Can Aaron Judge handle the pressure of the postseason? | Baseball Bar B Cast

Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman and MLB senior analyst Jake Mintz compare Aaron Judge in the regular season to Aaron Judge in the postseason and discuss whether the big difference is a reason for the Yankees to be concerned make. Listen to the entire conversation on the Baseball Bar-B-Cast podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

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Video transcript

Aaron Judge in October.

I believe he has a career total of 760 ops in 46 games.

We have reached the point.

He also has the highest postseason strikeout rate of his career, which is both remarkable and predictable.

He's always hit hard, even when he's good.

Because of the expectations Aaron Judge has set for himself and the excellence he showed during the regular season, we are at a point.

With pinstripes, these expectations are astronomical.

And when his bet doesn't start with an eight or a nine or even a one and a dot, we worry about him.

We whisper about him as someone who can't handle the pressure in October.

And I think these questions are both lazy and fair, and just highlight the strange dynamic that is postseason baseball.

We've spent six months telling you, dear listeners, that you shouldn't worry about the small sample size, that the marathon of 100 and 62 games in six months will ultimately result in quality prevailing.

But as soon as the tournament starts, we turn it around.

Oh my God.

Aaron Judge is one for seven, should they trade him?

And Aaron Boone was equally incredulous about it after the game.

But at the same time, we had to judge you on that too.

Right.

That's the situation and I don't think they lost because of the judge.

However, if the Yankees lose the next two games and he goes 1-for-7 again, it will be another winter for you if you judge the postseason broadly. The Yankees and every single postseason game is the most important game in the franchise -History because, oh my God, by their standards, they haven't been to the World Series in a billion years.

But yeah, I think you have, you do, you have to work on it, I don't think he's suddenly a bad player, but that's, that's when you're supposed to beat the team, the other team.

And so far it hasn't happened.

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