OT—Albert Pujols to #9 on Career Hits List
Title says it all, really. Pujols's single to shallow left in the top of the 4th tonight was the 3320th hit of his career, inching him ahead of Paul Molitor. At 20 hits through 56 games, it seems unlikely that he'll get the 99 more hits needed to pull even with Carl Yastrzemski. So, 9th is where he goes from now.
If Miggy retires after next year as planned, no way he catches him. Two of the all-time greats. Not sure we see this kind of longevity going forward. Feels like the end of an era.
Amazing hitter in his prime... even with those ugly red birds on his uniform.
Also amazing... drafted in Round #13 of the 1999 draft.
Cubs fan, I take it?
Tigers fan, but I hate all Cardinals right now.
Cardinals and their fans - I think they are the most insufferable team and fanbase in baseball. They really believe their own press that "they are such great fans."
I say that as a Cincinnati Reds fan, so take it FWIW, but they aren't popular among many NL team fanbases.
One of the best that ever lived during his prime that included the first 11 years he was with the Cards before being traded to the Angels. Injuries came to hurt his career later, starting with his last year on the Cards, iirc. Albert was an absolute beast who destroyed pitchers while being a great defensive player. Easy unanimous vote to be a HOFer on first ballot.
Here's the active hits leaders list:
Maybe Altuve has a shot at 3000 hits? Possibly Abreu? No one else does. End of an era for sure.
Machado maybe
Trout or Harper outside chance
It's a different game now
“Give me Wade Boggs, Paul Molitor and Tony Gwynn back!”
- Me…in my grumpy old man voice.
I miss those kinds of hitters.
can't forget to add Don Mattingly. Another one whose career was ended early by injuries. The dude had such a sweet swing.
And no rings! Weird the the NYY stopped winning the World Series while he was on the team and started winning after he left.
Mattingly did have such a sweet compact stroke. If Craig Biggio is in the HOF, Don Mattingly needs to be in the HOF.
Also, as far as sweet swings, I loved watching Will Clark hit.
It's a different game now.
Boom!!
You gotta put the damn ball in play in order to get a hit. Too many K's these days in all of baseball and too few ballplayers who even try to hit the opposite way vs the shift.
So true Rob. I don't understand how a MLB player cant / won't just slap the ball opposite field when the shift is on. Just get on base.
They haven't practiced that, so it's a lot easier said than done against big league pitching. Joey Gallo has been ripping shots down the right field line his whole life--big adjustment to start slapping the ball the other way.
It’s because pitchers are too good. Stringing together enough singles to score 4-5 runs is pretty unlikely. So teams want players to build their swing approaches around power. Doubles and homeruns are going to lead to more runs even if they also lead to more outs than just going with an approach to slap singles against a shift.
Run scoring per game in the major leagues so far this season is the lowest since 2015 and the 4th lowest since the turn of the century.
For the Tigers, it's even worse: they've hit a MLB low of just 30 homers while as of yesterday, only 9 teams strike out more. Detroit has scored only 158 runs this season. Next worst: Pittsburgh with 189 runs.
The free-swinging offensive approach really isn't working too well, is it?
The WAR/Advanced Metrics guys are now valuing guys who walk and get hits more than ever these days...
But the people who cut the record contract paychecks are blinded by the HRs, regardless of batting averages and strikeouts.
Guy making $30 million a year bunts against the shift, and watch people complain that they make too much money to bunt.
It's broken.
For those players to have a chance, they’d have to play over 20 years AND have the back of their career be at least as productive as the front. That’s highly unlikely.
Machado and Trout are about 1500 hits after 11-12 years. Does anyone expect them to play 11-12 more years at the same pace?
Altuve looks like the best bet on that list but at age 32 he's still 1179 hits away. 50-50 chance at best as long as he can stay healthy.
Not a chance with Abreu; he's already 35 years old and would have to average 170 hits/season thru age 44 to get there.
Trout, while young enough to have a shot, somehow has to avoid injuries, something he's been plagued by all career long.
Elvis Andrus has an outside chance; at age 33 he's 1095 hits away, but his numbers haven't looked good since the 2017 season and he's a .271 career hitter. Freddie Freeman might be a little better bet than Andrus because he's 139 behind Andrus right now and a year younger, and he's continued to be productive so far.
The only others---and this is strictly because they're showing up on that list before age 30, might be Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, but neither of them is halfway to 3000 yet.
Missing ~130 games in the 2020 season is quite likely to keep a few of these guys just short of having a real shot at 3000.
Certainly not Robinson Cano; Padres just released him and I think his playing days may be over.
Cano also most likely lost his HOF bid after his second PED suspension last year.
Altuve and Freeman have the best chance at 3,000, and their chances aren't that great. It could be a long, long time before we see another one.
Here is a mind-blowing stat: Remove Hank Aaron's 755 HR's and he still has 3,000 hits.
Awesome.
That's an insane stat!
Here's my personal favorite:
Just a reminder that....
— Cut4 (@Cut4) July 21, 2019
More people have walked on the moon (12) than men who have scored against Mariano Rivera in the postseason (11). pic.twitter.com/LXXF3q48FM
Insane stat #3:
There was a 2- or 3-year span in the peak of his career when Albert Pujols:
* had a higher career slugging percentage than Barry Bonds: AND
* had a higher career batting average than Ichiro.
MLB Network was chatting up Albert last night with one of the hosts complaining that he's not getting a "farewell tour" this year. If I had to guess, I would say that Albert is too humble to want that (and maybe refused it).
The other host said that Albert should be invited to the All Star Game this year - just so the fans could acknowledge him. I agree, but he should be a +1 for the NL team with no playing time (i.e. he shouldn't take the spot of someone deserving to be there)
That's good. Jeter ruined it for everyone.
I'd like to add the days of pitchers getting 300 is surely* over.
*I'll call you Shirley if I want to.
Yup, it'll be tough for someone to get 300 wins again the way the game has evolved. Verlander is the only active player with a remote shot. And even if he finished this season with 20 wins (a real possibility), he would need to average 14 wins per season for four more years (into his age 43 season). Maybe he's got some Tom Brady in him...
Jeter was offered a mich ride, but did it on his own. I dont blame jeter one bit. Its the voters that regard some as better than others. Was far too long for tram. Lou Whitaker was the best 2nd baseman I have seen in my years and he hit leadoff many of those years. Look at the stats. Even leadoff homeruns. Its kinda shocking how good he really was.
His perception is suffering from him having two very different and distinct halves of his career.
People forget that he was basically Babe Ruth + Mickey Mantle, and a sure fire inner circle hall of famer just from his time with the Cardinals.
Then he was slogging his way through injuries and pain with the Angels for soooo long.
Manny Machado called out that teams should be giving him the farewell tour that guys like Ortiz, Chipper, and Jeter got.
In 5 years, when he's eligible for the Hall, I think we'll have time to re-examine his career properly and realize he's statistically a top 15-20 player all time, and top 10 if you exclude the steroid guys.
I am a baseball guy, and I greatly respect Pujols. But he was for sure in my eyes one who cheated with hgh. I can't prove it and not stated it as FACT! Its simply my opinion from watching alot of baseball and seeing his career. I didn't watch as much as if I lived in St. Louis, but saw more than most that were not Cardinals fans.
It was part of the game and somehow I/we have to accept it, but he was great... not as great as some. Sweetest swing... Griffey Jr. Singles.... Ichiro. Doubles.... Edgar Martinez. Triples.... Kenny Loften. HR..... Barry Bonds. Pitching: Clemens/Ryan. Relief.... Lee Smith.
While some of these above took physically enhancing tactics.... They were true examples without it.
Triples are the most exciting play in baseball.
I also think there is a strong probability he was an HGH guy so I wouldn't be so quick to list him in the non PED category. Also agree that he will be the last to reach 3000 hits unless there is some fundamental change in the sport (and I'm not sure what that would be).
Lee Smith was great. But over Mariano Rivera? I can't stand the Yankees, but man he was awesome. He was one Yankee who was not just part of the NY hype machine.
Still talkin' baseball (but a thread hijack just the same):
Rob Manfred again is refusing to reconsider Bud Selig's ruling on Armando Galarraga's 28-out perfect game. What a chickensh*t!
The video evidence is indisputable. Making the correct call doesn't change the outcome. Only one at-bat gets wiped from the record book (the 28th out). And EVERYONE involved in the play on the field agrees with making the change.
FIRE MANFRED!
One of my favorite traits about you Rob, is you're just as passionate about baseball as me!
and yes Manfred needed to be fired a long time ago. It was a perfect game in my mind at to me that's all that counts.
I wouldn't want any sport to go back and change mistakes? We all knew it when it happened. Shouldn't change the stat and thats baseball. It was wrong, but that happened in baseball. I used to argue with my uncle about pitchers going high and tight in the late 80s/early 90s. You want to lean over the plate.... one pitch now and then is going at your face. Thats baseball. You want to be a little girl and bitch. Its gonna happen again. Thats baseball.
Baseball has gone back in time and changed numerous stats over the years.
Exhibit A: Take a look at the Wikipedia page of Ty Cobb, the 'Regular season statistics' section, and the explanation about the changed stats of Cobb and how commissioner Bowie Kuhn wrongly blocked the corrections, resulting in MLB.com being the statistical outlier on Cobb:
Cobb has the highest batting average in major league history, .366. In Cobb's time, major league records were kept very well, but not with the absolute accuracy seen later and since.[161] Thus, for many years, Cobb's lifetime batting average was reported as .367, but rigorous research of source documents late 20th century found that this is wrong, as some games had been reported wrongly:[162][163]
All sources with standing agree that Cobb's lifetime batting average is .366 (except MLB.com, see below); some show slightly different numbers for at-bats and hits, but all devolve to .366.SABR (the Society for American Baseball Research) (seconded by John Thorn and Pete Palmer, among others), the Baseball Almanac, and ESPN credit Cobb with 4,189 hits in 11,434 at-bats.[164] Retrosheet gives Cobb the same number of hits in five more at-bats (11,439),[165] and Baseball Reference and the Baseball Hall of Fame add one more at-bat (11,440).[166] All of these round to .366.
MLB.com lists Cobb's lifetime average as .367 (4,191 hits in 11,429 at-bats),[167] the number that had been reported and believed true from Cobb's retirement until the late 20th century. (Other pages on the website do give the correct value.)[168] According to former baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Major League Baseball continues and will continue to report the incorrect value on the basis of it being grandfathered in (" The passage of 70 years, in our judgement, constitutes a certain statute of limitations as to recognizing any changes")[161]
IMO, arbitrary balderdash on the part of Bowie Kuhn.
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Exhibit B: (this article from the BaseballHall.org)
https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/baseball-history/changing-nature-of-statistics
Bottom line: changes can AND do happen. Accusing me of "being a little girl and bitch" seems to be all you got here?
he is also #3 all time in rbi behind hank aaron and babe ruth.