How the New York Yankees Are Handling Aaron Judge’s Arm Injury

How the New York Yankees Are Handling Aaron Judge’s Arm Injury

What do we think of Aaron Judge’s throwing arm? First off, big weekend for the Yankees, taking two out of three from the Blue Jays, a team that had had their number earlier this year, and they’re going through their gauntlet period right now of two weeks against good ball clubs. They’re 4-2 so far against Houston and Toronto. It’s not going to be perfect with their outfield scenario because AJ, you want John Carlos Stanton and Aaron Judge in the lineup at the same time. The words from Aaron Boon are that they’re working on quote creative cuts to accommodate Judge in the outfield to cut down the distance he would need for his throws. We saw the test right away when he returned to right fields for the first time since July 25th, I believe it was, and Stalton Vo tested him and scored. So, what would you do as manager of the Yankees right now? Guess what Ven Boon’s doing? Right field’s so short in Yankee Stadium. just have your second baseman run out there and just have him get it to the second baseman. The only thing I don’t understand about this is Judge says he’s 100% but then Aaron Boon says we have to come up with creative cuts if he’s 100%. Why do we need creative cuts? This is it’s weird that him and Judge, this is the second time they haven’t been on the same page. So I don’t know. I don’t know why. Like right there, do you feel like you can really let it go? I wouldn’t be out there if I wasn’t Aaron Judge. But then why are you any creative cuts? I mean I don’t know. It’s it’s it’s an interesting dynamic. This is the second time this year this has come up. No, he he didn’t look healthy when he threw that ball. He barely could get it to the second base. He was about 50 feet from him. So, yeah, teams now know this. Teams are going to try and take advantage of it. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Yankees combat it. Teams are already going to take advantage of different things defensively for the Yankees. But before it wasn’t Judge’s arm. Before he was elite elite uh accuracy and arm strength. Now they’re pretty much both out the window because he’s just coming in and it’s like quick exchange, get the ball right to Jazz. I mean, I thought the first one on the base hit to him in right, Jazz was running out after the ball like he was running out after a popup. He ran out hard to get in position to make that throw. So, yeah, it’s tough. I don’t agree with him saying, “Yeah, I wouldn’t be out there if I wasn’t 100%.” I think the better answer is we are a better lineup with me in it and G in it and we can’t have G out there as much as his arm needs to rest for. So I think he he gave the answer that deflected away from everybody else. Is it like a macho man answer AJ where he had% token like on this play on this play that we’re watching he went to throw it into the stands he ended up not throwing it in the stands even right after he made this diving play in right field off of George Springer. He stood up and like thought about like slinging it out there and then you saw it right there. He was going to flick it but he’s you got to get it up over that net. I’m sure his elbow is hurting him. I mean, that’s just you don’t need to have I don’t know if it’s a macho man answer. I just think it’s he’s never going to give any inkling that he’s hurt. Other times when he’s gotten hurt, he’s not been like, “Yeah, you know, it’s just I I I just don’t know how it’s going to turn out here.” Like, it’s always that positive I can play through anything kind of thing. AJ, how would you have answered it? Uh, probably the way judge because you don’t want it’s it’s you’re just trying to protect everybody. The way Judge said it, I had no Yeah, of course. You never want anybody to know you’re hurt, but the the the results showed when you try to throw. So, of course, I’d be like, “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. There’s no big deal. There’s nothing to see here. Nothing to see here. Kids, move on.” But yeah, you can tell that he’s hurt. Is this more concerning in the postseason where everything gets magnified? No. No. I think he’s he’s still the least of their he’s still the least of their worries on defense in my opinion. I think they have they have a few guys in their lineup that are playing defense because they can hit and you play guys out of position who aren’t big leaguers in that position. You also have a guy who has a gold glove in Vulpi who isn’t playing gold glove defense right now. There’s no way to dice it. he’s just not playing very good defense. He looks like he’s not confident. Then you have to just be able to hit the ball. So, they’re going to have they’re going to have when you talk about this team and you’re playing them in the postseason, it’s the same as your the Blue Jays getting ready to play them this past series. What are the what are the areas you can exploit? If G is in the outfield, you’re going to exploit that. Run every ground ball out to Vulpi. run every double play out to Jazz because he could throw it in the stands if you rush him. Ben Rice doesn’t play a lot of first base. Oh, Ben Rice is catching. Good arm, not accurate. We’re going to test it. Like, like there’s obvious holes that teams are just going to test. They test it in the in the regular season and in the postseason, the difference is you’re taking advantage and everybody’s locked into every single situation to take advantage of those holes and deficiencies. Well, let’s roll the back and forth with Chris Kersner, who covers the team for the Athletic with questioning for Aaron Boone. So, this was about Judge not making the throw home in that first inning that I was talking about. He said in the first on the Luke single, Judge got the ball before Var touched third. Is he not able to make that throw? What happened there? Boon said he just got to it and he scored. And then Chris said, so is he not a able to make that throw? And then Boon said, he’s in position to make the throw. And then Chris said, “So why didn’t he?” And Boon said, “We’re handling it how we handle it.” Okay, it’s frustrating, right? If you’re a manager, you don’t want a guy out there who can’t throw at anywhere close to 100%. But this is definitely the way to keep the big boppers in the lineup. What’s he supposed to say, Scott? What what what what kind of answer would you want from him that’s not already stating the obvious that the scouts who watched the video or were at the game didn’t already know? What what answer do you want him to give you? Boon already had a situation where he said he doesn’t think that Judge’s throwing arm would be 100% for the rest of the year. He’s not going to do it again because Judge didn’t like it. That’s what AJ talked about, right? AJ, if you’re the manager, clearly Judge doesn’t even want to hear that. And so Boon’s like, “Okay, cool. I’m just gonna say we’re doing our thing.” Nice and simple. What did you want him to say? What did you want him to say? Well, a few weeks ago, he said, “I don’t think he’s going to be 100% with the arm.” So, if he was running with that, he would have said it here. But judge didn’t like that he said that, right? You didn’t You didn’t answer the question. What did you want Aaron Boon to say? You guys think he got snippy. What did you want Aaron Boon to say that wouldn’t have sound snippy? I didn’t say snippy. I actually don’t care at all because we all have eyeballs. We can see it oursel. I think it’s still worth asking the question because that’s your job as a journalist and you never know what he’s going to say. So, you’re just putting it out there. Why didn’t he do it? And he’s like, “We’re not going to tell you even though everybody already knows.” So, it’s kind of silly. We are longtime fans of Omaha Stakes and I am drooling looking at the website right now featuring USDA certified tender steaks and also during their red hot sale event going on right now this fall 50% off sitewide at omaha stakes.com plus for the FT fam an extra $35 off with promo code FO at checkout. You’ve been a big fan of Omaha Stakes since your early days as a pro. Brings me back to my Aball low aball days because we used to survive on this. If you get a big order at the beginning of the year, cook them on our little electric grill. Can of peas, some mac and cheese. That was dinner for four. We survived off Omaha Stakes. It still has a special place in my heart. You thrived. You guys ate like kings. Yeah, that’s special. Get fired up for fall grilling with Omaha Stakes. Visit omahastak.com for 50% off sitewide during their redhot sale event. And for an extra 35 bucks off, promo code FO at checkout. 50% off at omahastak.com and an extra $35 off with promo code FO at checkout. See site for details. Dig in. What about this quote from the other side, John Schneider on the Yankees and what seems to be legal sign stealing, but then you hear the quote about him having a conversation with the league. Do we have this? Can we throw this up there so I can read it? Obviously, the Blue Jays did not have a series that they’re proud of. They lost two out of three. They did win seven to one on Friday. Oh, we don’t have the quote. Cool. All right, I’ll find it. Did you guys see the quote? Yeah, essentially he was saying that the conversation with the league was had or something like that. They’re really good at it. They’ve always been really good at it. Yeah, I’ll give it to you. They were relaying pitches. They’re good at it. MLB knows the Yankees are good when they have something. Maybe I’m the only one that’s going to say it publicly, but we have to do a better job of making sure we’re not giving anything away. I was looking through the comments because I’m like, I wonder how Blue Jays fans are going to take this. And most of them were like, yo, sign stealing is part of the game. So, what are we getting at here? What’s the Major League Baseball part? Let’s go to our head of conspiracy theories. Do you have anything for us here? Why Why would he said that? Is he just frustrated? I think it’s more out of frustration. Max was out there. I think it was it was Max’s game. No, wasn’t it Max’s game? Yeah, this with the change ups that Chris Kersner covered pretty well on Twitter that we’re looking at right now for Ben Rice’s dinger. So, to me, I’ve never seen until this year, and the Yankees do it a ton. the Yankees are really demonstrative about their like relaying signs. My opinion is, and I’ll stick to this, anybody that’s super demonstrative and just like like Patrick Bailey earlier in the year was like he was like looking into Paveta’s glove. Like I just feel like anybody that’s doing that, they’re trying to more get in the other team’s head than they are sending those pitches in. Because if you look, they didn’t get a lot of they didn’t get a lot of hits when that was happening. If you put on a big theater show though, the other team’s going to be like, “Well, what are they doing? What what are they doing? Oh, maybe it’s Kirk. Maybe it’s maybe it’s Sherzer. Maybe he’s holding it.” Like you do everything you can to not give away pitches, but they didn’t get a lot of hits during this time. Like for Aaron Judge’s 67 wingspan to do that, it’s just it’s creating a lot of to me it’s creating a lot more drama. And I think it’s making the other team think, “Oh no, wow, they must have something.” Cuz when you actually have something, you’re doing this. You’re looking over to your left. You’re not You’re not They did a circle the one time. Um I don’t know what the other ones were, but Jazz was like super demonstrative. Like obnoxiously demonstrative where it where it seemed too good to be true. AJ, what’s your take on this one? This is when you used to just drill some dudes. That was it. That would ended it real quick. You know what? You want to act like an idiot? you’re going to get one in the ribs and we’re going to fight if we have to and we’re going to move on. But I mean, that’s it. That this is when baseball used to be able to police itself. You you would try to give signs. You had to be super quiet about it and super don’t let anybody see you doing it. Now it’s like little league where the kids are like, “Hey, over here and over like no, you want to end it.” And I don’t I don’t I don’t say this in Little League. You shouldn’t do this. You shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing either at second base. But in the big leagues, when you’re grown men, you want to stop it. Turn around and step off. Walk out of there if you’re Max Scherzer. Say to Aaron Judge, if you do it again, I’m gonna hit the guy hitting. Boom. That’s how it used to go. Sorry, not saying I’m for it, but that stopped it real quick. Boom. Oh, Aaron Judge, you’re going to give him Ben Rice sign. Give him this sign. Whammy in the ribs. Then if he does it again, you hit the next guy. And then eventually it leads into where people get mad and they fight. And I don’t call for guys to get thrown at, but this is the way it used to be handled. that do you think do you think now umpires hear that and they automatically throw the pitcher out? Because I remember we did that one time. Hey, tell your guy to stop picking his chest every time he thinks a breaking ball’s coming. Guy steps out, didn’t do anything. Said, we’re going to hit the next guy if he does it again. We hit somebody later in the game and the umpire said to me, he’s like, “That’ll make him stop.” Nowadays, I think if an umpire hears that, first first sign of somebody getting hit by a pitch, they’re gone. So what? If you think they’re doing something, so what? Why does it matter if you’re This is the way I always looked at when guys used to get ejected. If you think you’re doing the right thing and your team thinks you’re doing the right thing, then your team will have your back. Now, if you go rogue and do it on your own and people don’t agree, you won’t you won’t have you won’t have your guys’ back. You’ll be like, “You know what? go beat his ass or go fight him and we’ll we’ll get there when we get there, right? But if you think you’re doing the right thing and your team thinks you’re doing the right thing, they’ll have your back and they might galvanize your team and make it better. So I I I mean, listen, the umpire sometimes guys get managers get kicked out all the time to try to get their team together and fight. Well, same thing can be done for pitchers or hitters.

The Foul Territory crew debates Aaron Judge’s throwing arm after his return to right field against the Blue Jays. Judge insists he’s 100%, but Aaron Boone says the Yankees are working on “creative cuts” to limit his throws — raising questions about how healthy he really is. Scott Braun, AJ Pierzynski, and Erik Kratz break down what Judge’s arm means for New York’s defense, how opponents will try to exploit it, and whether it’s a bigger concern in October. Plus, we hit the fallout from John Schneider’s comments on the Yankees sign-stealing reputation and what it means for the AL East race.

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