Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin are hitting like good hitting pitchers.

Come on, come on. The Yankees are winning in spite of them, not because of them.

Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin are hitting like pitchers. Saturday, September 3, 2016August 13 Tyler Austin (1B) and Aaron Judge (RF) became the only teammates ever to homer back to back in their first plate appearances (PA). Judge then homered in his second game...

Aaron Judge is performing as a good hitting pitcher, maybe number four. So, how come so many Yankee fans and media people haven't noticed?
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Aaron Judge was injured last night after BB and SO, and Tyler Austin did not play. The Yankees defeated the Dodgers at Yankee Stadium 3-0 on solo home runs by Jacoby Ellsbury, Didi Gregorius and Gary Sanchez, the only real deal Yankee August minor league call up to excel.

PA, OPS+:
Sanchez: 155, 187
Judge: 95, 60
Austin: 66, 68

AB, HR:
Sanchez: 136, 14
Judge: 84, 4
Austin: 62, 3

Pitchers with at least 60 PA sorted by OPS+:

Rk	Player	OPS+	PA	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Jake Arrieta	105	63	2016	30	CHC	NL	28	58	6	16	2	1	2	7	4	0	27	0	1	0	1	0	0	.276	.323	.448	.771	*1
2	Adam Wainwright	80	60	2016	34	STL	NL	30	54	6	11	6	1	2	14	2	0	16	0	4	0	1	0	0	.204	.232	.463	.695	*1/H
3	Noah Syndergaard	73	63	2016	23	NYM	NL	29	54	6	9	3	0	3	6	7	0	33	0	2	0	1	0	0	.167	.262	.389	.651	*1
4	Madison Bumgarner	53	86	2016	26	SFG	NL	32	75	6	12	3	0	3	7	10	0	38	0	0	1	1	0	0	.160	.256	.320	.576	*1/H
5	Jason Hammel	46	66	2016	33	CHC	NL	33	62	6	15	3	0	0	7	1	0	23	0	3	0	0	0	0	.242	.254	.290	.544	*1/H
6	Jeff Samardzija	15	63	2016	31	SFG	NL	31	59	4	10	5	0	0	8	1	0	24	0	2	1	3	0	0	.169	.180	.254	.435	*1/H
7	Max Scherzer	-4	76	2016	31	WSN	NL	30	63	3	10	1	0	0	8	2	0	27	0	11	0	1	0	0	.159	.185	.175	.359	*1
8	Kenta Maeda	-11	60	2016	28	LAD	NL	31	51	5	6	1	0	1	3	1	0	15	0	8	0	1	0	0	.118	.135	.196	.331	*1/H
9	Tanner Roark	-14	68	2016	29	WSN	NL	30	58	1	7	1	0	0	3	4	0	22	0	6	0	0	0	0	.121	.177	.138	.315	*1
10	John Lackey	-25	62	2016	37	CHC	NL	26	57	1	6	2	0	0	2	2	0	28	0	3	0	0	0	0	.105	.136	.140	.276	*1
11	Jon Lester	-31	64	2016	32	CHC	NL	29	49	2	3	2	0	0	4	5	0	16	0	10	0	2	0	0	.061	.148	.102	.250	*1/H
12	Johnny Cueto	-32	75	2016	30	SFG	NL	29	63	1	7	0	0	0	4	2	0	21	0	10	0	2	0	0	.111	.138	.111	.250	*1
13	Kyle Hendricks	-35	60	2016	26	CHC	NL	29	50	1	5	0	0	0	2	1	0	27	1	8	0	0	0	0	.100	.135	.100	.235	*1/H

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/14/2016.

Obviously, pitchers as hitters suck. But three pitchers have higher OPS+ than either Judge or Austin. Two nights ago Judge hit his fourth home run, passing pitchers:
Syndergaard: 3 in 54 AB
Bumgarner: 3 in 74 AB.

So, the Yankees have been playing with the functional equivalent of two pitchers in their lineup. The Yankees have had others who were comparably low:
Aaron Hicks: 60
Mark Teixeira: 66
Alex Rodriguez: 57

The only Yankee with more PA than Sanchez and OPS+ above 100 (league average) was Carlos Beltran (131 in 384 PA), who was traded August 1 for three minor league pitchers who have not been called up even in September when the rosters expand.

Hicks has been on the DL with a muscle pull and Judge may now go on the DL. The Yankees may call up another OF who was not ready to be called up Sept. 1. Maybe Mason Williams: AAA OPS .689. But there has been no mention of OF Clint Frazier, who was acquired from Cleveland along with three other minor league players for relief pitcher Andrew Miller. Conventional media and fan rush to judgement was that Yankee general manager Brian Cashman was a genius, not the incompetent he's been shown to be here.

Frazier since joining the Yankee AAA team: 108 PA, .674 OPS. That must be why Cashman did not promote Frazier with all the others on Sept. 1. Frazier was in the same 2013 draft as Aaron Judge, who at least has been tried for a month at the major league level, despite 42 SO in 84 AB. None of the pitchers listed above have than many SO.