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After watching Aaron Judge swing “thousands of times” as a teammate, Michael King got a new perspective on the best hitter in the game in recent days as he prepared for his start Tuesday in The Bronx, when he’s set to face Judge for the first time as an opponent.
“I never once tried to get him out,” the Padres right-hander said Monday. “It’ll be a very hard challenge.’’
King played with Judge for the better part of four years from 2020-23 and witnessed first-hand Judge’s record-setting 2022 season.
Judge is having a better season through the first five weeks of 2025 than in ‘22 or last year.
King praised Judge’s “insane plate coverage” as one of the aspects of his approach that makes him so dangerous.
“Usually, you can see some holes in hitters,” King said. “But since the guy is hitting .450 with a whatever OPS, he doesn’t have too many holes.”
Judge entered Monday hitting .423 with an OPS of 1.287, both of which blow away the nearest competitors.
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And to King’s point about plate coverage, Judge is striking out a career-low 20.3 percent of the time.
King didn’t give away his gameplan to face Judge, but he noted what stood out to him the most in his study of his ex-teammate.
“He’s so big and [far] off the plate, you think you can get him that way,” King said. “But because he’s so long, he can get to that pitch away but because he’s so quick, he can get to the pitch in. He has great pitch recognition. He’s one of the best hitters in the game, so you expect that.”
Another longtime former teammate, Tyler Wade, goes back with Judge over a decade, when they played together at Class-A Charleston.
“I feel like every year, I get asked the same questions,’’ Wade said. “It’s not surprising anymore. What he can do is special. He’s locked in and the best right-handed hitter in our generation, for sure. It’s cool to watch.”
The only hitter he can be compared to is Barry Bonds, according to Wade, who said Judge is better than when they played together.
“He really understands what he needs to do in the box and he doesn’t swing at certain pitches,’’ Wade said. “Obviously, with how big he is, he has so much leverage that he can do damage on so many different pitches.”
As King said, “Judge was insane when I was here. He’s gonna be insane for however long he plays.”
English (US)