The Tuesday Discussion: .400 or .500?

June 3, 2025

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This week we asked our writers the following:

What would you find more exciting to witness this year, Aaron Judge having a .500 On Base Percentage (he is at .485 right now) or a .400 Batting Average (he is currently at .391)?

Here are their replies...

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James Vlietstra - Definitely .400 batting average .

It’s been 84 years since Ted Williams last accomplished the feat. Not to mention that he’s going to be getting walked more and more as the season progresses which will make the .500 OBP more likely as well 

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Ed Botti - Hands down, a .400 batting average is more historically significant (and exciting) to me.

I can remember George Brett hitting .390 in 1980, and I believe he was over .400 in mid or late September of that season.

One of the players I admired the most was Tony Gwynn, and in the strike year of 1994 he was hitting .394 when they called off the season on 8/12/94 (110 games), when they resumed play in 1995, and you took the next 52 games (total 162) he hit over .400 during that full 162 game period. AMAZING!!

It is extremely difficult to do, and the chances of Judge actually doing it are very slim, but it would be an exciting stretch of late September baseball if he was still within reach.

Personally, I’d rather see him challenge the triple crown this season!!

Like most of us, I have never seen a Yankee win the triple crown.

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Cary Greene - Since walking a lot isn't exciting, I'd rather see hits and perhaps a batting title. With Judge having such a large strike zone and with the way umpires routinely call low pitches to him strikes, it's amazing that he's able to walk as much as he does, but walks don't bring fans out of their seats and in order to capitalize on them, they often require someone else in the lineup to get a hit. One could argue that a walk to Judge forces pitchers to throw more strikes to the batters behind him in the lineup and that makes Yankee games more exciting, but imagine the excitement if Judge could become the first player since Ted Williams to bat over .400. That would be a feat that would never be forgotten. 

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Ethan Semendinger - The "smart" baseball fan may see this question and immediately say, "A player with a .500 on-base percentage is certainly more valuable than a player with a .400 batting average". And this would be the SABRmetric mindset concluding that that more times on base equals a better outcome.

However, this idea completely separates the player from his accomplishments. And, in the case of Aaron Judge, that outlook would undersell what he's capable of.

Aaron Judge having a .500 on-base percentage would likely mean he's getting to first base a lot. It means a lot of walks. It does not mean lots of runs.

Aaron Judge hitting to a .400 average would likely mean many doubles and home runs.That does mean lots of runs.

For me, I think the answer is clear and simple. If Judge could manage to hit .400 until the end of the season, that would be the more amazing accomplishment.

*** Paul Semendinger - How about...both?

.400 has the mystique around it, no doubt. No Yankee has ever hit .400. Two Yankees have had a .500 OBP (Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle).

I'll go with .400, but .500 would also be very neat to see.

Maybe I'll root for Judge to have a .800 slugging percentage. As a Yankee, only Babe Ruth has done that!