So Who's Next?

The last four days in baseball have really been a microcosm for the entire season; All-Star-caliber players reaching noteworthy career milestones. We had Barry Bonds hitting his 756th last night, Tom Glavine winning his 300th Sunday and Alex Rodriguez becoming the youngest to 500 on Saturday. But don't forget about Craig Biggio's 3,000th hit, Frank Thomas cranking his 500th homerun, or Sammy Sosa hitting his 600th homerun before that. That's 6 pretty big milestones already this season, and it's not even counting Ryan Howard becoming the fastest to 100 homeruns, Trevor Hoffman recording his record 500th save, or the Philadelphia Phillies suffering their pro-sports-worst 10,000th loss. I hope you like this stuff, because we could be in for a handful more before we reach October.

The real race right now, and it's shaping up to be a good one, is between sluggers Ken Griffey, Jim Thome, and Manny Ramirez. Junior is 11 bombs away from 600, Thome is 10 away from 500, and Manny is 11 away from 500. Barring injury, which is assuming quite a bit with this group, all three could reach their marks before the end of the season, although there isn't a single guy who's a lock to do it. Griffey has 26 bombs so far, Thome 18, and Manny 19. They all have about 50 games left, so they'll each need one every 5 games or so to get there.

In less exciting homerun chase news, thanks to a 2-dinger performance last night, Todd Helton is now 3 away from 300. By itself that's not impressive, but tack on his career .331 average (which ranks behind only Ichiro and Albert Pujols among active players) and it's suddenly a much more impressive feat.

I hope you're not sick of Barry Bonds yet, because he's a very doable 19 RBI away from 2,000 for his career. Only Aaron, Ruth, and Cap Anson are in that club right now. And with a sac fly or solo homerun tonight, Miguel Tejada will be halfway to Bonds, with 1,000 career RBI. Something tells me he's not going to catch Barry, though.

In more dubious Jim Thome news, he notched career punchout number 2,000 last night against the Indians' Jake Westbrook. Four more, and he'll move into third place on the all-time list behind only Reggie Jackson and Sammy Sosa. Jackson finished up 3 shy of 2,600 for his career (think about that for a second...that's more than 4 full seasons of nothing but strikeouts!) so it's looking like that record will be safe.

If you think that's painful, listen to this. Three more hit-by-pitches, and Craig Biggio will own the career record with 288. He's already said he's hanging them up at the end of the season, so if it's the last game on the schedule and he's sitting on 287, I hope somebody does the right thing and drills him.

For pitchers, Andy Pettitte is 6 wins away from 200, which for all intents and purposes, might as well be the new 250, assuming 250 is the new 300.

Speaking of 300, new club member Tom Glavine is just 3 losses away from 200 for his career. But he has no need to worry. Of the 23 pitchers with 300 "W's," only 6 of them (Christy Matthewson, Roger Clemens, John "Don't Call Me Kelly" Clarkson, Eddie Plank, Charley Radbourn, and Lefty Grove) had fewer than 200 "L's."

Pedro Martinez needs just two more strikeouts for 3,000 in his career. Just 14 pitchers have accumulated more and they're all Hall-of-Famers, except for Roger Clemens (who will be), Randy Johnson (who will be too), Bert Blyleven (who should be), Greg Maddux (who will be), and Curt Schilling (who might be).

And finally, if Roberto Hernandez and Mike Timlin make 4 and 10 more appearances respectively for the Dodgers and Red Sox (or really any big league team for that matter), they'll both reach quadruple digits. Only 11 other players have done that.

None of these milestones will be as big as the three we've seen reached since the weekend, but it's nice to know there are still plenty of reasons to watch, even if your team is out of the chase.