Ouch

The Yankees have put outfielder Aaron Judge on the IL, where he joins teammate Giancarlo Stanton.  It’s just a coincidence, I’m sure.

 

So what if Judge stands 6’7” and weighs 282 pounds or Stanton is 6’6” and 245 pounds?  Launch angle teaches us that big guys crush the ball, that is, when they’re healthy.  For the past two seasons, Judge has suffered through a nagging oblique injury (separate from the time he missed in 2018 from getting hit by a pitch on the wrist) while Stanton played all of eighteen games in 2019 because of shoulder and knee injuries.  He’s presently on the IL with a hamstring problem.

 

Analytics would have baseball peopled by giants, players Judge- and Stanton-sized, if not bigger.  Never mind the multitude of injuries, and forget the adage, “The bigger they are the harder they fall.”  No, think launch angle and exit velocity and barreling (whatever that is).  At some point in the not too distant future, analytics will venture into AI and robotics to produce the only kind of ballplayer who can play the game front offices want to without having to deal with the consequences suffered by the human body.

 

Then they can fill the stands with the perfect fans.  But can robots drink beer at $10 a pop?