Royals' Cole Ragans Names 2 Batters More Satisfying To Strike Out Than Aaron Judge

It's always fascinating to hear a Major League Baseball player interviewed on a national sports show that doesn't focus on baseball too often.

Kansas City Royals star pitcher Cole Ragans went on FanDuel TV's "Up & Adams show on Tuesday. Host Kay Adams, who has spent most of her career covering the NFL, had a wide range of questions for Ragans, many of which covered topics that baseball players don't often address in a typical postgame interview.

For instance, Adams asked Ragans who the "most satisfying" player to strike out was in all of Major League Baseball, and rather than invoking one of the biggest names in the sport, Ragans had a more nuanced answer.

Ragans singled out Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan and San Diego Padres infielder Luis Arraez, the two most notorious contact specialists in the big leagues, as his answers.

"It has to be like a guy that never strikes out," Ragans said. "If you can get like Steven Kwan or Luis Arraez, or somebody that walks a lot, has a really good eye... I feel like those guys are so hard to strike out, you have to execute so well, that it's nice when you finally get them, because they put the ball in play at such a high rate."

Adams then asked about how that compared to the feeling of striking out Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees' superstar outfielder who is tracking to win his third Most Valuable Player award in the last four years.

"I mean the thing is, he can turn around and hit a ball 700 feet off you as well," Ragans quipped.

Ragans truly gave a ballplayer's answer to a question aimed at a wide-ranging audience. Sure, blowing a fastball past Judge is a more high-profile accomplishment, but it takes a special combination of stuff and command to put away Arraez (three strikeouts this season) or Kwan (16).

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