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Have you seen Aaron Judge hit?  This is the first thing I say to people.  Shoot, I should qualify that.  This is not the first thing I say to everyone.  “Would you like to hear the specials?”  “Have you seen Aaron Judge hit?”  No.  Not quite like that.  It’s the first thing I say to people who ask me about Aaron Judge.  In fact (Grey’s adding on already?  Well, let’s get it!), I like to watch everyone hit (and pitch, but we’ll get back to that).  I try to watch video of every single player.  It’s not some weird voyeur thing.  Okay, it’s that, but not only that!  If someone’s minor league stats look like, say, .290, 35 HRs and 25 steals, and you watch them and they have a huge hitch in their swing, they don’t look fast and/or they’re a buck-fifty soaking wet, then you have a guy that could very well be hitting and running better against weaker competition than they will find in the majors.  It’s important to watch the players.  I bring this up now because I watch Aaron Judge and I see Giancarlo Stanton.  I do not invoke my novio’s name willy nor nilly.  I don’t say Giancarlo comparisons early nor often.  If you saw Aaron Judge’s first major league home run, it was a simple, back-up-the-middle stroke.  Only the ball went about 420 feet out in center.  Aaron Judge hit only 4 homers last year in 84 ABs in the majors, but three went 419 feet or more and one homer went 457 feet, which was top twenty in the majors last year.  Cause long balls get you excited like an older woman, here is Judge mollywhopping.  If that doesn’t excite you, you have no soul.  I don’t mean you have no soul as in you find it hard to get the rhythm of a song, I mean you are kin to the devil.  Anyway, what can we expect of Aaron Judge for 2017 fantasy baseball?

We can expect him to drop bombs on your moms, eff car alarms, and Grey will check yo self before you wreck yo self.  Speaking of Ice Cube, I saw a highlight during the Dodgers game of Cube being tossed a baseball by a player.  I was really sad not to see the same treatment for Larry King.  Imagine, “Grandal tosses a ball to Larry King and…Oohhh, bounced off King’s head.  Yeah, he might not be alive.”  By the way, how is Russian TV’s Larry King getting those seats?  Putin?  Putin using Seat Geek?  We demand answers!  Okay, back to Judge.  He can hit 40 homers as early as 2017.  Like no foolsies.  The big question for me is will he hit above .220.  Last year, he hit .270 in Triple-A with a 24% strikeout rate.  Essentially striking out once every fourth time (look at the big brain on Grey!).  That’s not great, but — and this is a Serena Williams well-defined but — he struck out 29% the year before at Triple-A.  That tells me he can learn and adjust.  In Triple-A, Kris Bryant once had a 29% strikeout rate, then 30+ in the majors, and last year only 22%.  Players can get better.  Judge is slightly older than Bryant, and I don’t know if we’ll ever see huge gains on his contact.  Though, it might not matter.  Giancarlo has had a 29% K percentage in his career and he’s hit .266.  .260 does feel generous on Judge out of the gate in 2017.  Stanton was much younger when he broke into the majors (Stanton is only barely older than Judge now, and he has 827 games in the majors already).  Judge could even flame out, not that there’s anything wrong with that, and be an occasional 475-foot bomber with a .190 average.  Think half of the guys that make up Kennys Vargas.  Due to the big power, I’m going to say Judge will be worth a draft pick in every league next year and project him for 68/28/79/.232/3 in 488 ABs with huge upside from there.