs since the break. But he hasn’t made much contact. And when he’s made contact, it’s been primarily fly balls, as he’s hitting more than 50 percent of balls in the air.

His line-drive percentage is less than 12 percent since the break. It was above 24 percent during the first half.

Despite whiffing in nearly half of his at-bats, the 25-year-old rookie has managed to increase his walk rate overall. He’s drawn 15 walks in the second half thus far.

New York manager Joe Girardi has plenty of options to help his star player get out of his funk at the dish. And with the team on a recent tear, he’s not acting as dead weight, so the outfielder should stay in the lineup on a daily basis.

Judge is still hitting .299 with a .425 on-base percentage and .632 slugging percentage on the year – highlighting just how insane his first half performance was. He’s still a force to be reckoned with.

The solution is simple. Take a play from Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon’s book and slot him in the leadoff spot.

Maddon conducted the experiment with Anthony Rizzo back in June, putting him in the first spot of the order to spark the veteran’s bat. It worked, as the first baseman hit a steady .306 with five bombs – three of them were leadoff blasts – and 12 RBI when hitting at the top of the order.

Putting Judge at the head of the batting order could instill some confidence. Even if he isn’t thrown as many fastballs in the spot, he still has enough plate discipline to be an effective leadoff guy. And that’s their job – get on base and extend the pitcher’s pitch count.

Next: The Yankees (aka the Evil Empire) are back

At this point, Girardi can make Judge his guinea pig and test out several ideas. If he can rekindle Judge’s bat, the Yankees would be even more dangerous than they already are. In other words: look out Houston.