As mentioned by ESPN stats, New York Yankees All-Star slugger Aaron Judge began Tuesday leading all of MLB with 59 home runs, 127 RBI, and an OPS of 1.120. The 30-year-old also notched four hits during this past Sunday’s win over the Milwaukee Brewers to improve his batting average for the season to .316. That’s good for a tie for second in the American League with Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts, and those two trail only Luis Arraez of the Minnesota Twins at .317.
Action Network’s Michael Leboff (h/t New York Post) explained before Tuesday’s game between the Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates held in the Bronx that Caesars Sportsbook now has Judge as a +130 betting underdog to win the Triple Crown. He’s at -150 to fall short, most likely because of his average compared to Arraez’s, and thus has a 43.5% implied probability to become the first Triple Crown winner since Miguel Cabrera accomplished the feat while with the Detroit Tigers in 2012.
It was said back on Sept. 9 that Judge was an overwhelming betting favorite to win AL Most Valuable Player honors and to hit at least 62 home runs to break the Yankees and AL records for most homers in a single season of 61 set by club legend Roger Maris in 1961. Leboff notes that Judge is at -650 to surpass Maris and is at an absurd -5000 odds to win AL MVP over Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani.
Judge’s AL leads in home runs and RBI are essentially insurmountable, so his Triple Crown chances will come down to whether or not he can hit for average as he attempts to also blast at least three more homers over walls before the closing hours of Oct. 5.
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