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Wednesday, May.23/2012

Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)-Heading into tonight’s game versus the Kansas City Royals, Derek Jeter sits in 16th all time for the All-time hits list.  He is only 3 hits behind Paul Waner and another 5 hits behind George Brett.  If Jeter has a decent last 120 games, he could find himself already in the top 10 all time by collecting another 145 hits and passing Willie Mays  for 10th all time with 3284 hits by the end of the year.  I am not sure how much longer the captain will play, but I think it has to be at least another year or two based on how he has started this campaign out.  If he plays another 300 games after this year, you have to think he is capable of averaging a hit per game the rest of his career.  This would place him in the top 5 of hits all time behind Pete Rose (4256), Ty Cobb (4191) Hank Aaron (3771) and Stan Musial’s (3630).  If I were a betting man, I think that 482 more hits might be asking a little much for the 37-year-old shortstop.  Having said this, Jeter will undoubtedly take his place amongst these immortal men by the time he is done playing the game.

Jeter also sits in 24th place overall for At Bats right now with 10047.  He will probably crack the top 15 by the year’s end.  If he can play a couple of more years, he will probably end up in the top 5 somewhere between Pete Rose’s incredible 14053 AB’s, Hank Aaron’s 12364, Carl Yastremski’s 11988 and Cal Ripken’s 11551.  Jeter will probably crack the top 5 all-time for runs as well.  For Runs, Jeter will probably end up right near or over 2000 runs, this will probably propel him right near the top 7 of all time.  It is a testament to how prolific Jeter has been, that he has virtually a little shot at cracking such a category for games played.  Jeter currently sits 538 games played in behind Barry Bonds for 10th place all time at 2986 games.  It would take for Jeter to play into his 40’s to accrue this amount of games.  I am thinking that Jeter will play until the end of the 2014 season and not beyond.  Whenever he does finish playing, he will have amassed a legacy that not many players can say they have.

A couple of years of ago, it seemed like a fore gone conclusion that Alex Rodriguez would take the mantle place from all time HR King Barry Bonds.  Now A-Rod does currently sit in 5th place already with 634 homeruns, however he has slowed down terribly since the start of 2011.  The man only has 21 HRs in his last 607 AB.  While that maybe okay for some, that would hardly put him on pace to hit 129 HRs before the end of the 2017 season.  This of course is how long the Yankees current third baseman is signed through for 27.5 million annually..(pause for heavy sigh here).  Still we are looking at A-Rod coming up to some heavy numbers in the next little while.  If Rodriguez can stone up for another 44 RBI this year, he would pass Stan Musial for 5th all time on the RBI list.  His next victims would be Lou Gehrig with 1995 and Barry Bonds with 1996.  There is no doubt A-rod will finish at least 3rd on the list.  In question now is whether he can catch Babe Ruth at 2213 and Hank Aaron at 2297?  I actually think Rodriguez has a good chance to collect 390 RBI during the next 6 seasons.  This is about 60 RBI a year.  Despite not hitting many HRs lately, Rodriguez does play for the Yankees and still hits in the cleanup spot.  I think he has a better chance of eclipsing the all-time RBI lead than the all-time HRs lead.

Alex Rodriguez also has a chance to crack the top 5 of all-time for games played, runs scored, extra base hits and is already second all time already for career grand-slams with 22, which trails Lou Gehrig by one.  The question is will the Yankees faithful be cheering Alex Rodriguez as he passes these historical milestones? You can bet that the opposition fans certainly will not.  I have seen A-Rod play in a dozen different ballparks.  Perhaps he is the most hated man in baseball to this day.  You add that he has a lot of these achievements under the steroid era having admitted to playing during his Texas Ranger playing days under the drug.  Between he and Barry Bonds, they might own every big power number category by the time Alex hangs them up, yet they might not be enshrined at Cooperstown according to a lot of baseball writers who yield a vote.

Mark Teixeira has had 8 straight 30+ homerun seasons since 2004.  His total number of homers for his career now stands at 319.  He is already in 6th place all-time for switch hitters in this category.  He only trails Mickey Mantle with 536, Eddie Murray with 504, Chipper Jones with 459, Lance Berkman with 359 and Chili Davis with 350.  At only age 32, plus with Berkman and Jones looking they are going to retire pretty soon, I think Tex has a shot to crack the top 3.  At 185 HRs behind Murray and 217 HRs  behind Mantle, it will take some good health and perhaps a lengthy stretch at DH for the man to capture the all-time homer list for this category.  I love Teixeira’s glove at first and am totally happy that he decided to play for New York back in 2009.  The guy always heats up in the summer and I see him doing it again this year.  I think you might just see his average never really escalate above .270 ever again.  I will gladly take his 30 HRs and 90 RBI power though.

CC Sabathia is quickly moving up the ranks on the all-time win list.  At age 31, his lifetime record is 181 wins-98 losses.  This amount of wins is quite impressive.  I would say that the man has a real shot at 300 wins.  He may be the last one we see to do it.  You have to like Sabathia to win another 12-15 games this year.  With 5 years left on his contract, with a realistic shot to win at least 16 games a year, he could be at around 270 wins by the age of 37.  His workman like frame could pitch into his early 40’s.  CC must stay off the sugar cereals in order to keep his weight down.  With apologies to Jamie Moyer‘s 269 wins and still counting, this may be a feat that is never reached again.  Felix Hernandez is the only other pitcher capable.  At age 26  and with 89 wins, Felix would have to be dealt to the New York Yankees right now and start putting up 20 wins seasons for about 8 years in a row to have a realistic shot.  So the baseball world better get ready to appreciate the big fella CC  a little more.

With Mariano Rivera attempting a comeback next year, the all-time saves leader maybe adding to his lead.  If Jamie Moyer retires and Andy Pettitte decides to return for the 2013 season, the team would have another player become the active wins leader. 

Back to this year, while all of these upcoming milestones are nice, the Yankees have started off the year playing mediocre baseball and are looking old at the moment.  I think they still have some great baseball left in them this year.  As the weather heats up, so usually do the older veterans.  As a Yankees fan, I would love to see the team go back to the World Series and put up some more historic numbers before all the guys ride off into the sunset at Cooperstown.

 ***Thank you to our Baseball Writer- Douglas “Chuck” Booth for preparing today’s feature on MLB reports.  To learn more about “The Fastest 30 Ballgames” and Chuck Booth, you can follow Chuck on Twitter (@ChuckBooth3024) and you can also follow Chuck’s website for his successful Guinness Book of World Record Bid to see all 30 MLB Park in 23 days click here  or on the 30 MLB Parks in 23 days GWR tracker at the Reports click here. To Purchase or read about “The Fastest 30 Ballgames Book please click here . ***

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