I reached a personal milestone this week as I celebrated an anniversary of my professional stage hypnosis career. So I thought it appropriate to write about some of the players who are approaching big baseball milestones this year.
The biggest one, as I wrote of earlier, is Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit milestone. He is 74 hits shy.
Chipper Jones and Vladimir Guerrero should reach the 2500 hit mark this year. Guerrero, if you believe his age is actually 35, has the next best shot of reaching the 3000 mark.
Albert Pujols is amongst a group of 12 players who in range of reaching 2000 hits. At 30 years of age, Pujols, if healthy is probably a lock for 3000 and looks like a 3500 hit candidate. With 3630 hits, Stan Musial is the all-time Cardinal leader (off the top of my head anyway.)
Chipper Jones and Vladimir Guerrero should reach the 2500 hit mark this year. Guerrero, if you believe his age is actually 35, has the next best shot of reaching the 3000 mark.
Albert Pujols is amongst a group of 12 players who in range of reaching 2000 hits. At 30 years of age, Pujols, if healthy is probably a lock for 3000 and looks like a 3500 hit candidate. With 3630 hits, Stan Musial is the all-time Cardinal leader (off the top of my head anyway.)
Only 17 active players have a career average (with enough qualifying at bats) of .300 or better.
Pujols leads Ichiro Susuki there .3314 to .3310.
Pujols also is the current active leader in On Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage, just to show you how incredible a hitter he is.
Jim Thome needs 11 homeruns to become just the 8th person to reach 600 homeruns. With three players ahead of him having been accused of steroid use, that puts his achievement in an entirely new perspective.
Thome is also, however, second all-time in strikeouts behind only Reggie Jackson but if/when he hits number 600 that is the only number about which anyone will care.
Lots of current players on that all-time strikeout leader list too.
Pujols leads Ichiro Susuki there .3314 to .3310.
Pujols also is the current active leader in On Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage, just to show you how incredible a hitter he is.
Jim Thome needs 11 homeruns to become just the 8th person to reach 600 homeruns. With three players ahead of him having been accused of steroid use, that puts his achievement in an entirely new perspective.
Thome is also, however, second all-time in strikeouts behind only Reggie Jackson but if/when he hits number 600 that is the only number about which anyone will care.
Lots of current players on that all-time strikeout leader list too.
At just 34 years old Alex Rodriguez has 613 homeruns. He is one of those accused of steroid use, of course. While they might account for extra power, they can’t help anyone hit a baseball in the clutch. Rodriguez has 1831 RBI’s and is 17th on the all-time list. If he drives in 100 this year, he’ll climb up to 8th on that list and would only be 366 behind Hank Aaron who is number one. He is a lock to do that. (And when I say that I say it “barring injury…or a jail term.)
Rodriguez’ biggest milestone came at the Super Bowl this year, however, when he managed to get Cameron Diaz to hand feed him in front of the biggest TV audience in world history. Hats off to A-Rod for that one.
Rodriguez’ biggest milestone came at the Super Bowl this year, however, when he managed to get Cameron Diaz to hand feed him in front of the biggest TV audience in world history. Hats off to A-Rod for that one.
Manny Ramirez is 1 RBI behind Rodriguez, but is now 38.
Guerrero and Chipper Jones should reach 1500 RBI’s this year.
Over to the pitchers and there just isn’t much there.
Guerrero and Chipper Jones should reach 1500 RBI’s this year.
Over to the pitchers and there just isn’t much there.
Tim Wakefield is now the active leader in wins with 193. He is 43 years old and can still probably throw for another 15 years or so, but he’ll never reach 300 wins, the magic number. 250 is probably the benchmark for pitchers now who just aren’t the real men they used to be even in the early to mid-80’s when a complete game was expected, not admired as some super-human feat.
CC Sabathia is more of a work-horse than most. At 29 he has 157 wins and he does play on the Yankees, so he has an outside shot at 300. He would simply have to average 14.3 wins a year for the next ten and he is there. Seems reasonable to me.
If you Phillie fans are thinking Roy Halladay, he is 33 years old with 169 career wins. He would have to pitch until he is 40 and average 19 wins a year for the next 7. He is a horse, of course, but I don’t see that happening.
The active leader in strikeouts right now is Javier Vazquez, of all dudes. He has 2374 and is 34 years old. It would be interesting to see if he can reach the 3000 mark, and if he does, would he go to the Hall of Fame? Here is a guy who is 152-149 with a 4.26 career ERA. Those are average statistics at best but because he stays healthy and averages 200 innings a year, now he is with reach (even though there is a lot of work to get done) of a statistic which just about everyone considers a mark of a Hall-of-Famer.
Kevin Millwood should reach 2000 strikeouts this year and after that only Sabathia, needing 213 to reach 2000 is close to a real milestone there.
The active leader in ERA, for starting pitchers, is the Mets Johan Santana at 3.10. Only 22 other starters are under 4.00.
The Yankees Mariano Rivera, a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer when he retires, has 559 career saves, second only to Trevor Hoffman’s 601. Getting 43 saves this year is doable, but it would be tough. Look for Rivera to clearly hang on another year if he falls shy.
Rivera’s career ERA, by the way, is 2.23. He has been under 2.00 the past 3 years and 7 out of 8. That’s sick. When I spoke of Derek Jeter last week and how his name will be amongst the legends of the Yankees mentioned decades from now, it is possible that Rivera’s name could slip off the tongue like that also. I know he is a relief pitcher and it’s so different from that of a starter like Whitey Ford, but Rivera has been SO dominant and lights out for 15 straight years (out of 16) that its well within the realm of possibility.
CC Sabathia is more of a work-horse than most. At 29 he has 157 wins and he does play on the Yankees, so he has an outside shot at 300. He would simply have to average 14.3 wins a year for the next ten and he is there. Seems reasonable to me.
If you Phillie fans are thinking Roy Halladay, he is 33 years old with 169 career wins. He would have to pitch until he is 40 and average 19 wins a year for the next 7. He is a horse, of course, but I don’t see that happening.
The active leader in strikeouts right now is Javier Vazquez, of all dudes. He has 2374 and is 34 years old. It would be interesting to see if he can reach the 3000 mark, and if he does, would he go to the Hall of Fame? Here is a guy who is 152-149 with a 4.26 career ERA. Those are average statistics at best but because he stays healthy and averages 200 innings a year, now he is with reach (even though there is a lot of work to get done) of a statistic which just about everyone considers a mark of a Hall-of-Famer.
Kevin Millwood should reach 2000 strikeouts this year and after that only Sabathia, needing 213 to reach 2000 is close to a real milestone there.
The active leader in ERA, for starting pitchers, is the Mets Johan Santana at 3.10. Only 22 other starters are under 4.00.
The Yankees Mariano Rivera, a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer when he retires, has 559 career saves, second only to Trevor Hoffman’s 601. Getting 43 saves this year is doable, but it would be tough. Look for Rivera to clearly hang on another year if he falls shy.
Rivera’s career ERA, by the way, is 2.23. He has been under 2.00 the past 3 years and 7 out of 8. That’s sick. When I spoke of Derek Jeter last week and how his name will be amongst the legends of the Yankees mentioned decades from now, it is possible that Rivera’s name could slip off the tongue like that also. I know he is a relief pitcher and it’s so different from that of a starter like Whitey Ford, but Rivera has been SO dominant and lights out for 15 straight years (out of 16) that its well within the realm of possibility.
Now it’s time to get out and work on that next milestone. How about you?
Done.
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