The Guardians won’t trouble Aaron Judge with pitching around. They have promised to attack him with respect to his status as a power hitter and without any plan to intentionally walk him.
In April, when the Guardians and Yankees played each other for the first time this season, Judge walked in 9.5% of his at-bats. In July, which began with another series between the Yankees and the Guardians, Judge walked 15.2% of the time. By September and October, 24.3 percent of the time, opponents were walking Judge.
However, the hunt for home runs is over. No more pitchers is afraid to throw to Aaron Judge for fear of giving up a historic home run. Though some pitchers are still afraid to throw to Aaron Judge because he could hit a game-changing home run in the playoffs, the Guards may not follow them.
How will the Guardians deal with the player who has the most power in the game?
Their pitching coach Carl Willis told on Monday, “We’re going to attack him with respect, but we are going to attack him.”
But will they go after the new leader in home runs in the American League? Should they dare to do that?
Willis responded that the Guardians were not afraid of Aaron Judge but wouldn’t give in to stupidity. He told, “I mean, we don’t want to back down from anybody and at the same time, we are not going to be stupid.”
The Guardians didn’t say everything about how they planned to deal with No. 99, who can change the course of any game. This makes sense since the situation determines the plan. But the team knew that if it wanted to win the American League Division Series, which starts on Tuesday, it probably had to get Aaron Judge out instead of just putting him on first base.
In the six games Aaron Judge played against Cleveland this year, he only got four hits, but two of them were home runs. The Guardians’ staff walked with him five times. This underscored their fear that they didn’t have control over him without pitching around him.
Cal Quantrill will start Game 1 in the ALDS. The Yankees’ power hitter had 0 for 5 and a walk when he faced the pitcher. He knows his task of pitching to a 62-homer slugger. The pitcher said:
“We are aware of what he’s capable of; we will do our best to make sure we are managing him.
That said … we are not just going to allow him to walk all over us.”
And it doesn’t seem like they will let themselves walk him again and again. This season, Aaron Judge was intentionally walked 19 times. In 2004, Barry Bonds was intentionally put on first 120 times.
Aaron Judge has a different plan in his mind when he explained:
“If they’re going to walk me and put me on base, I’m happy for it. Because I know we’ve got a stacked lineup of guys that are waiting to drive me in.”
The Guardians promised to be cautious, but not to the extent that Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo would never step up to the plate with a runner in scoring position to advance the game. Their coach Terry Francona wants to get rid of good hitters rather than walking them and giving up runs.
Will the Guardians keep their promise or backtrack for fear of being blasted over the wall?
