Yankees, Dodgers: Cody Bellinger or Aaron Judge?

Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger and Yankees’ Aaron Judge are squaring off this weekend in an intriguing possible World Series preview, but who would you rather have on your team?

The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees are the best teams in the National and American League respectively, and their stars are in an elite group of players in their league as well, but who is better?

The New York Yankees were transitioning into the ‘Baby Bombers’ era when Aaron Judge was issued the number “99” in Spring Training in 2017.

Judge would make the team and would begin the most impressive rookie performance in a long time. He hit 52 home runs and won the Home Run Derby in Miami, in addition to winning the Rookie of the Year.

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Since then he has been dealing with multiple injuries which have forced him to miss time on the field. The injuries started to pile up in 2018, as he was sidelined with a right wrist fracture and a left oblique strain a year later.

He has since been activated, but with the injury has not played in as many games as previous years but has managed to hit 14 HR and a .861 OPS.

On the other hand, Cody Bellinger started out his career like Judge, winning the Rookie of the Year thanks to his 39 homer year in 2017.

He did this at first base and other positions, but he disappeared a little bit in 2018. He hit .260 with 25 HR but didn’t play very much at all in the World Series because manager Dave Roberts was not confident that he could hit against left-handed hitters.

Well, it seems like this past off-season Bellinger wanted to improve against the southpaws and make a statement to his manager.

It worked because while enduring a position change to right field, he has given Christian Yelich a run for his money.

Yelich, who won the MVP in 2018, is hitting .329 with 41 home runs but the Brewers haven’t had the success that they had last year while Los Angeles has dismantled the National League.

Bellinger, 24, is hitting .314 with a league-leading 42 home runs (with nine other than Mike Trout).

I would rather have Bellinger over Judge for a couple of reasons.

One reason is the strikeouts. Cody Bellinger has played in 52 more games than Judge this season, but Judge has still managed to strike out more times than Bellinger.

The second reason is Bellinger is a better overall player. Bellinger can steal you a base when you need him to. He has more range in the outfield and manages the strike zone better.

So, which phenom would you rather have: Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Cody Bellinger or  New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge?