COULD JUDGE PASS ICHIRO?

It almost feels sacrilegious to say it—but here we are, putting Aaron Judge’s name in the same breath as Ichiro Suzuki. Ichiro! The man was a walking poem of precision, the artist who painted doubles down the line like Monet dabbed lilies on canvas. And yet, somehow, we’re watching Judge, the Yankees' skyscraper of a slugger, chip away at a record we thought belonged forever in Ichiro’s museum wing.

Let’s be clear: Aaron Judge isn’t just mashing baseballs into orbit this year—he’s doing something more cerebral, more surgical. We are witnessing history. He’s picking pitches like a sommelier picks wine. He’s turning at-bats into chess matches. And he’s racking up hits like he’s getting paid by the stitch on the baseball seams.

Sure, Judge’s swing has all the subtlety of a wrecking ball, but it’s the precision this season that’s got people buzzing. He’s not just crushing. He’s collecting. Singles, doubles, and everything in between—he’s finding the holes, beating the shift, and refusing to give pitchers a single breath of hope.

Now, here’s the part that’ll make your baseball brain do a double-take: Judge is flirting with the kind of hit pace that lands you in Ichiro territory. As in, 262-hits-in-one-season territory.  Judge has 97 hits and it's only June 11th! And while there’s still a summer’s worth of baseball to go, it’s impossible to ignore what’s unfolding—history, right in front of our faces.

It’s worth noting that Ichiro set that record without the luxury of a Murderers' Row around him. Judge? He’s got a batting order behind him that could start a small war. But it doesn’t make what he’s doing any less jaw-dropping. If Ichiro was a scalpel, Judge is a sledgehammer—but they’re both doing the same thing: rewriting what greatness looks like in the batter’s box.

So yes, it’s wild to compare the stoic magician from Japan to the towering titan from California. But this version of Aaron Judge is more than just a home run machine. He’s something else now—something rarer. He’s Ichiro with power. He’s contact and chaos. He’s making history, and we’re lucky enough to watch him do it in real time.