Future first ballot HOFer Albert Pujols continues adding to his resume of career milestones, becoming the 32nd player to reach 3000 hits with an opposite field single against the Mariners last Friday. After joining Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds last season as the only players to reach 600 doubles and 600 home runs, Pujols now joins Hammerin’ Hank, Stan Musial, Willie Mays and A-Rod as the only players with 3000 hits, including 1200 for extra bases. More after the jump.
MLB.com has compiled a rundown on the 3000th hit for each member of that club. I’ve summarized the particulars for those events in the table below.
Pujols’ single broke with recent history that had seen seven of the previous nine 3000th hits go for extra bases (compared to 6 of the first 22). This marks the first time that a new 3000 hit club member has been added in each of four consecutive seasons. Miguel Cabrera could make it 5 seasons in a row next year, though chances are higher that Miggy makes it in 2020. Robinson Cano would be next, perhaps in 2021 at age 38 or the next season.
With Ichiro getting in a few games this year before his move to the Mariner front office, this season marks the sixth time that three 3000 hit club members have been active in the same season, after 2001 (Gwynn, Ripken, Henderson), 1993 (Yount, Brett, Winfield), 1979 (Rose, Brock, Yaz), 1972 (Aaron, Mays, Clemente) and 1925-28 (Cobb, Collins, Speaker).
Pujols is the second player with a 3000th hit as an Angel; like the first (Carew), Albert was a free agent signee after more than a decade with his first team that included RoY and MVP awards. Speaker and Collins are two other 3000 hit players with similar two team careers.
Pujols reaches 3000 hits in his age 38 season, the 11th player to do so in that season or before. Next on the horizon for Albert are 10,000 AB (28 players) and 2000 RBI (4 players), the former a certainty if he plays another month or so and the latter also within reach later this season. Pujols will likely finish his career just shy of averaging 1 RBI per 5 AB, something no modern era player with 10,000 career AB has accomplished (Bonds almost did it, averaging one RBI per 4.93 AB in 9847 AB). Further out for Pujols, perhaps in his age 40 season, are 3000 games (8 players) and 6000 total bases (3 players).
Other career marks that Pujols is chasing are 100 WAR (20 players; Pujols was there before his negative WAR season last year dropped him just below that threshold), 60 WAA (22 players; currently 64 but falling quickly), 150 OPS+ (25 players with 7500 PA; currently 151) and a .300 BA (77 players with 7500 PA; currently .304). Two more seasons like last year could have Albert close to not finishing his career with more walks than strikeouts; if he does make it, he would be the 11th player (of 27, currently) to do so while hitting 500 home runs. If he doesn’t play too many more seasons, Pujols also has a chance to join Aaron, Williams, Ott and Ruth as the only 500 home runs hitters to average fewer than two whiffs per whallop.
Well done, Albert!
Just a quick note on tonight’s no-hit performance by the Mariners’ James Paxton against Toronto.
– Just the second Canadian to record a no-hitter (first was Dick Fowler in 1945) and did so, fittingly, in Canada
– His first four pitches to his final hitter were 96, 97, 98 and 100 MPH (didn’t get the velocity on his last pitch)
– Second no-hitter of 2018, second by a left-hander, and second by a pitcher in his first career CG (and first time for all three)
– First no-no by a Mariner southpaw since a young Randy Johnson in 1990
– Quite the follow-up to his 16 SO in 7 IP performance his last time out (just the 5th pitcher with as many K’s in as short a start)
Third no-hitter of 2018, no? The second was a combined no-hitter, though.
Great career but the end game is difficult to watch. Eventually all players get old and less productive, but when they are on contracts of this length and still healthy enough to play they too expensive and too esteemed to just walk away from, or make a bench player. Albert’s not an asset the way he’s used now. In a different era he might have played for a more modest contract, in a more limited role (he can’t hit left-handed pitching), and valued for his leadership-a sort of soft landing that players like Willie Stargell had.
Yes, time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for Albert, either. But, an incredible peak…which begs the question, which player had the highest OPS+ in the season where he captured hit number 3,000? I would think possibly Cobb since he was so young or Aaron since he hit so well from age 35-39?
It’s actually Cobb and Speaker with the highest OPS+, both at 166. Aaron (149), Musial (145) and Mays (140) round out the top 5.
Doug,
Thanks – didn’t see your response. In light of steroid testing, it will be interesting to see how far out past their primes the Harper and Machado contacts go (as well as Trout). But, the opt-out “clause/rider” might offer every team a kick the can down the road choice. It has burned the Cubs with Heyward but the WAR crowd will argue what a great fielder he is. Somehow, I think Epstein and Maddon would prefer 25 HR’s and 100 RBI
It’s been done by two players in the same season
6 times
4 times within a month of one another
1 time on back to back days.
Cleveland is the only franchise to have 3 players achieve it (Nap, Tris, Steady Eddie).
The Washington/Minnesota franchise is the only team to have it done to them 4 times
(though Denver has notably been on the wrong end of it thrice in their quarter century)
All of the original franchises, except the Dodgers, are represented in these 32 games.
Cobb, Speaker and Collins were all on the 1928 A’s.
with Foxx, Cochrane, Grove, and Wheat? I believe the Giants of the same era (even year?) may have had Terry, Hornsby, Jackson, Lindstrom, Roush (?), Ott, Hubbell. One of these teams has to have the most Hall of Famers in a single season on their roster?
Here’s something I found in the Charlton Chronology several years ago:
5/24/28
In the first game of a doubleheader in Philadelphia‚ a ML record 13 future Hall of Famers take the field as the first-place Yankees take on the 2nd-place A’s. This number does not include non-playing Hall of Famers Herb Pennock and Stan Coveleski‚ managers Miller Huggins and Connie Mack‚ nor umpires Tom Connally and Bill McGowan. [HOFs: Combs‚ Durocher‚ Ruth‚ Gehrig‚ Lazzeri‚ and Hoyt for New York; Cobb‚ Speaker‚ Cochrane‚ Simmons‚ Collins‚ Grove‚ and Foxx for the A’s] Led by Tony Lazzeri’s three hits and six RBIs‚ the Yanks edge the A’s‚ 9-7‚ handing the defeat to Lefty Grove. The A’s win the nitecap‚ 5-2‚ behind rookie Ossie Orwell.
Richard,
Thanks for the info. I don’t have a PI subscription but I guess if you went to “batter” , “teams” , “games >/= 1”, and had clicked the Hall of Fame box, you might get a definitive answer. Interesting that the 1928 A’s, who may have had the most HoFers, didn’t win the pennant but certainly did have three pretty fair seasons following
The 1930-33 Yankees all had 9 HOFers: Combs, Dickey, Gehrig, Gomez, Lazzeri, Pennock, Ruffing, Ruth and Sewell on the 1931-33 clubs, with Hoyt subbing for Sewell on the 1930 club.
All of the Yankee teams from 1928 to 1934 had at least 7 HOFers. No team since 1934 has had more than 6 HOFers, with the 1964-65 Giants the last team with a half dozen, and the 1982 Red Sox the last with five. The most (so far) on a 21st century team are 4 on the 2001-02 Braves.
Doug
Thanks – only one pennant (and WS) for those 1930-’33 NYY. And a pennant for the Giants in ’62 but only a division title in 1971 in a very low-scoring era in the NL. Interestingly, on 9/19/65, the SFG had a 3.5 game lead on the Dodgers. But, LA finished 11-1 and up by 2 games over SFG who went 6-7. The lone Dodger loss was a 2-0 5-hit CG SH thrown by none other than Denny LeMaster
Mookie Betts today scored his 40th and 41st runs in Boston’s 39th game of the season. He’s the 57th player (19th in the expansion era) with 40 runs in his team’s first 40 games. Only other Red Sox player to do this was Ted Williams in 1942.
The Saux record for a single season is Williams 150 R in 1950. Any chance of breaking that?
The AL expansion era best is 146 by Henderson with 1985 NYY; NL is 152 by Bagwell in 2000
Williams’ 1949 season (not 1950): 150 R, 150+ BB (162), 150+ RBI (159). Only such season. Maybe ever (certainly hard to see it happening again with batters facing starting pitchers only two or three times a game).
Bryce Harper made the 40 R in 40 game club last year. He finished with 95 runs in 111 games and 492 PA, the former the lowest total of the expansion era in a full-length season with 95 runs, and the latter just 5 PA more than Eric Davis in 1987, when he scored 97 runs in 132 games (Bagwell posted 104 runs in 110 games and 479 PA in 1994, while Marquis Grissom had 96 runs the same year in 110 games and 521 PA). Only three players from the 20s and 30s recorded 95 runs in fewer PA than Harper, Davis or Bagwell (none in fewer games): Jack Smith (1923), Jo-Jo White (1934) and Bill Dickey (1936).
I’ve heard of Austin McHenry……never heard of nor noticed the playing record of Jack Smith. So, I guess, I “don’t know Jack Smith.”
Harper, thru 42 games, is on pace for 115 R, 115 RBI, 150+ BB…….and 50 HR’s. The first three items have occurred in a player season 7 times. The lowest BA among those seasons is .299. Harper is currently batting .232
Yes! Finally! Someone has deployed the First Inning Reliever.
I’m actually little bummed out that I wasn’t the one that got to do it, but seeing as I have a roughly zero percent chance of ever being a major league manager, that feeling is not logical. So I’ll just go ahead and be happy:
https://www.mlb.com/news/sergio-romo-and-ryan-yarbrough-lead-rays/c-277470702
Not too late to break the modern record (since 1893 – 60’6″ ) for starts in a season:
1 Amos Rusie 52 1893 _
2 Jack Chesbro 51 1904
3 Ted Breitenstein 51 1895
4 Frank Killen 50 1896 _
5 Pink Hawley 50 1895
6 Amos Rusie 50 1894 _
7 Ted Breitenstein 50 1894
Chesbro was 30 years old – the rest 26 and under
It wasn’t always thus.
These are just raw numbers so, as a percentage of all games, the downward trend is even steeper.
Justin Bour just had only the 2nd game since 2010 with at least
1 triple
4 bases on balls
Last was Cory Spangenberg in 2015.
In this afternoon’s Cardinals-Royals game, both catchers (Drew Butera, Francisco Peña) were the son of a Major League catcher.
Got some nice statistical Research for somebody bored.
Gleyber Torres hitting a par of HR’s off of Bartolo Colon (last pitch he threw was HR #420 he’s surrendered) reminded many due to Gleyber’s young age that Colon’s first career start featured a grizzled 41 year old Eddie Murray taking him deep(HR #1 Colon would surrender).
1) Murray is more than 40 years older than Torres. I’m sure a pitcher has spanned further but I couldn’t name the lucky fellow. HR against is harder to find than “faced”.
2) 7 degrees of Torres, can we alternate hitter pitcher going back to Ruth?
1) Torres
2) Colon
3) Murray
…
7) Babe Ruth
Based on the research I have done I don’t think there is a pitcher-batter-pitcher going back to Ruth. Fritz Ostermueller gave up HR to Ruth and Stan Musial but I could not find such a pitcher for Musial and Murray.
Yeah, I couldn’t find it either. Musial I did not look at but there are plenty of pitchers murray homered off of that played in the early 60s it’s just it’s hard to get across the NL/AL divide in the old days.
Interesting question, except that the premise is wrong. Colon’s first HR allowed did come against Murray’s Angels, but not against Murray. Instead, it was Garry Disarcina who took Colon deep.
If you want 7 degrees from Babe Ruth to a player who was active this year, try:
1) Ichiro
2) Kevin Brown
3) Fred Lynn
4) Lindy McDaniel
5) Pee Wee Reese
6) Fritz Ostermueller (or Schoolboy Rowe)
7) Babe Ruth
In yesterday’s (5-25-2018) game the Astros scored all of their 11 runs after the 7th inning. The most such runs by any team that I could find were the 15 runs scored by the Astros in the 8th and 9th innings on 5-31-1975 in their game against the Phils.
Monday night (June 18th), Pujols reached 10,000 AB in the final at-bat of the game.