In the nine seasons of recorded such history, no player has hit the ball harder than the way Aaron Judge is crushing it this year. By a lot. His average exit velocity of 97.2 mph blows away the previous high of 96.1 mph by Giancarlo Stanton in 2015.
That statistical nugget is just one small piece in a mountain of evidence that proves Judge’s historic 2022 season was not some anomalous career year, but the likely booster phase to a career surge. Hard as it might be to believe, but in the year after hitting 62 home runs Judge in many ways is even better.
The encore to history is amazing in its own way. What we are seeing is the continuation of changes he made last year to his setup (especially the placement of his hands), load (less rotational) and approach (hitting the ball more out front). Those changes closed the hole Judge had on inside fastballs and turned him into a different hitter: a pull monster with elite zone discipline.
