Around the Empire: Yankees news - 8/13/22

ESPN | David Schoenfield: I’m running out of superlatives to describe Aaron Judge. He has been, by far, the best player in the league this year, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. Even amid a lengthy team-wide slump, Judge’s home run pace has fans around the world officially on record watch. At the time of writing this he has hit 45 home runs, trailing Roger Maris’s Yankees record by 16 and Barry Bonds’s league-wide record by just 28 with 50 games still to play. In this article, David Schoenfield outlines the historical contexts of the highest home run totals and discusses what Judge needs to do to topple both records.

New York Post | Dan Martin: Speaking of Judge and his quest for the record, you’ll rest easy knowing that he doesn’t particularly care about any of it. In an interview before the start of the series with the Red Sox, the current best player in the world insisted that he is more concerned with ensuring that the Yankees get home-field advantage for the playoffs than breaking the home run record. Judge has always been exceptionally good at feeding reporters non-answers (seriously, his PR advisor is excellent at their job) and I imagine this is much the same, but it’s always reassuring to hear the face of your favourite franchise say he’s more concerned with team success than individual success. With that said, go out and break the record and bring us number 28, please!

NJ.com | Mike Rosenstein: The topic of Jordan Montgomery’s replacement in the rotation has gotten a lot of coverage on the site since he was shockingly dealt at the deadline, but it looks like those discussions aren’t going anywhere any time soon thanks to Clarke Schmidt. On Thursday night, Schmidt lit up the Worcester Red Sox, striking out 11 batters in 6 perfect innings. We know the team has him in Triple-A to stretch him out again as a starter, but performances like these are going to make it really hard to keep him down much longer.

NJ.com | Randy Miller: This just in: Jasson Domínguez is also obsessed with Aaron Judge. He’s just like us! Aside from being, you know, an uber-prospect. Although Domínguez is also fascinated with Judge’s record-chasing ways, he’s more focused on developing his other skills, namely his base running ability. He’s blessed with plenty of natural speed, but he knows that speed alone isn’t enough to cut it at the higher levels, so he’s focusing on preparation and game-planning as he climbs the minor leagues. Early results suggest that the High-A outfielder is well on his way to being a fast-mover, so clearly his approach to the game is working.