Yankees By The Numbers – There’s More Than the Aaron Judge Long Ball

New York Yankee right fielder Aaron Judge leads Major League Baseball with 22 Home Runs. He's on a pace that could see him not only win Rookie of the Year but MVP of the league. That has been done only twice in the same year. I'll come back to that.

Here are some Yankee numbers that are being overshadowed by Judge's HR's:

• Aaron Judge's batting average - He is batting .347, which is tied for second in Major League Baseball behind only Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals who is hitting .365
• Brett Gardner's HR total so far - Gardy has 13 homers this season. He's been a leadoff type guy his whole career. In fact the most home runs he's ever had in one season was back in 2014 when he hit 17 on the year. He's got 13 in June which is amazing. Many traditional baseball guys would tell you this could be a bad thing because you don't want your lead off guy swinging for the fences. It has not however affected his ability to get base hits, draw walks and play small ball.
• CC Sabathia's wins - CC was considered a liability coming into the season. Everyone said he was washed up. For his part he is 7-2 with a 3.66 ERA and has had some really strong starts. He has more than made up for the dismal year that Tanaka has had so far.
• Gary Sanchez's HR's - Sanchez missed almost a month of the season and still has 10 home runs. After the hot half season he had last year he was the guy with the brightest light on him coming into this year. After his bicep injury sidelined him and Judge heated up he became an afterthought. He is no afterthought.
• Aaron Hicks across the board - Hicks was not even supposed to be playing everyday. Here he is with 10 HR's a .313 batting average and 36 RBI's.
• Matt Holliday's EVERYTHING - Holliday has been a great veteran presence in the locker room and has had a fun competition with Gardner for HR's. He is tied with Garner by the way with 13.
• Yankee's have won 6 straight - What is so impressive about that is 5 of those 6 games have been within the AL East. 2 of 3 from the Sox, a sweep of the O's and last night's road win against the Angels. You need to win your divisional games and the Yanks have done that. Before this stretch the Red Sox were breathing down their necks and the Orioles were not far behind. Now the Sox are 4 back and the O's are 7 and a half back.

Who are the only two players to win the Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same year? It was Fred Lynn and Ichiro Suzuki. Lynn was a center fielder for the Red Sox and took both honors in 1975. Ichiro should not have won Rookie of the Year when he did because he was 73 years old when he came in the league.