Who would you rather have long-term: Aaron Judge or Andrew Benintendi?
Welcome to Boston.com’s Sports Q, our daily conversation, initiated by you and moderated by Chad Finn, about a compelling topic in Boston sports. Here’s how it works: You submit questions to Chad through Twitter, Facebook, email, his Friday chat, and any other outlet you prefer. He’ll pick one each day (except for Saturday) to answer, then we’ll take the discussion to the comments. Chad will stop by several times per day to navigate. But you drive the conversation.I still can’t get over that you wrote that you wouldn’t take two Aaron Judges for one Andrew Benintendi. I enjoy your columns. But boy, did that sound stupid. – Harvey W.
Well, um, what I meant to say, see, is that two Andrew Benintendis are the size of one Aaron Judge. Yeah, that’s it. Just mixed up the math a little. Gonna blame the editor on that one, ha ha.
Oh, all right, Aaron Judge is pretty good, and he probably has better longterm prospects than temporary Yankees phenoms Kevin Maas did in 1990 or Shane Spencer in ’98. He was on my do-not-draft list in fantasy baseball this year after whiffing 42 times in 84 major-league at-bats last year. That, as it turns out, was something of a mistake. Judge leads the majors in homers (27), slugging (.687), OPS (1.135), and walks (58), while leading the American League in runs (70), RBIs (62), and on-base percentage (.448). He could strike out in every other at-bat in the second half, and he’s still going to win the AL Rookie of the Year.
But if we turn this into a question — who would you rather have for the long-term, Judge or Benintendi? — I’m still going Benintendi. Not over two Aaron Judges, but definitely over one. Benintendi is two years younger and is having a fine rookie season (.274/.351/.431) in just his second full season in pro ball. He’ll ultimately prove the more well-rounded player, though my case for that would certainly be helped if Judge forgot how to hit the slider. Ultimately, I’ll take Fred Lynn over Frank Howard.
But what do you guys say? Benintendi or Judge, long-term? I’ll meet you in the comments.
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