Stephen A. Smith discredits Aaron Judge’s 2024 season with false claim

Stephen A. Smith discredits Aaron Judge’s 2024 season with false claim

New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge is in the midst of one of the best offensive seasons in MLB History.

No, seriously, he is. Judge’s 226 wRC+–an era-adjusted stat–is the fifth-highest ever (minimum 500 plate appearances) while being on track to have a top-10 offensive season, per Fangraphs’ offensive value metric. Judge is slashing .333/467/731, having clobbered 51 home runs with 104 RBIs in just 132 games … in arguably the toughest era to hit.

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith, a notable Yankees fan, believes Judge’s numbers are inflated with counterfactual reasoning.

“But you do got Juan Soto batting behind you. They can’t get around you a little bit,” Smith said on ESPN First Take earlier this week. “They gotta pitch to the brother, you understand what I’m saying, because you’ve got Soto waiting in the wings. So, all of those things facilitate Aaron Judge being who he is.”

Stephen A. Smith said that Juan Soto hitting behind Aaron Judge plays a role in why Judge’s numbers are so good pic.twitter.com/kBkwrzDssO

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 28, 2024

Lineup protection is a real thing. That much is true. But for fun, if I had to give you a dollar for every time Juan Soto has hit behind Judge this season, I would owe you $0. Zero. Zilch. Nada. If you don’t believe me, here’s every single one of the Yankees’ batting orders this season.

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Every once in a while, I say to myself that I wish ESPN covered baseball better … and then, I’m reminded why they don’t. I don’t think their coverage of the NFL or NBA is particularly positive, either, but that’s a different discussion for a different day.

Whether you agree or not with Smith on a multitude of topics, he’s very good at what he does. He doesn’t cater to all audiences, nor does he need to. Not every person is perfect. I’ve made mistakes before and will make more in the future. It’s human nature. But at the very least, know your favorite team before a segment of it arises on your show in front of a national audience. This was a layup, man.

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