Yankees' Aaron Judge can finally fight back against brutal misfortune
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Yankees' Aaron Judge can finally fight back against brutal misfortune originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Aaron Judge finally has a chance at some recompense.
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The New York Yankees' 6-foot-7 slugger has been taking low pitches as called strikes ever since he made his MLB debut in 2017. The problem is that many of the lowest pitches that are deemed strikes against Judge aren't actually in the zone.
That's what happens when you're taller than almost every other hitter, meaning your knees are higher off the ground, meaning pitches that look to be the right height as strikes on other guys aren't actually strikes on Judge.
Judge has had 370 pitches that are actually low be called strikes on him since 2017, according to MLB.com, by far the most in the majors. Second place is Josh Bell at 237.
It's also been 6.4% of the overall pitches to Judge in that time frame, a higher rate than the others near the top of that list with him.
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All that to say -- the ABS challenge system has arrived just in time.
Judge can now challenge a strike call, and all those pitches that the statistics have shown to be low would now actually be overturned and changed to a ball.
That system debuts in the regular season on Wednesday night when the New York Yankees take on the San Francisco Giants for Opening Day. It's the only game on the first official day of the season, which means it's the first regular season look at the ABS (automated ball strike) system.
Judge used it with some frequency during Spring Training to start to get a feel for what really will be called a ball and strike by the computers.
Now with the regular season here, Judge will hope to mitigate some of those brutal low pitches that have been unfairly called strikes against him.
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