Don't tell people what to pay attention to.

No one closely followed Judge's home run pursuit until the last month of the season.

Also, outside of New York, was it really that big of a deal?

I think Verducci is intentionally misremembering:

"The Marlins play game No. 81 on Wednesday at Fenway Park—halfway through their season—and Luis Arraez still is making a realistic bid to hit .400. On the difficulty scale in today’s game, it is harder than hitting 61 home runs."

Except it isn't a realistic bid.

Arraez is going to have one bad week and then then run out of time.

The numbers are going to get more and more impossible. Like, "if he bats .440 in his last 200 at-bats, he can still finish the season at .400."

 

"It’s just not as highlight-friendly to see the Marlins second baseman carving out his hits with an average exit velocity of 91.3 mph as it was to see Aaron Judge smashing home runs at an average speed of 109.0 mph last year."

Judge had a mammoth first half last season which set the stage for the AL record-breaking season.

But I distinctly remember at the All Star Break that 62 home runs was just a vague idea ... and even then, about half the crowd still gave deference to Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa.

 

"2. Hitting .400 is harder than hitting 61 home runs.

Nobody has hit .400 since Ted Williams in 1941.

In those same 82 years, 61 home runs have been achieved eight times by five players (Roger Maris, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Judge)."

Sure.

Aside from the obvious PED retort, we're only halfway through the season.

 

"3. Forget .400. Hitting even .380 would be amazing.

Nobody has come within 20 points of .400 in a full season since 1980, when George Brett hit .390."

Forget .400?

So forget the whole reason I'm reading this? 

Look, it's amazing. I think Arraez is getting a lot of attention, actually. I'm not sure who Verducci is arguing with.

I personally hope Arraez does it because some of these Mount Rushmore players should get challenged once in a while.

But he isn't going to.

Arraez is probably going to finish the season over .350, which is amazing enough.

The only way he's going to bat .400 for the season if he he gets hot, creeps over .400, and then stops at the minimum number of at-bats.