Although Bryce Harper is hitting in the .230s at the end of July and is having a disappointing campaign compared to his amazing 2015 MVP season last year, he still is inexorably moving up the charts of the all time home run hits. Ty Cobb was the original hit machine, and in the small Home Run era before Babe Ruth Harper has achieved that threshold of notability.
Also notably this year, 2016, the Nationals are in first place in their division 5-6 games ahead of the Mets and the Marlins, and Mr. Harper is still on pace to possibly break last year's Walk record. Which is no small thing. His hits need to improve; talk yesterday against the Giants was that the way his bat hits the ball is what needs improvement.
688.
Also notably this year, 2016, the Nationals are in first place in their division 5-6 games ahead of the Mets and the Marlins, and Mr. Harper is still on pace to possibly break last year's Walk record. Which is no small thing. His hits need to improve; talk yesterday against the Giants was that the way his bat hits the ball is what needs improvement.
688.
| Ty Cobb+ (24) | 117 | L | HR Log | |
| Kelly Gruber (10) | 117 | R | HR Log | |
| Bryce Harper (5, 23) | 117 | L | HR Log | |
| Jim King (11) | 117 | L | HR Log | |
| Chet Laabs (11) | 117 | R | HR Log | |
| Garry Maddox (15) | 117 | R | HR Log | |
| Miguel Montero (11, 32) | 117 | L | HR Log | |
| Dan Pasqua (10) | 117 | L | HR Log | |
| Tris Speaker+ (22) | 117 | L | HR Log | |
| Mickey Stanley (15) | 117 | R | HR Log |
| Tris Speaker is another Hall of Famer on this list, having played from 1907 to 1928, overlapping with Cobb (1905-1928) and Ruth (1914-1935). Cobb led the majors in home runs with only 9 in 1909, while Speaker was the best in 1910 with only 12. The Bambino did not lead the majors until 1918, hitting only 11! Similar to Cobb and Speaker. Then, of course, Babe Ruth went on to lead the majors in home runs 11 of the next 13 years, with huge end of the season tallies in the 40s and 50s, and amazingly hit his 60 blasts in 1927. Babe has only been surpassed by two players all time, Aaron (1954-1976)and Bonds (1986-2007) . Alex Rodriguez (1994-2013, 2014-) is currently at 696, with a slight but unlikely chance of passing the Babe's 714, in third place. Babe hit those 11 major league leading homers in 1918 at age 23, similar to Bryce's age now. Admittedly, Harper has to pick up his game a lot to rack up all those Ruthian numbers in a career path that has no guarantees. As I see things now, Harper may be lucky to get to 600 home runs all time, putting him in the top 8 or 9 all time. BUT YOU NEVER KNOW. An injury can end things tomorrow, or Bryce could go on a career tear like Sammy Sosa or Mark McGuire and shoot to the top. I think it will end up like in between ruin and greatness, with Bryce being better at batting average, on-base percentage, and no cheating (Palmeiro, Bonds, A-Rod), even though Palmeiro still denies it: Bryce should be in the pantheon of home run kings, along with current players Pujols, Trout, Stanton, and maybe 3-4 others. Carlos Correa? Nolan Arenado? Manny Machado? We shall see... |
No comments:
Post a Comment