Aaron Judge #4 in 60 Home Runs seasons ranked by (AB/HR) percent difference from top HR that season. Final stats.

Updated 10/11/2022 with final stats. Originally posted 10/3/2022.

His Yankees still have four meaningless games to play in the next three days in Texas but Aaron Judge can be ranked number four among the nine 60 Home Run (HR) seasons. Neither his 2022 numbers nor those of the other top HR hitters in the American League are likely to change enough to impact that but I'll update that table in a few days. BOLD means they led the league.

G: Group of top HR hitters.

P: the individual player.

							G-P	G-P	G-P	G-P	G-P	G-P
	HR#	Name	Tm	HR	AB	AB/HR	HR	AB	AB/HR	Dif	PctDif	PctDif#	Name	Rk
1927	1	Babe Ruth*	NYY	60	540	9.000	136	3,501	25.743	16.743	65.04%	1	Babe Ruth*	1
2001	1	Barry Bonds*	SFG	73	476	6.521	603	8,025	13.308	6.788	51.00%	1	Barry Bonds*	2
1998	1	Mark McGwire	STL	70	509	7.271	584	8,616	14.753	7.482	50.71%	1	Mark McGwire	3
2022	1	Aaron Judge	NYY	62	570	9.194	446	7219	16.186	6.993	43.20%	1	Aaron Judge	4
1999	1	Mark McGwire	STL	65	521	8.015	597	8,317	13.931	5.916	42.47%	1	Mark McGwire	5
1998	2	Sammy Sosa	CHC	66	643	9.742	588	8,482	14.425	4.683	32.46%	2	Sammy Sosa	6
2001	2	Sammy Sosa	CHC	64	577	9.016	612	7,924	12.948	3.932	30.37%	2	Sammy Sosa	7
1961	1	Roger Maris*	NYY	61	590	9.672	345	4,761	13.800	4.128	29.91%	2	Maris*	8
1999	2	Sammy Sosa	CHC	63	625	9.921	599	8,213	13.711	3.791	27.65%	2	Sammy Sosa	9
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60 Home Runs seasons ranked by (AB/HR) percent difference from top HR that season. Friday, September 2, 2022

This post uses a method I used in 2019. It is described below...

... Home Run hitting by individuals should be judged by more than the total...

... for this new series:
- look at batters in their own league
- subtract the individual's numbers from that of the group of other batters before making the comparison...

Finally, this new series is being done on somewhat of an anecdotal basis using a spreadsheet, not a database of all batters ...

Players in bold led that league in Home Runs that season...

* lefty # switch hitter

AB: At Bats
HR: Home Runs
American League (AL) and National League (NL)
Home Run Rate: AB/HR (lower is better)
N: number of AL or NL teams that season
Top home run hitters: N hitters with the most HR, plus any ties at the bottom
Home Run Rate AL or NL: for N hitters: total AB / total HR
Home Run Rate hitters: AB/HR
Dif: Home Run Rate hitter - other Home Run Rate AL or NL N hitters
PctDif: Dif/Home Run Rate AL or NL
PctDif#: rank among N hitters for PctDif

________________________

Top 15 AL HR hitters in 2022. Totals at bottom exclude Judge.

Rk	Name	Tm	HR	AB	AB/HR
1	Aaron Judge	NYY	62	570	9.193548387
2	Mike Trout	LAA	40	438	10.95
3	Yordan Alvarez*	HOU	37	470	12.7027027
4	Shohei Ohtani*	LAA	34	586	17.23529412
5	Anthony Santander#	BAL	33	574	17.39393939
5	Corey Seager*	TEX	33	593	17.96969697
7	Anthony Rizzo*	NYY	32	465	14.53125
7	Vladimir Guerrero Jr.	TOR	32	638	19.9375
9	Giancarlo Stanton	NYY	31	398	12.83870968
9	Eugenio Suarez	SEA	31	543	17.51612903
11	Kyle Tucker	Hou	30	544	18.13333333
12	Jose Ramirez#	CLE	29	601	20.72413793
13	Byron Buxton	MIN	28	340	12.14285714
13	Jose Altuve	Hou	28	518	18.5
13	Julio Rodriguez	Sea	28	511	18.25
			446	7219	16.18609865

Stop staring at Batting Average and Home Runs. Look at their percentage above the league. Sunday, January 30, 2022

Or you can drool and stare at the HR totals. And rail against Bonds, McGwire and Sosa for using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED), including steroids.

And you can pretend that the 9 (including a tie) extra games that Maris had did not enable him to pass Ruth. They did, as did the diluted pitching from expanding from 8 to 10 teams (25%) in 1961.

All this nonsense when the basic definition of a home run is ridiculous. It's hitting a fly ball over a wall. The problem is that the distance to the wall and the height of the wall differ within and among MLB ballparks. Judge hit a 404 foot blast in Yankee Stadium a few days ago but it was caught because it went to center field. Had it gone to left or right, it would have been a home run.

The home run distance should be the same in all directions in all ballparks and the same goes for the wall height. Even then, simply staring at the total number of home runs is dumb. Put a little effort into it.