Aaron Judge Passes Joe DiMaggio for Most HRs by Yankees Rookie

New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge crushed his 30th home run of the 2017 season Friday night against the Milwaukee Brewers to pass Yanks legend Joe DiMaggio for the most homers by a rookie in team history.

The Yankees celebrated the feat on social media:

Judge is putting together a remarkable rookie campaign. Along with his 30 home runs, his batting average is hovering around .330, and he's closing in on 70 runs batted in, which places him firmly in the Triple Crown race with the All-Star break coming next week.

The 25-year-old right fielder always possessed elite power potential, but it was hard to predict this type of season was on the horizon.

In 84 at-bats across 27 games with the Yankees last season, he posted a miserable .179/.263/.345 slash line with four homers. While it was a small sample size, he looked light years away from becoming a top MVP candidate.

That's exactly where he'll stand heading into the second half.

Before that, however, Judge will put his pop on display in the Home Run Derby. Pete Caldera of NorthJersey.com noted the slugger is trying not to treat it as a high-profile contest, though.

"I'm just going to take normal BP, I'm not going to try to change anything," Judge said. "I feel like my BPs have felt good, [a] nice, easy swing, not too hard."

It would be difficult to consider anybody else the favorite, even reigning champion Giancarlo Stanton, based on the first half the Yankees outfielder has put together.