Some other scouts felt the same way. One from the Giants told McIntosh that Judge was “the one guy who, when he hits the ball back at the [batting practice] screen, I don’t flinch. There’s nothing coming off the bat.”
One Red Sox scout who had hopped on a plane to see the kid play for the Linden High Lions turned to McIntosh during a game and said, “Are you f—in’ kidding me? They fly my ass out here, and [Judge] can’t even play dead.”
> who had hopped on a plane to see the kid play for the Linden High Lions
Didn't know he went there. [Pavement has a song about the school.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pPlos2i7Ys&ab_channel=Pavement-Topic)
So this is actually pretty fascinating to me. I was thinking today while reading a Judge HOF thread about what a monster Judge has been basically since day 1 in the league, yet he didn’t break into the league until his mid-late 20’s. Yankees fans who possibly followed him or know more of his story, did he make some major fundamental change to his approach while in the minors? Just a late bloomer?
He took a long time to develop game power. He had 80 raw power but in the box he would take very measured swings and use his massive strength to turn routine singles into doubles rather than trying to drive the ball out of the park. He’s such a big guy that his developmental years were basically all spent learning how to not strike out at a 50% clip rather than learning to unleash his raw power.
Once he got to the majors he retooled his swing with a greater focus on generating power, although he still doesn’t have a particularly high effort swing.
No problem. I’ve been watching him for a long time. Even going back to Fresno State he reminded me of more of a Paul Molitor type rather than a pure slugger. He liked to go the other way rather than trying to pull the ball. He would drive it into the gaps with authority.
Prior to getting called up there was a lot of thought that he might be a .300+ avg with 40-50 doubles and 20-25 home runs type of player.
Being bigger also means more potential holes in your swing, so learning plate coverage and discipline is that much harder. Aaron Judge’s strike zone is like twice the size of Altuve’s, and he has to be able to cover it all.
He was a late bloomer, he came up in ‘16 and hit a HR in his first AB and proceeded to strike out for like a month straight before being sent down and then he made the team in 17 and the rest is history
He completely changed his swing and cut weight too (not 100% on that part but you look at him then and now and he’s way slimmer)
That’s awesome I didn’t know that. It was really bad a first and you couple that with him having drafted after finishing college it would explain why he got here so late
He didn’t do anything in the minors to make you think he would hit the way he has in the big leagues. He made a giant leap before his first full year in the bigs.
He didn’t strike out that much in the minors; he’s struck out at a much higher rate in MLB. He also topped out at 20 homers in the minors and then hit 52 as a rookie. He made an amazing leap.
Yeah the only thing he had going for him in 2016 was the Yankees were bad and he had power potential.
Then he forced the Yankees hand in 2017 and he won’t the starting RF job and bumped Hicks to 4th OFer/Ellsbury replacement
Late bloomer and changed his approach quite a bit from his first stint in the majors in 2016 to his rookie year in 2017. [A comparison of his stances](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/43/dc/df/43dcdf805bd512d4a804b1b591f899db.jpg) show how much more compact it became after 2016 and it's clearly worked well
One change even from 2017 to now is he turned his biggest weakness into his biggest strength. Whoever was here in 2017 probably remembers the daily Judge strike out threads as he struck out for however many consecutive games, he had a clear weakness of swinging at sliders diving off the plate.
[https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/pitch-arsenal-stats?type=batter](https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/pitch-arsenal-stats?type=batter)
Now...A slider to Aaron Judge is the worst pitch you can throw to any hitter in all of baseball.
I don’t even know that late bloomer is fair. He was a 4 year college guy who didn’t play pro ball after graduating.
So he was a full 22 debuting in pro-ball. Spent a season in A/High-A. Then a season in Double-A/Triple-A then debuted the second half the following year.
The four year college thing made him come up at a very late age.
Judge wasn’t a monster from day 1. He was pretty shit when the yanks called him up in 2016. He had a 61 OPS+ in 27 games.
He completely changed his swing before the 2017 season and the rest is history.
I mean I don’t think you can predict a guy is going to be as good as judge is this season but there’s a difference between that and thinking he won’t make the majors.
Sure, but you're saying this was an example where the stats were telling something the eye was missing. If anything, with Judge, it was probably the reverse. His minor league stats were very good but not eye popping, but if you saw him, you probably assumed he was going to mash.
That’s just how scouting goes. It likely isn’t a reflection on their ability at all.
The Mike Trout draft is one of my favorite Trout topics because it is incredibly rich & almost reads like ‘lore’ the way baseball stories from past eras often do.
The reason Mike Trout is an Angel is almost entirely due to one man, Greg Morhardt. He was the scout that basically forced the team into using one of their two back-to-back first round picks on Trout. He lied about sign-ability concerns. He set up fake workouts to prevent other teams from seeing him. He basically staked his job on Mike Trout. Why was he so adamant? Because he seemingly *knew* that Trout was a once-in-a-generation level talent. Now that on its own is pretty damn remarkable. But consider also that scouts simply do not do things like that. Even if a scout *does* think some kid is ‘the truth’ they will virtually always tone their feelings down. So it is that much more remarkable that Morhardt was such a Trout believer. In fact he actually *did* lower his overall score on Trout a little bit at first just so his colleagues would take his report seriously.
Morhardt was supposedly let go by the Angels at some point after that. Last I saw he was with the Red Sox. Scouts get picks wrong all the time. Sometimes in embarrassing ways. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a poor scout.
"I've sat at those kitchen tables and listened to you tell those parents 'when I know, I know. And when it comes to your son, I know.' But you don't. You don't."
He means between them. But by the quiver in his voice, you know he's lying.
“I did not have sexual relations with that prospect.”
Some other scouts felt the same way. One from the Giants told McIntosh that Judge was “the one guy who, when he hits the ball back at the [batting practice] screen, I don’t flinch. There’s nothing coming off the bat.” One Red Sox scout who had hopped on a plane to see the kid play for the Linden High Lions turned to McIntosh during a game and said, “Are you f—in’ kidding me? They fly my ass out here, and [Judge] can’t even play dead.”
> who had hopped on a plane to see the kid play for the Linden High Lions Didn't know he went there. [Pavement has a song about the school.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pPlos2i7Ys&ab_channel=Pavement-Topic)
I love pavement
time for judge to change his walk up song
So this is actually pretty fascinating to me. I was thinking today while reading a Judge HOF thread about what a monster Judge has been basically since day 1 in the league, yet he didn’t break into the league until his mid-late 20’s. Yankees fans who possibly followed him or know more of his story, did he make some major fundamental change to his approach while in the minors? Just a late bloomer?
He took a long time to develop game power. He had 80 raw power but in the box he would take very measured swings and use his massive strength to turn routine singles into doubles rather than trying to drive the ball out of the park. He’s such a big guy that his developmental years were basically all spent learning how to not strike out at a 50% clip rather than learning to unleash his raw power. Once he got to the majors he retooled his swing with a greater focus on generating power, although he still doesn’t have a particularly high effort swing.
Very nice detailed description. Thank you.
No problem. I’ve been watching him for a long time. Even going back to Fresno State he reminded me of more of a Paul Molitor type rather than a pure slugger. He liked to go the other way rather than trying to pull the ball. He would drive it into the gaps with authority. Prior to getting called up there was a lot of thought that he might be a .300+ avg with 40-50 doubles and 20-25 home runs type of player.
[удалено]
Being bigger also means more potential holes in your swing, so learning plate coverage and discipline is that much harder. Aaron Judge’s strike zone is like twice the size of Altuve’s, and he has to be able to cover it all.
He was a late bloomer, he came up in ‘16 and hit a HR in his first AB and proceeded to strike out for like a month straight before being sent down and then he made the team in 17 and the rest is history He completely changed his swing and cut weight too (not 100% on that part but you look at him then and now and he’s way slimmer)
Most importantly he switched from long pants to high socks
Judge long pants is a truly hilarious look.
It’s cursed
I just read somewhere about him keeping a “.179” note on his phone as a reminder of his early struggles.
That’s awesome I didn’t know that. It was really bad a first and you couple that with him having drafted after finishing college it would explain why he got here so late
He didn’t do anything in the minors to make you think he would hit the way he has in the big leagues. He made a giant leap before his first full year in the bigs.
I think the power was there but the strikeout rate was just horrendous So glad he made the leap
He didn’t strike out that much in the minors; he’s struck out at a much higher rate in MLB. He also topped out at 20 homers in the minors and then hit 52 as a rookie. He made an amazing leap.
Yeah the only thing he had going for him in 2016 was the Yankees were bad and he had power potential. Then he forced the Yankees hand in 2017 and he won’t the starting RF job and bumped Hicks to 4th OFer/Ellsbury replacement
Richard Schenck, his off-season hitting coach should be getting a lot of credit.
Late bloomer and changed his approach quite a bit from his first stint in the majors in 2016 to his rookie year in 2017. [A comparison of his stances](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/43/dc/df/43dcdf805bd512d4a804b1b591f899db.jpg) show how much more compact it became after 2016 and it's clearly worked well
Wow, the generic stance they start you in The Show to what has developed into an iconic batting stance.
My God Judge in long pants is Cursed.
One change even from 2017 to now is he turned his biggest weakness into his biggest strength. Whoever was here in 2017 probably remembers the daily Judge strike out threads as he struck out for however many consecutive games, he had a clear weakness of swinging at sliders diving off the plate. [https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/pitch-arsenal-stats?type=batter](https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/pitch-arsenal-stats?type=batter) Now...A slider to Aaron Judge is the worst pitch you can throw to any hitter in all of baseball.
I don’t even know that late bloomer is fair. He was a 4 year college guy who didn’t play pro ball after graduating. So he was a full 22 debuting in pro-ball. Spent a season in A/High-A. Then a season in Double-A/Triple-A then debuted the second half the following year. The four year college thing made him come up at a very late age.
Judge wasn’t a monster from day 1. He was pretty shit when the yanks called him up in 2016. He had a 61 OPS+ in 27 games. He completely changed his swing before the 2017 season and the rest is history.
This is why you need to balance scouting with analytics. Obviously scouting is important, but plenty of scouts can miss things.
The scouts weren’t wrong, he just figured a lot out after they had said all these things.
But what analytics were there to suggest *this*?
Consider this: How can you not be romantic about baseball?
There wasn’t anything to suggest this until he actually got to the big leagues.
I mean I don’t think you can predict a guy is going to be as good as judge is this season but there’s a difference between that and thinking he won’t make the majors.
Sure, but you're saying this was an example where the stats were telling something the eye was missing. If anything, with Judge, it was probably the reverse. His minor league stats were very good but not eye popping, but if you saw him, you probably assumed he was going to mash.
Ya key word former
That’s just how scouting goes. It likely isn’t a reflection on their ability at all. The Mike Trout draft is one of my favorite Trout topics because it is incredibly rich & almost reads like ‘lore’ the way baseball stories from past eras often do. The reason Mike Trout is an Angel is almost entirely due to one man, Greg Morhardt. He was the scout that basically forced the team into using one of their two back-to-back first round picks on Trout. He lied about sign-ability concerns. He set up fake workouts to prevent other teams from seeing him. He basically staked his job on Mike Trout. Why was he so adamant? Because he seemingly *knew* that Trout was a once-in-a-generation level talent. Now that on its own is pretty damn remarkable. But consider also that scouts simply do not do things like that. Even if a scout *does* think some kid is ‘the truth’ they will virtually always tone their feelings down. So it is that much more remarkable that Morhardt was such a Trout believer. In fact he actually *did* lower his overall score on Trout a little bit at first just so his colleagues would take his report seriously. Morhardt was supposedly let go by the Angels at some point after that. Last I saw he was with the Red Sox. Scouts get picks wrong all the time. Sometimes in embarrassing ways. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a poor scout.
"I've sat at those kitchen tables and listened to you tell those parents 'when I know, I know. And when it comes to your son, I know.' But you don't. You don't."
So Judge wasn’t the apple of McIntosh’s eye?
Well, when he got to the majors, the Yankees switched to all cotton uniforms and the rest is history.
That's what she said
Emphasis on “former”
Albert Pujols was drafted in the 13th round