At this point, it's common knowledge that Aaron Judge is doing things nobody else has done in quite some time, if ever. Yet, somehow, he continues to find new ways to blow MLB fans away. After going 3-for-4 with a walk and launching a pair of home runs in Sunday's New York Yankees game, he now boasts an unfathomable 1.264 OPS. As if that isn't crazy enough, one statistic involving his OPS will knock your socks off, as noted by Reddit u/rabid89.
"Aaron Judge currently has an OPS of 1.264. League average OPS this year is .710. If Judge had 0 hits, 0 walks, 0 HBP, and 0 sac flies in his next 201 at bats, his OPS would finally drop to league average of .710."
You read that correctly. If Aaron Judge goes hitless in his next 201 at-bats and fails to even draw a walk or hit a single sacrifice fly, his OPS would still be at .710 - the league average. If that sounds impossible to believe, that's because it is. Yet, it's true, and that shows just how otherworldly Judge is at this point.
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Aaron Judge is one of the greatest hitters we'll ever see
Judge is now slashing .396/.493/.771 with 23 home runs and 55 RBI in 64 games. Sure, players have flirted with hitting .400 before, but doing so while on pace for 58 home runs is absurd, and highlights how Judge's OPS is as high as it is.
To put it simply, Judge is on pace to record one of the greatest seasons ever. A 1.264 OPS would place him 13th on the all-time single-season OPS list, and four of the years ahead of him came in fewer than 100 games played. Judge would be doing that in an era where pitching has never been better and has never been harder to hit.
A 1.264 OPS would be the first time a player has eclipsed the 1.200 mark since Barry Bonds in 2004. Yes, all-time greats like Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez, and Albert Pujols never hit that mark. A 1.264 OPS would also be over 100 points higher than his 1.159 mark last season and over 150 points higher than his 1.111 mark in his 62-home run season.
Judge has put up some all-time great seasons in the past, but the run he's on now blows those out of the water. Plus, it doesn't even feel as if he's gone on one of his patented home run tears yet.
Aaron Judge is the best player on the planet right now and is on pace to put up one of the greatest seasons we'll ever see. Say what you want about his postseason track record, and it's not fun for most to root for the Yankees, but it's time to appreciate what we're watching. We might never see anything like it again.