Judge leads AL Triple Crown categories after monster weekend

It's getting hard not to look at Aaron Judge's stat line and think about how scary it will look after 162 games.

Thanks to a monster weekend against the Baltimore Orioles - and specifically, an epic four-hit, two-homer, three-RBI performance Sunday afternoon, complete with a monster 495-foot home run - the newest Yankees megastar has found himself in an incredible position for a rookie: chasing a Triple Crown.

In fact, he's now leading the American League in all three Triple Crown categories - batting average, home runs, and RBIs - through his first 58 games, and there's absolutely no signs that he's slowing down as the summer grind approaches.

With the obvious caveat of there still being a long way to go in the season, Judge's historic pace is now worth watching for a number of reasons. Most notably is the fact that there has never been a rookie Triple Crown winner in baseball history; each of the previous 17 winners (including the unofficial winners from before 1920, when RBIs were not official statistics) were all established professionals.

Few rookies have ever even come close to pursuing a triple crown win. Mike Trout was second and third in average and homers respectively during his epic debut season of 2012, but never stood a chance at climbing that mountain since that was the year Miguel Cabrera won the majors' first Triple Crown in 44 years.

If he were to pull it off, Judge would also become the youngest modern-era Triple Crown winner since a 24-year-old Mickey Mantle did it for the Yankees in 1956. Unlike the rookie Judge, though, young Mantle was already in his sixth major-league season by that time.

It should be noted that Judge - who also leads AL hitters in runs scored (54) and walks (38) - owns a higher average and more homers through his first 58 games of this season than Cabrera did in his first 58 games of 2012.

Judge isn't the only hitter drawing early-season triple crown buzz. Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman owned the NL lead in all three categories last Sunday, though he's fallen slightly off that pace in the last week.

Only once - when the Athletics' Jimmie Foxx and the Phillies' Chuck Klein did it in 1933 - has a season featured Triple Crown winners in both leagues.