ANAHEIM, Calif. — There is a reason baseball has had one Triple Crown winner since 1967, and it’s a simple one: It’s among the most difficult accomplishments in sports.

Those who can hit 45 homers usually aren’t fast enough to leg out the hits to win a batting title. Those who have speed don’t have the power. And if they can marry those two tools — think Mike Trout — they need to live in lineups that provide RBI opportunities.

Now, 11 weeks into the season, Aaron Judge has worked his way into a discussion much more revered than AL Rookie of the Year and AL MVP. Can the 25-year-old Judge win the Triple Crown as a rookie?

Entering Tuesday night’s game against the Angels, he had the best chance of any of the hitters on the various leaderboards. Judge’s .347 average was 14 points ahead of the White Sox’s Avisail Garcia’s. Judge had 22 homers to Justin Smoak’s 18, and his 49 RBIs were one back of Nelson Cruz’s league-leading 50.

In 61 games, Judge had 22 home runs. At that pace he would finish his first full season in the big leagues with 59 homers. With 49 RBIs in 61 games, Judge would end the season with 129 RBIs if he averaged .80 RBIs per game the rest of the way.

Because of his 6-foot-7, 280-pound stature, the right-handed hitting Judge is more likely to lead the league in homers, and because Brett Gardner and Aaron Hicks have strong on-base percentages, .349 and .424, respectively, Judge will be in the mix for an RBI title. The batting championship will be interesting because, while Judge runs well for such a big guy, batting titles normally have infield hits sprinkled in, and Judge isn’t about to be racking up infield hits.

Still, 61 games in and the right fielder was in better position than anyone in the league to challenge for a Triple Crown, which was most recently accomplished by the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera in 2012, when he batted .330 with 44 homers and 139 RBIs.

According to a person who watched a lot of Cabrera that year, he didn’t get a lot of leg hits, but he did something that Judge has done so far this season.

“The one thing they have in common is that they use the whole field,’’ the scout said. “You can’t shift on Cabrera because there is no way to shift him. With the defensive metrics you can’t do that, and I see that with Judge. He goes to right field and it’s hard to defend when he hits it over the fence.’’

Understanding it’s only mid-June with a pile of games remaining, those numbers don’t look impossible for Judge to reach based on how the first 61 tilts went.

How difficult would it be? Assuming Judge stays healthy — he has played in 59 of the first 61 — Judge would be the third Triple Crown winner since 1967, when the Red Sox’s Carl Yastrzemski accomplished the feat that has been done just 16 times since 1878. Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby each did it twice.

Then there is the matter of pitchers and managers actually giving Judge something to hit. If big league managers were paying attention Monday night, they will likely avoid pitching to Judge with a base open late in the game with the outcome in doubt.

The Angels’ Mike Scioscia let Bud Norris pitch to Judge with Aaron Hicks on second and with one out in the eighth and the score tied, 3-3. Even when the count was 2-0 in Judge’s favor, Scioscia didn’t put him on first base to take his chances with Matt Holliday.

Norris’ next pitch landed in the right-field seats and delivered a 5-3 win that stretched the Yankees’ winning streak to six games.

Always humble and never missing a chance to be positive about a teammate, Judge didn’t think Scioscia would walk him.

“I didn’t see why they wouldn’t,’’ Judge said when asked about the Angels pitching to him. “You have Matt Holliday behind you and [Starlin] Castro, why would they [issue an intentional walk]?’’

Holliday and Castro are having solid years and Castro was tied for third in the AL batting race with a .328 mark going into Tuesday’s action. Angel Stadium, Trout’s home park, erupted with “MVP, MVP, MVP’’ chants every time Judge came to the plate and he leads two of the Triple Crown categories and is second in the other.

The odds say “No.’’ The numbers in the middle of June scream “Yes.’’ It’s easier to bet no, but no other player is in better position than Judge on all three fronts.