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Has Aaron Judge been cursed by a cartoon? The evidence is there if you’re willing to look. Also: Ken on Boston’s need for a right-handed masher, Kumar Rocker’s long-awaited debut, and the Baseball Card of the Week. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!
Theories: Aaron Judge and the ‘Paw Patrol’ curse
It wasn’t long ago — Aug. 25, to be precise — when we were asking if Aaron Judge might break his own AL record of 62 home runs in a season. After all, he had just blasted his 50th and 51st against the Rockies, and was on pace for 63 round-trippers.
He has not hit one since. In fact, as Chris Kirschner points out, the 16 games (and 70 plate appearances) since his last home run make up the longest drought of his career.
We here at The Windup are not peddlers of unfounded rumors. So rest assured, I have done my own research on this theory, diving deep on *deep sigh* the fan wiki page of the children’s television show “Paw Patrol.”
Judge appeared on S2 E12 of “Rubble & Crew” (a “Paw Patrol” spinoff). Titled “The Crew Builds a Ballpark,” the episode aired on Aug. 26, and featured Judge as himself. He is unable to get to a home run derby, in which he is attempting to set a record by hitting 100 home runs. The crew snaps to action, building him a ballpark in Builder Cove. For a little last-minute drama, Judge breaks his bat after the 99th home run, so the crew builds him a new one! Spoiler: he hits the 100th home run.
Alas, that might be the last record he breaks this year.
(Not to editorialize the facts, but I find the premise a bit implausible. Judge hasn’t participated in MLB’s Home Run Derby since he won it in 2017 as a rookie! Did he just want to leave Builder Cove? Was the alleged home run derby just an excuse that backfired when the crew invested potentially hundreds of millions of public dollars in building a ballpark? If so, are we sure this is a spinoff of “Paw Patrol” and not “Curb Your Enthusiasm”?)
Anyway, the dates line up, so yes: It looks like the “Paw Patrol” curse is probably real, I am sorry to report.
How to break it? I dunno, man. Curses are notoriously illogical. But if I could offer one suggestion, it would be to ditch the cartoon bat they built for him. It appears to be haunted.
More late-season swoons: After flirting with .400 earlier this year in Cleveland, Steven Kwan’s batting average has dipped below .300. Woof.
Ken’s Notebook: Why the Red Sox need to add a right-handed masher
From my latest column:
Picture Alex Bregman playing third base for the Boston Red Sox next season. Wait, what about Rafael Devers? Move him to first. What about Triston Casas? Trade him for a starting pitcher of comparable ability and service, maybe one from the Seattle Mariners.
Sounds like a lot. But as currently constituted, the Red Sox’s position-player group is too young and too left-handed. And it will get even younger and more left-handed if the team in 2025 starts incorporating three top prospects — outfielder Roman Anthony, shortstop Marcelo Mayer and catcher Kyle Teel.
A roster with too many good young left-handed hitters is, admittedly, a first-world baseball problem. But playing at Fenway Park, where the Green Monster hovers over left field, the Red Sox need a greater right-handed presence, a complement for Devers similar to what Manny Ramirez was for David Ortiz.
The Red Sox’s last World Series championship club in 2018 featured right-handed might — Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez. The 2013 World Series champions had Dustin Pedroia, Mike Napoli and Jonny Gomes as a part-time contributor and a number of switch hitters.
The 2024 Sox lack right-handed thump aside from Tyler O’Neill, who leads the team with 30 home runs but is heading for free agency. The return of Trevor Story helps, but Ceddanne Rafaela, Connor Wong and Rob Refsnyder are not middle-of-the-order types. Take away O’Neill, and Red Sox right-handed hitters have hit only 48 home runs this season, or three fewer than Aaron Judge.
Enter Bregman. Or Willy Adames, a shortstop who could move to third base. Both are scheduled to hit the open market this offseason. Story will play next season at 32, on the older side for a shortstop. He could move to second once Mayer is ready, unless another top prospect, the right-handed hitting Kristian Campbell, claims the position first.
More Rosenthal: The rest of the Windup team is sending our sincerest hopes that Ken is safe and dry after this harrowing experience. They got him!
Finally: Kumar Rocker’s successful debut
There was a time when Kumar Rocker was so good that at least one writer suggested he might be worth tanking for.
Since then: his slightly less dominant final year at Vanderbilt, the “draft coup” No. 10 pick by the Mets in 2022 and the medical records that left him unsigned. Then there was the season pitching for the Tri-City Valley Cats, followed by the shocker when the Rangers took him with the third pick of the 2022 draft.
Finally, after 42 strikeouts and seven walks in 28 innings of pro ball, there was … the Tommy John surgery that set him back another year. All of a sudden, it’s been four years and four days since that “tank for Kumar” article.
But on Thursday night, it finally happened. Rocker, 24, made his big-league debut in Seattle, and the results were the sort of thing that Rangers fans have been desperate for from a home-grown pitcher since … what, Kevin Brown?
OK, it was only four innings, as the Rangers build up his workload. And it was against a Mariners offense that has been criminally ineffective this year. But hey, one run on three hits (two of which were soft grounders that found a hole) will play. Seven strikeouts and two walks is just fine. Thirteen whiffs on his slider? That’s tantalizing.
The Rangers will get Jacob deGrom’s 2024 debut tonight, and Max Scherzer returns Saturday. It’s all too late for the defending champions this year, but it looks like they’ve found a long-awaited keeper who can contribute to the big-league rotation next year.
Baseball Card of the Week: 1960 Topps Dick Schofield
I do love the design of the 1960 Topps set, but I am always a little amused that nobody at Topps thought it important to include the year anywhere. Even the old trick of “look at the last year on the stat line and add one” doesn’t work. Schofield hit .234 in … YEAR.
You probably know that Dick’s son (also Dick) played for the Angels, Royals, Dodgers and Mets over a 14-year career in the 1980s and 90s.
What you might not have known is that while the younger Schofield was the third generation of the family to play pro ball, he wasn’t the last. The guy on this card is also the grandfather of Jayson Werth, who played 15 seasons in the big leagues.
Luis Arraez No-K Streak 👀
No strikeouts, but no plate appearances, either (the Padres were off). The streak is now at 124 plate appearances.
Handshakes and High Fives
(Top photo: Jim Cowsert / USA Today)
