pull down to refresh

Yes. Judge was 24 when he debuted and Bonds was 21. Bonds played until he was 42. Seems unlikely Judge plays until 45.
69 sats \ 5 replies \ @Jer 9 Apr
Bonds had okay “80’s” power for his first 4 years too, which is insane. Hit 16, 25, 24 and 19 in his first 4 years. Bonilla was the real “power threat” on those awesome Pirates teams.
The Pirates are dead. Long live the Pirates.
reply
I was so happy when the Pirates had that mini resurgence for a few years when Russel Martin played for them and they made playoffs 3 years in a row. PNC is a such a beautiful stadium and I love the yellow and black.
reply
I remember him as a great all around player, but no one was talking about him with Griffey, Sosa, or McGwire as a premier power hitter.
reply
64 sats \ 2 replies \ @Jer 9 Apr
Peak Griffey remains the greatest player I have personally ever seen. He was the first player I followed, vs. team fandom.
Cause you don’t have enough sports on your plate: check out the 90 NLCS on YouTube. Pirates vs. Reds. So good.
reply
Griffey was my favorite player, too. I was so sure he would be the one to catch Aaron.
reply
Trout in his prime was pretty amazing.
reply
Why so old as a rookie? It's hard to believe he wasn't good enough.
reply
62 sats \ 1 reply \ @Jer 9 Apr
Hard to believe 31 teams picked a player before he was picked.
reply
Nikola Jokic 41st overall. Tom Brady 199th.
reply
He was drafted very late out of high school so he opted to go to college. He played college ball for 3 years before being drafted in the late first round by the Yankees. He missed his entire first minor league season due to a muscle tear.
reply
Do you think anyone currently playing has a shot at the HR record?
reply
no one who's older than 22. Acuna got hurt, Trout got hurt, Judge is way too old, Stanton got hurt. Would have to be from the new crop of young players.
reply
There are a bunch of young stars that could be perennial 30 homer guys but I don’t see any of them racking up the 50-60 homer seasons you need to offset down years and injury plagued seasons over a 20 plus year span.
reply
yeah, players are much more fragile now too. Maybe if Julio Rodriguez (6-3, 230) got out of Seattle, he'd give it a go, but hard to think of anyone specific with a real shot.
No. Judge would be the only one with even an outside shot.
Maybe if torpedo bats and other new bat designs add 10 homers to power hitters stats a year but too early to tell.
reply
That's kind of surprising, since Bonds started before the HR era took off and wasn't even a power hitter for the first chunk of his career.
It's hard to beat longevity, I guess.
reply
There are a number of factors. Longevity, health, bonds used PEDs, and it was before the era of analytics and pitching science. It’s harder to hit than ever. Teams use their bullpens aggressively now whereas starting pitchers used to pitch 7 or 8 innings routinely in Bonds era. Teams take guys out in the 4th and 5th inning now unless they are elite pitchers or dominating or trying to eat up innings so they can optimize matchups with their bullpen. It is a lot easier to hit when you see the same pitcher 4 times vs 3 different pitchers in a game. Also, teams have invested a ton in trying to maximize pitching. The Blue Jays have a pitching lab in Florida where they send their guys to get analyzed. Everything from their windup, release, follow through, the shape of their pitches, spin rate and so on. They will take all this data to improve guys, determine what pitches to throw in what location and what situations but also to match with opposing hitter data to determine the best matchups and ways to pitch to guys.
Long winded answer but it’s harder for Judge to hit off 3 fresh guys who have a team of physicists telling them how to get you out than it was for Bonds to hit off a guy who throws 3 pitches you have probably seen a hundred times. Not taking anything away from Bonds, he was the best hitter of all time.