Aaron Judge Says He's One And Done With The Home Run Derby
Ryan Ruocco: Aaron’s not going to say it but I’m going to say it, I feel like he was probably, it would be only human, to be very tired after the Derby. This year even though I want to see you do it again, I’m like you won bro. Get some rest
CC Sabathia: Nah fuck the Home Run Derby
Aaron Judge: Yeah I think I’m one and done with the derby
THANK GOD. So Aaron Judge hopped on the awesome Yankees podcast R2C2 between Ryan Ruocco and CC Sabathia and discussed everything from the 2017 season, along with the acquisition of Giancarlo Stanton. It’s a pretty good listen but something I picked up was CC Sabathia’s discussion of the Home Run Derby. They really got into how taxing it is on the guys in the derby and how busy you really are. The All-Star Break is a much needed couple of days allowing players to hit the refresh button on a long, long first half of the season. CC describes the process of flying into wherever the venue is late on Sunday night after whatever game you just played in to close our the first half. Then you have to go through all the media on Monday morning into the afternoon, get your BP in for the actual derby, and then obviously the main event. And THEN you have to play in the game on Tuesday. There’s zero relaxation and before you know it, the 2nd half of the season is in a few hours. It’s a whole lot to go through, especially for a rookie going through his first full big league season.
Judge did it once and put on an absolute show. Many will push for him to do it again because he hits balls to the moon at will and I’m sure the intrigue of Stanton being paired with him on the same team they’ll want it. But fuck that. Judge made everyone happy last year and it’s smart to move on, at least for a few years. Obviously something that Judge will never point to as an excuse for his massive post All Star Break slump was his banged up shoulder, which required surgery in the offseason. It’s pretty clear to me that the derby affected that shoulder in some way. Maybe it wasn’t the root of the problem, but it definitely made it worse. It just had to. Judge is smart, and although this may be an irrelevant story to most, it’s great he’s already saying thanks but no thanks to defending the crown.
Enjoy as we relive the show from last year.
Make sure you subscribe to The Short Porch for all the Yankees storylines you’ll need for the 2018 season. New episodes out every Friday.