FanGraphs | Jay Jaffe: Aaron Judge recently tied all-time Yankee Yogi Berra on the franchise home run list, and another eight-win season has the Yankee captain firmly in Hall of Fame consideration. He’s already passed the baseline for enshrinement by Jaffe’s JAWS concept. He joins Mike Trout and Mookie Betts as the only active players to pass the JAWS threshold at the same time as hitting the 10-year minimum for eligibility, and in fact by JAWS finds himself smack dab between Dwight Evans (who should’ve
gotten more a serious Hall look in his day) and Ichiro (a near-unanimous Hall of Famer). Another peak season or two and a graceful decline moves Judge into surefire territory.
NJ.com | Randy Miller: With two dozen games left at time of writing, Jazz Chisholm Jr. needs just two home runs and four stolen bases to become the third-ever Yankee in the 30/30 club, joining Bobby Bonds (1975) and Alfonso Soriano (2002-03). This comes after missing 27 games earlier in the season, and Jazz himself believes he could be a 40/40 player in a full year. It’s hard to doubt Chisholm based on the skill he’s shown in 2024, so hopefully we get a full 162 game season out of him sometime, and we get to see it for ourselves.
The Athletic | Jim Bowden ($): We close with a couple pieces from The Athletic. First off, Bowden reranks his top prospects in baseball, and the top studs of the Yankee system win love. Spencer Jones is at 14 and George Lombard Jr. is at 35, even if the system as a whole isn’t as strong as it could be. Whether you see Spencer Jones as a top-15 prospect in the game is up to you, however.
The Athletic | Adam Leventhal ($): In a broader sports story, legendary site of piracy Streameast was shut down after a sting operation in North Africa. Streameast was one of the most-visited sports sites on the entire Web, and if authorities are able to actually close the grey side of the internet, the streaming wars that ESPN, NBC, and others are currently involved in only get hotter.
