Last night, Ryan Howard became the fastest player in history to hit reach the 100 homerun mark, taking just 325 games to do it. Ralph Kiner had held the old record of 385 games, for 59 years (he hit 369 total homeruns).
For his career, Howard is now averaging a remarkable 50 homers every 162 games, but that doesn't mean Aaron, Bonds, Ruth, A-Rod, or anybody else should be worried. Here's why. While he's the fastest to get to 100, he's by no means the youngest to reach 100, and when you talk about all time-taters, that's a much more important number.
Howard turns 28 in November. That's not young, especially when you consider the fact that Albert Pujols turns 28 in January and already has 266 homeruns. Miguel Cabrera, who is by no means as prolific a homerun hitter as Howard, doesn't turn 28 until April 18, 2011! He's already sitting on 121 career dingers.
Ken Griffey Jr. was 23 when he hit his 100th back in 1993. So was Alex Rodriguez when he hit his 100th in 1998. Believe it or not, Junior and A-Rod rank eighth and fourth respectively on the all-time "youngest to 100" list. If you're curious, Mel Ott is number one. He hit his 100th when he was 22 years, 132 days old and ended up with 511 for his career. Ott is also the fastest to 200 (25 years, 144 days) but it gets interesting after that. A-Rod is far and away the youngest ever to get to 300 (27 years, 249 days), and 400 (29 years, 316 days). And if he can hit 8 more before June 28, 2008 (exactly one year from today) he'll also be the fastest to 500. At that point, people can begin to talk seriously about 800.
Now back to Howard. Assuming he stays healthy, and assuming he's, somehow, able to keep up the absurd "50 in every 162" pace he's currently on, he will hit another 26 this year, giving him 44 for the year and 126 for his career. After that, he would need another seven and a half seasons at 50 per to reach 500. If all that happens, he would hit his 500th at about this time, in the year 2015, at about age 35 and a half. A-Rod, on the other hand, can play in 27 more games before turning 32 and he's sitting on 492 career homeruns. This means A-Rod will likely reach the 500 mark at an age three and a half years younger than Howard would, assuming Howard can sustain his torrid pace for 8 more seasons.
That, friends, is some prolific pop from the man some Yankee fans still love to hate.
I bet you didn't know...
-The Chicago White Sox are hitting .235, worst in baseball.
-The Cincinnati Reds have hit the most homeruns (105).
-The St. Louis Cardinals have 20 steals, fewest in baseball. Jose Reyes has 38 steals, most in baseball.
-The Minnesota Twins' hitters have struck out the fewest times this season (346). The Florida Marlins' hitters have struck out the most times this season (617).
-The San Diego Padres lead the majors in staff ERA (3.04), shutouts (11), and quality starts (45).
-The Chicago White Sox, Houston Astros, and Washington Nationals are tied for the most blown saves (13).
-The Oakland A's lead the majors in fewest runs allowed (273).
-The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have allowed the most homeruns this season (95).
-The Florida Marlins lead the majors in errors (65).
-If Magglio Ordonez goes 8 for his next 8, he'll be hitting .401
-Gary Sheffield and Albert Pujols are the only players in the top 10 in baseball in homeruns who have more walks than strikeouts.
-Carlos Lee has grounded into more double plays (16) and hit more sacrifice flys (11) than anyone.
-In 265 plate appearances Luis Castillo has 7 extra base hits, fewest in baseball.
-Jason Kendall has created the fewest runs (13.2) of any qualifying big leaguer.
-Kip Wells has the highest ERA (6.75) of all qualifying pitchers in baseball.
-Scott Eyre (Cubs) and Joel Peralta (Royals) have both blown all 4 of their save opportunities this season.
-Zach Duke has induced the most double plays (20) and allowed the most total bases this season (194).
-No pitcher has thrown 2 shutouts this season. Only 17 have thrown 1.
-Jeremy Bonderman is averaging 9.00 runs of support each start, best in baseball. He is 8-0 with a 4.01 ERA.
-Anthony Reyes is averaging 2.11 runs of support each start, worst in baseball. He is 0-8 with a 6.64 ERA.
-A.J. Burnett has allowed the most stolen bases this season (23).
-Among pitchers who've thrown at least 40 innings, Scot Shields has the lowest batting average against (.156). Jae Seo has the highest (.372).
-Carlos Ruiz, Kevin Youkilis, and Placido Polanco are the only qualifying big league infielders who haven't made an error this season.
-Yuniesky Betancourt leads the majors in errors (18).
I'd be willing to bet I wasn't the only person who thought Sammy Sosa's 600th homerun last night was somewhat anti-climactic. I was even watching it live on ESPN during one of their cut-ins and I must say it just didn't resonate with me as being a remarkable achievement, which it really is.
In very basic terms, 600 homeruns is the equivalent of hitting 30 a season for 20 years, or 40 a season for 15 years. That is truly remarkable power, sustained over a long period of time, especially considering no current player owns an active streak of even 5 straight years of 40 homeruns (Albert Pujols is going for his 5th straight this year and David Ortiz and Adam Dunn are going for their 4th).
So to hit 600 in a career, you need to play for a long time. And you need to be, either a consistently very good power hitter, or have a few years where you just go berserk. Even though he did have a streak of 6 straight 40 homerun seasons, I think you have to classify Sosa in the latter category considering he hit 40.5% of his career dingers in a four-year-stretch ('98-'01). During that four-year-stretch we saw players post homerun totals of 73, 70, 66, 65, 64, and 63. Before that, it had been 37 years since somebody hit 60, and nobody's done it since.
The other guys in the 600 homerun club are Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays.
Aaron led the league in homers once in 23 seasons, and never hit more than 45. But he had a 17-year stretch where he hit fewer than 30 just one time. That, to me, places him in the "consistently very good" category.
Bonds is sort of a hybrid of the two classifications. Like Aaron, he had a 15-year stretch where he hit fewer than 30 just once. But like Sosa, 28% of his 748 homeruns came in 5-year stretch ('00-'04).
Ruth is also a hybrid, but a different type than Bonds. He had a 13-year stretch where he hit at least 30 every year but one, and he also had a 14-year stretch where he led the league in homeruns 11 times. The best way to describe his power-hitting career might be "consistently excellent." He didn't have a short spurt where he was off the wall like Bonds and Sosa. His whole career was off the wall. He hit 60 once, 50 3 times, and 40 7 times. And his two most powerful seasons were 6 years apart (59 bombs in '21 and 60 in '27).
As for Mays, he's more of an Aaron type. He led the league just 3 times, his career high in a season was 52, but for 13 years he hit over 30 a total of 11 times.
Maybe it's the fact that Sosa is being overshadowed this year by Bonds' pursuit of Aaron, maybe it's because he came out of retirement presumably just to hit his 600th homerun, maybe it's because Ken Griffey Jr., Manny Ramirez, A-Rod and possibly Jim Thome all have a decent shot at 600 as well, or maybe it's because 2 out of every 5 of Sosa's career homeruns were hit during the so-called steroid era. Either way, this achievement just doesn't resonate with me the way it should.
BALTIMORE (AP) - The Baltimore Orioles have scheduled a 1 p-m news conference at the Camden Yards Warehouse for this afternoon amid reports they are firing manager Sam Perlozzo.
The Orioles have lost eight straight games and there are reports in The (Baltimore) Sun and on broadcast stations that Perlozzo is being fired.
The team has not publicly announced the reason for the news conference.
The 56-year-old Perlozzo is in his second season managing the Orioles. The Cumberland native had called managing the Orioles his dream job.
Apparently it's his fault they've lost 3 starting pitchers this season and the "new and improved bullpen" is atrocious.
But the Yankees have won 8 in a row, they're above .500 for the first time since April 20, and they've shaved 4 games off the Red Sox lead in just 10 days (they're also just 4.5 games back of Detroit for the Wild Card).
At the same time, perhaps I gave the Orioles a little too much credit when I predicted they'd have an easy time with Seattle, Colorado, and Washington before their pre-All-Star-break-schedule gets really tough. They are now guaranteed to lose all three series, and the best they can do in this 9-game cakewalk is 3-6. 10 days ago, I predicted they'd go 13-18 to close out the first half. They're 2-6 so far, meaning they'd have to go 11-12 against the Nats (one game), D'Backs, Padres, D'Backs, Yankees, Angles, White Sox, and Texas. They're going to have to pick it up really quick to flirt with .500 over that stretch.
And if you're keeping score at home, the O's need to go 53-44 (.546) the rest of the season to avoid a 10th straight losing season.
...how Edwin Jackson is still in a Major League starting rotation? He retired one batter in his start tonight against the light-hitting San Diego Padres. He also gave up 2 walks, 5 hits and 5 earned before getting the gate, and before getting his 8th loss of the season.
He is now 0-8 with an ERA of 8.20 in 12 starts. His best outing of the year was back on May 28th, where he gave up 2 earned over 6, struck out 9 and walked 2. Other than that, he's had just 3 quality starts all season (one was 6 1/3 pitched, 3 earned, the other two were 6 pitched, 3 earned). He's also given up 6 earned twice, 5 once (tonight), and 4 a total of 5 times. Tonight's was his shortest outing of the year, but he's also had outings where he retired 4, 8, 9, and 10 hitters.
I realize he doesn't turn 24 until September, I realize he is pitching for Tampa Bay, and I also realize it wasn't that long ago that he was "the next big thing" for the L.A. Dodgers. But at what point do you say, "okay, maybe he's not quite ready to start at this level, just yet?"
OMFQ (you may know him better as Roger Clemens) will debut for New York this afternoon. The Yankees have won 4 in a row, but they are 3 games below .500 (28-31) and currently sit 10.5 games behind the Red Sox in the AL East, and 5.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers for the Wild Card.
What's interesting is that since Clemens announced his intentions back on May 6th, the Yanks have lost ground in their playoff hunt (during a stretch that I called critical). On May 6th, they were 14-15, 5.5 games back of Boston and 4.5 games back of Detroit. So in the 30 games they've played, preparing for Clemens' arrival, they've gone an uninspired 14-16 (and that's with their current 4 game winning streak remember, they were 10-16). Interestingly, in that same stretch, the Sox are 19-11 and the Tigers are 15-15.
So all of that said, here are a few bold predictions. First, Clemens will defeat Paul Maholm and the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates, in Yankee stadium this afternoon. Second, at least one Yankee fan will try to buy playoff tickets immediately after the game. Third, the Yankees will not catch the Red Sox in the AL East. Boston has the best record in baseball, probably has the best pitching in baseball, and has one of, if not the best lineup in baseball. Their lead is too big, too late in the season (there are just 102 games left, and the Yanks and Sox only play each other 6 more times). Fourth, and here's where I go out on a proverbial limb, the Yankees will make a serious run at the Wild Card, and may even get it. Detroit is headed south, and fast. Their bullpen is in shambles (Zumaya and Rodney are hurt, Mesa's gone, Jones has imploded a few times), their starting pitching is not nearly as strong as the Yankees will be with Clemens, and Magglio Ordonez and Gary Sheffield are over-performing. Both sluggers are due to come back to Earth, and soon (as A-Rod has since his silly April). All that, combined with the fact that the two teams play each other 8 times in the second half, will make for a very competitive Wild Card chase down the stretch. And don't count out Oakland or Minnesota either. The A's have allowed the fewest runs in the American League, and they're a notorious second-half team, while Santana and the Twins are also second-half studs, and they're starting to get healthy.
Yes folks, things are about the get interesting, starting this afternoon, at 1:05 in the Bronx.
Dear Mr. Guillen,
The last time I checked, Jason Giambi, Barry Bonds, and Mark McGwire are not Latino.
Regards,
Baseblogger
In 5x5 leagues, these are the players who should be starters next month in San Francisco. I think I can safely say many of them will not be voted to start the game, because it's up to the fans, many of whom live (and vote) in New York and Boston.
American League
Catcher - Victor Martinez (.316, 31, 12, 50, 0), vote leader - Ivan Rodriguez
First Base - Justin Morneau (.282, 38, 16, 44, 0), vote leader - David Ortiz
Second Base - Brian Roberts (.327, 38, 2, 17, 19), vote leader - Robinson Cano
Shortstop - Jhonny Peralta (.302, 34, 11, 35, 2), vote leader - Derek Jeter
Third Base - Alex Rodriguez (.292, 49, 20, 47, 6), vote leader - Alex Rodriguez
Outfield - Magglio Ordonez (.362, 50, 13, 52, 0), vote leader - Vladimir Guerrero
Outfield - Grady Sizemore (.276, 49, 10, 29, 17), vote leader - Manny Ramirez
Outfield - Vladimir Guerrero (.357, 33, 12, 50, 1), vote leader - Ichiro Suzuki
National League
Catcher - Russell Martin (.314, 38, 7, 39, 8), vote leader - Paul LoDuca
First Base - Prince Fielder (.294, 37, 20, 45, 0), vote leader - Albert Pujols
Second Base - Chase Utley (.304, 41, 10, 44, 3), vote leader - Chase Utley
Shortstop - Jose Reyes (.316, 42, 2, 26, 30), vote leader - Jose Reyes
Third Base - Miguel Cabrera (.319, 35, 11, 40, 0), vote leader - David Wright
Outfield - Matt Holliday (.345, 31, 10, 44, 3), vote leader - Carlos Beltran
Outfield - Carlos Lee (.313, 30, 11, 52, 3), vote leader - Ken Griffey Jr.
Outfield - Eric Byrnes (.310, 36, 9, 32, 10), vote leader - Barry Bonds
Based on the voting so far, many of these current fantasy leaders can hope for a reserve spot, at best, July 10. At least Tony LaRussa and Jim Leyland get to pick the starting pitchers, so there's a decent chance it will be Jake Peavy vs. Dan Haren
Mr. Bailey, the NL's answer to Phil Hughes, will make his big league debut Friday night, in Cincinnati, against the hard-hitting Indians. Good luck Homey! In that park, against that team, you're going to need it. Let's not forget, though, the NL ROY race is wide open, so with a few good starts, he could be in the mix, especially if he's as good as advertised.
But the L.A. Angels have won 8 of 10 and are now tied with Boston for the most wins in baseball (37).
And over in the National League, how good is the West? The first place Dodgers (34-23, winners of 7 of 10), the second place Padres (33-23, winners of 7 of 10) and the third place Diamondbacks (34-24, winners of 9 of 10) are all separated by just half a game.
If the playoffs were to start today, it would be Boston vs. Detroit and Los Angeles vs. Cleveland in the AL Wild Card Round. In the NL Wild Card Round it would be New York vs. San Diego and Los Angeles vs. Milwaukee.
I'm not sure, but this sure is entertaining. We even ran a story about him on our news today.
There are likely more than a few O's fans who used the Birds' recent winning streak as a way to re-convince themselves this is the year Baltimore nips that nasty little run of 9 straight losing seasons. Well, Birdbrains, welcome back to reality. Your team isn't that good. Miguel Tejada isn't going to go yard in every one of your remaining games, and this isn't the year you break .500.
They took 2 of 3, at home, from Oakland, swept the Royals in KC, and took game one of a four-game set in Los Angeles to win a season-high 6 straight and to pull to .500. They allowed 12 runs in those 6 games, and scored 40 runs. Then came the last three games of the LA series. Now they're back to 3 games below and have King Felix in Seattle tonight.
They need to go 55-50 the rest of the way to break the streak and they have a decent chance to grab a few of those wins their next three series, with sets against Seattle, Colorado, and Washington. But then things get awfully tough before (and after) the All-Star break. They have a home and home with Arizona, they go to San Diego, host LA, the Yanks, and visit the White Sox before a series at Texas. My guess is they win about 13 times in those 31 games (with most coming against their first three opponents). That would put their record at 40-48 at the break, meaning they would need to win 42 of their 74 games in the second half , where they have 28 games (38% of their schedule) against the Red Sox, Angels, and Yankees.
Yes, O's fans enjoy the next 9 games because it gets a whole lot tougher from there on out. Then again, there's always next year.
So, Treinta Ocho and Michael Barrett got into it in the dugout and in the clubhouse after Barrett had a passed ball and throwing error on the same play in a 5-run fifth inning. There was pushing, shoving, and man-slap-punches thrown. Ocho probably said something like "mix in a catch back there" and Barrett likely replied with something in the neighborhood of "I can't tell what's getting bigger, faster. Your ERA or your pants size."
Here's what I don't get.
The play in question that supposedly led to the whole fight happened when it was already 4-1, Braves. Ocho had already walked two guys, given up a ringing double, two singles, a line-out, and the Cubs had thrown a guy out at home. In other words, he wasn't exactly cruising up until that point. So what I want to know is, who the hell is he to yell at Barrett when he can't get anybody out!? We're talking about one of the worst starting pitchers in baseball this year. He's the owner of the 9th highest WHIP in the game (1.59, which equates to a whopping 14+ base-runners allowed per 9), only 6 big leaguers have a higher ERA (his is 5.62), only 3 pitchers have walked more guys than he has (34), only 1 pitcher has allowed more homeruns (13). When you're that bad I don't think you have the right to call out anybody let alone your catcher. You don't see Barrett pushing Ocho's fat ass around the dugout after he gives up tape-measure blast. Who knows? Maybe he should.
The Cubs say they're going to discipline both players. They won't do it, but I think they should send Ocho down to triple-A. Based on how he's pitched and on this most recent incident, he wouldn't be missed.
Last night, Ryan Howard became the fastest player in history to hit reach the 100 homerun mark, taking just 325 games to do it. Ralph Kiner had held the old record of 385 games, for 59 years (he hit 369 total homeruns).
