Happy 29th birthday, Aaron Judge. 29? Really? He was just a rookie. How does Judge's amount of play, measured by plate appearances (PA), compare to Yankee legendary Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter? Judge succeeded Jeter as the New York Yankees home grown big deal.
Ruth's numbers include those in Boston: 1,332 PA in his first six seasons with the Red Sox (1914-1919) and 92 in his final partial season with the Braves. Ruth was a full time starting pitcher 1915, 1916, 1917 batting 9th.
Gehrig was the Iron Horse who set the record of 2,130 consecutive games played: June 1, 1925 through April 30, 1939. Cal Ripken broke the record with 2,632.
DiMaggio reached age 29 in 1943 while he was in the U.S. Army during World War II (1943-1945), so his PA through his age 27 season are used in the table below. DiMaggio had more than twice as many PA as Judge on their 29th birthdays.
Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle made their debut at age 19.
In the table above:
1: PA in year one.
29: PA through 29th birthday; if in the off season, through season for age 28.
29%: through birthday 29, percent of career PA.
Judge has many fewer PA for two basic reasons:
Judge started when he was older.
Judge has missed many games because of injury, even more than injury prone DiMaggio and Mantle. And DiMaggio lost time in military service. Judge has gotten the 502 PA to qualify for the lead in an average in a season only once.
This means that Judge is already at his peak, if not past it. His value is much less because of that.
Note: PA tonight for Judge were added to his total after the Yankee game in Baltimore.
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