Comparing Aaron Judge With Albert Pujols
ALSO: HALL OF FAME REVEALS ROSTER OF AUTHORS SIGNING THIS SUMMER
Pregame Pepper
With a shaky save in Fenway Park Tuesday, Atlanta’s Raisel Iglesias tied Boston’s Aroldis Chapman for the longest active streak of converting all save opportunities (27 games in a row) . . .
Iglesias had not allowed a run this season before yielding a pair to the Red Sox in Boston on a two-run single by light-hitting Isiah Kiner-Falefa . . .
Despite his recent slump, Matt Olson still leads both leagues in extra-base hits . . .
Fans may not be streaking during games anymore but the Chicago Cubs are certainly indulging in streaking, wracking up two 10-game winning streaks and one 10-game losing streak so far this season . . .
If the Detroit Tigers continue to slide, it’s virtually certain they will deal Tarik Skubal, winner of consecutive AL Cy Young Awards, before he leaves as a free agent . . .
Chapman, who also throws left-handed, is also likely to be traded before the Aug. 3 deadline as the disappointing Red Sox look to reload . . .
The desperate Mets are testing a Not Ready for Prime Time outfield of Carson Benge, A.J. Ewing, and Nick Morabito.
Leading Off
Fun With Numbers ... Albert Pujols vs. Aaron Judge
By Paul Semendinger
In my last article, I shared a host of numbers regarding Aaron Judge. Those numbers were without any context; they were simply statistics I compiled from Baseball-Reference.
In this article, I will reexamine many of those same numbers and compare them against another great right-handed hitter of the modern era, Albert Pujols.
We all know how great Albert Pujols was. His statistics, his numbers, demonstrate this loudly:
Albert Pujols won three Most Valuable Player Awards
He was an 11-time All-Star
He won six Silver Slugger Awards
Pujols hit over 700 lifetime home runs
Pujols hit 40 or more home runs in a season seven times (though he never reached 50)
Albert Pujols is one of only 21 position players in MLB history to amass more than 100 WAR (101.3)
What follows is a comparison between many of Aaron Judge’s numbers (ones I shared in my last article) and Albert Pujols:
Aaron Judge’s best month is May. He’s a .329 hitter in May. Amazingly, May is the only month in which Judge has a .300 or better batting average. Albert Pujols’ best month was August (.308). he hit over .300 in July, August, and Sept/Oct.
Aaron Judge bats .275 in August, his worst month. Pujols’ worst month was March/April (.277)
In games the Yankees win, Aaron Judge is batting .335. Pujols hit .343 in winning games.
In Yankees loses, Judge is batting .230. Pujols hit .241 in losses.
As a pinch hitter, Judge is 1-for 18, Pujols batted .303 (27 for 89) as a pinch-hitter.
The most popular spot for Aaron Judge to bat in the lineup is second. Albert Pujols mostly batted third.
With two strikes, Aaron Judge’s batting average is .191. Pujols hit .232.
Judge bats .443 on the first pitch of an at-bat. Pujols hit .339.
Judge’s best inning is the sixth. He is batting .319 in that inning. For Pujols, it was the fifth inning (.326)
His worst inning is the ninth. He is batting .259 in that inning. Pujols batted .291 in the ninth inning.
Aaron Judge is batting .239 in extra innings. Albert Pujols batted .291 in extras.
One would probably think that Aaron Judge feats on fastballs, but he does not. Against power pitchers, Judge is hitting .238. Pujols hit .260.
The player most similar to Aaron Judge is Ralph Kiner. The player most similar to Albert Pujols is Hank Aaron.
Of all of the most similar players to Aaron Judge, the only Hall of Famers to date are Ralph Kiner and Willie McCovey. Pujols compares to six Hall of Famers: Aaron, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Eddie Murray, Ken Griffey, and Stan Musial. The non-Hall of Famers who compare most to Pujols are Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Miguel Cabrera, and Barry Bonds.
We all know how great Aaron Judge is. This exercise also demonstrated how very great Albert Pujols was.
Paul Semendinger’s latest books are West Point at Gettysburg and The Greatest New York Yankees By Uniform Number. Paul runs the Yankees site Start Spreading the News.
Cleaning Up
Nothing Tops Cooperstown For Signing Baseball Books
By Dan Schlossberg
There’s no better place to sign a baseball book than Cooperstown.
The quiet Central New York hamlet, home to the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1939, attracts legions of baseball fans during the summer months and virtually all hope to snag some signatures during their stay.
While chance encounters with players do happen, they’re as predictable as catching a giant trout on a fishing excursion.
The most certain autograph can be captured during the Author’s Series that runs for 14 weeks starting June 6. Most of those appearances are slated for Thursdays at 1 p.m., scheduled for the museum’s Baseball Discovery Zone, and included with the price of admission. Authors will discuss their books, take questions, and follow with photo-and-autograph sessions afterward.
I’m part of this year’s series, presenting a power point on The New Baseball Bible on July 2 and signing afterward. My oversized illustrated paperback runs almost 500 pages and covers the history of the game, with an emphasis on ironies and oddities.
The colorful cover features Shohei Ohtani, Tom Seaver, Josh Gibson, David (Big Papi) Ortiz, Mariano Rivera, Bob Feller, and the game’s best 1-2 power punch, Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews.
Other featured authors are New York Post columnist Mike Vaccaro and prolific personal friend David Krell, former chairman of the Elysian Fields chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
Vaccaro, scheduled for July 30, is the author of The Bosses of the Bronx, while Krell penned Bo Belinsky, recalling one of the game’s most colorful if not successful characters. Krell is slated to appear July 9.
The schedule also includes the following:
June 6 — Michael Clair, We Sacrifice Everything to Baseball
June 18 — Erick Vickrey, Before They Wore Dodger Blue
June 25 — Terence Moore, My Big Red Machine
July 16 — Jay Thomas and Gene Locklear, Chief: the Three Lives of Gene Locklear
July 23 — Scott D. Reich, One Day in September: Baseball, Brotherhood, and the Birth of the All-Star Game
August 6 — Rob Friedman, Unhittable: How Technology, Mavericks, and Innovators Engineered Baseball’s New Era of Pitching Dominance
August 8 — Ed Wheatley, The Finest in the Field: a History of Baseball Through 50 Iconic Gloves
August 13 — Rob Fitts, In the Japanese Ballpark: Behind the Scenes of Nippon Professional Baseball
August 20 — Kelly Bennett, Out of the Mouth of Babe
August 22 — Mark Epstein, Cape Dreams: A Season With the Brewster Whitecaps
August 27 — Nathalie Alonzo and John Parra, Viva Valenzuela!
For more details, see baseballhall.org/events.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ will also be signing books in Cooperstown on Saturday, July 25, from 11-1 in front of Willis Monie Books on Main Street. The Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 will be inducted the following day. To book a talk or signing, email Dan at ballauthor@gmail.com.
Extra Innings: Notes on No-Hitters
That no-hit game by Tatsuya Imai, Steven Okert, and Alimber Santa of the Houston Astros against the Texas Rangers on Memorial Day was the 22nd ever pitched . . .
Baseball history includes 327 no-hitters, most of them complete games — including the only route-going effort of Blake Snell’s career . . .
Two-dozen of those no-hitters were perfect games . . .
The team with the worst record, the Los Angeles Angels, has the longest active streak of avoiding a no-hitter (26 years, 8 months) but is not close to the Chicago Cubs’ MLB mark of 7,920 games, spanning almost 50 years . . .
Cleveland’s Indians/Guardians franchise has not authored a no-hit game in 45 years — since Len Barker twirled a perfecto against Toronto at Cleveland Stadium in 1981 . . .
San Diego went 8,205 games and 40 post-season games without a no-hitter before San Diego native Joe Musgrove pitched one on April 9, 2021 against Texas . . .
The first combined no-hitter dates back to June 23, 1917 when Babe Ruth started for the Boston Red Sox but got thrown out of the game for punching the home-plate umpire after he called Ball Four on the first Washington batter . . .
After that hitter, Ray Morgan, was thrown out trying to steal against reliever Ernie Shore, the reliever retired 26 men in a row for a perfect game that was not a complete game . . .
Six pitchers produced combined no-hitters twice, first for the Houston Astros in 2003 and then for the Seattle Mariners in 2012 . . .
Wildness marked a no-hitter on July 28, 1976, when John (Blue Moon) Odom was lifted after walking his ninth hitter — despite yielding no hits — and reliever Francisco Barrios walked two more while completing a 2-1 White Sox win over the A’s without giving up a hit . . .
Vida Blue (A’s), Kent Mercker (Braves), and Mike Witt (Angels) not only pitched complete-game no-hitters but also started combined no-hitters . . .
Baltimore lost a 2-1 no-hitter thrown by Steve Barber and Stu Miller against the Detroit Tigers in 1967 . . .
Five Mets pitchers no-hit the Phillies, 3-0, on April 29, 2022, ending the controversy over an earlier complete-game effort by Johan Santana (did he or didn’t he?) . . .
When four Houston pitchers combined to blank the Philadelphia Phillies in 2022 World Series Game 4, it was the second no-hitter in World Series history and the third in post-season history . . .
A combined no-hitter by Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader, then with the Brewers, was the ninth of the 2021 season, a new major-league record.
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
Five no-hitters would have been perfect games except for fielding errors: Christy Mathewson, 6/13/1905; Walter Johnson, 7/1/19; Bill McCahan, 9/3/47; Jerry Reuss, 6/27/80 and Terry Mulholland, 8/15/90. Mulholand still only faced 27 batters.