Aaron Judge’s funniest splits of the 2022 season

It’s hard to come up with new descriptors of just how good Aaron Judge’s 2022 season has been. He’s hit 60 home runs, and is closing in on Roger Maris’ Yankees and American League single season record.

However, his incredible season goes well beyond that. Judge also finds himself with a chance to win the Triple Crown. He holds a pretty much unbeatable lead in home runs, owns a decent-sized advantage in RBI, and is in a battle in for the batting title. Add in that he’s played a lot of the season out of position in center field and playing there passably, there’s really no qualms you can have about his year.

Judge’s season stats on the whole are pretty remarkable, but when you dig deeper and look at some even smaller sample sizes, a lot of them can become fairly cartoonish. Now, none of the stats in this post should necessarily be used in any sort of analysis of Judge, because a lot of the sample sizes are miniscule. However for some fun, let’s dig into some of Judge’s various different splits and find the funniest numbers he’s put up this year.

On Baseball Reference, it’s possible to really explore various different splits, which allows us to know that there is one particular “baserunners on” situation in which Judge has a literal perfect OPS. Now, you might expect that might mean he’s only come in that situation once. While it’s still not a lot of plate appearances, he’s actually come up five times and still retains a perfect OPS. The spot is runners on second and third with one out in the inning. For whatever reason, Judge has been perfect in those scenarios, batting 1.000/1.000/4.000. Twice in that situation, he’s homered, and in the three others, he drew walks.

As far as situations where Judge has actually come up in a handful of games, it’s hard to top what Judge has done specifically when the plate appearance ends the pitch after a 3-1 count. As you can imagine, a lot of those situations have turned in to walks — in this case, it’s 30 out of 42 of them. However, in the other 12, Judge has hit eight home runs and a double. All of that combines for a 2.333 OPS and a 312 tOPS+. If you’re aware of what tOPS+ is, it compares how a player did in a split compared to their overall numbers that year. Specifically when a plate appearance ends after a 3-1 count, Judge is 212-percent better than his already-ridiculous numbers.

Similarly, when a plate appearance ends the pitch after a 1-0 count, Judge has a 2.063 OPS and a 240 tOPS+. Eight of his home runs come from those spots, even though he only has 26 plate appearances in them.

As far as opponent and ballpark splits, the recent trip to Milwaukee has accounted for some of Judge’s best work this season. In the three games there, he went 7-for-12 with two home runs, two doubles, and three walks. The 1.917 OPS is both the best he’s done against any opposing team and the best he’s done in any ballpark this year.

Also of note is that Judge has done some of his best work in late innings. If you look at the innings splits, his two highest OPSes are extra innings and then the ninth, at 1.473 and 1.469 respectively. Now sure, the ninth inning in particular also takes into account blowouts and not just close games, but it does check out considering how many big hits Judge has had. That’s also evidenced in the fact that with two outs and runners in scoring position. he’s gone 17-for-41 with 32 RBI.

As far as the men on the mound go, there are 14 different pitchers against whom Judge has a 5.000 OPS. Among pitchers who he’s faced at least 10 times, spare a thought for Orioles starter Tyler Wells, who has allowed a .600/.600/1.300 line against Judge in 10 plate appearances.

There’s plenty more you can look at on Judge’s B-Ref splits page, and there’s plenty more that are hilarious, because Aaron Judge is having a hilariously good season.

Note: All splits were active as of the beginning of play on September 22nd.