Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
In case anyone didnāt notice, outfielder Ichiro Suzuki became the all-time Mariners hits leader with 2,248. Knowing him, Iām surprised it took him this long.
Ichiro did it in style, too:
Suzuki has 2,248 hits, one better than Edgar Martinez’s previous club record. The milestone came on the 10th anniversary of Suzuki’s major league debut.
Maybe now heāll announce to the world that he really can hit for power, too.
Heās breaking records in Japan, thatās what
On Tuesday, former Cub outfielder Matt Murton broke the Japanese professional baseball record for most hits in a single season. That record had formerly been held by none other than Ichiro Suzuki.
Murton got his 211th hit for the Hanshin Tigers on Tuesday. Ichiroās former record of 210 hits was accomplished in 1994.
One monkey wrench thrown into the whole record businessā¦ Japanese baseball has extended the season 14 games since 1994. Ichiro got his 210 hits in only 130 games while Murton hit his record-breaker in his 142nd game. I donāt know if Japanese baseball culture is hung up on that kind of thing like we were here in America ala āthe asteriskā.
Humble Matt gave credit to Ichiro:
"1994 and 2010 are two different seasons. He did it in 130 games. It is what it is, it’s a great honor. In terms of Ichiro, this doesn’t change anything. He’s one of the best players in baseball."
142 games or not, Iāll bet the Cubs would like to have some of that hitting action.
On the same day, Jose Bautista hit his 50th homer of the season and Ichiro Suzuki got his 200th hit of the season for the tenth consecutive season.
Iāll give you one guess which story got the most news coverage. Yeah, Bautista.
Ichiroās milestone is a significant one. No other player has accomplished such a feat. Not Cobb, not Hornsby nor Lajoie. Pete Rose is the only to have ten (non-consecutive) seasons with 200 hits.
Itās a shared opinion among many of my baseball friends that if he chose to, Ichiro could hit 30 homers a season. Maybe more. He just chooses to play his brand of baseball. The one that earns him a .331 career batting average, best among active players.
Not only did Albert Pujols win three MVP awards this decade, he also can lay claim to the ā00s Triple Crown according to ESPNās Jayson Stark. He lead all National Leaguers in batting average, homeruns and rbis for the decade.
The last person to do that was Ted Williams in the 40s.
Tired of hearing about Albert Pujolsā prowess with the bat? Little exasperated with Albert Pujols leading the league in most meaningful offensive category in the NL?
Maybe this story will cheer you up (but probably wonāt).
Today, Pujols set the National League record for assists for a firstbaseman with 181 passing Mark Graceās record set in 1990.
In typical fashion, Pujols was quite humble, passing the credit on to his teammates:
"That’s good," Pujols said of the record. "That will tell you that our pitchers are keeping the ball down and keeping me busy at first."
ā¦and a bit sheepish as wellā¦
"I also made an error that cost us the game right there," Pujols said. "That’s part of the game. It just gave me a bad hop and that’s it."
Last night in a game against the Orioles, Derek Jeter passed Lou Gehrig on the all-time list. The fact that Gehrig was a revered Yankee player and that Jeter got his hit in front of 46,000+ fans added to the significance of the event in the eyes of the media.
That puts him #53 on the all-time list. With 2,722 hits, Jeter still needs a couple hundred more plus a few more if he wants to meet the goal of the magical 3000. At the age of 35, barring any major injury, heāll most likely accomplish that goal.
Where does Jeter fall on the all-time lists in other offensive categories? Here is a quick breakdown:
| Batting Average | 65th | .316 |
|
At-bats |
89th | 8539 |
| Runs Scored | 50th | 1564 |
| Total Bases | 85th | 3945 |
| Doubles | 109th | 437 |
| Runs Created | 65th | 1572 |
| HBP | 22nd | 142 |
| Times on Base | 64th | 3738 |
| OBP | 118 | .387 |
Oh yeah, heās 47th in singles with 2,005 but that seemed like kind of a back handed compliment.
These numbers are very good but they donāt really jump out at you. That said, Jeterās hit total is second (behind Ken Griffey) among active players. The difference is that Jeter is only 35.
Iām sure there will be plenty out there who will be comparing Jeterās hitting stats to others claiming East Coast bias and Jeter-hype. Those will no doubt be the same who will bring up the argument of Jeterās reputation of mediocre defense (fair or unfair).
But letās face it. Barring a major scandal, Jeterās bid for the Hall is pretty much secure when the time comes, like it or not. The phenomenon of Derek Jeter, a player who played his whole career for the Yankees, became their team captain and helped them win in the postseason, counts for more than any stat or fact that you can analyze.
Seattle prospect Jamie McOwen has a hit streak going thatās starting to get national attention. McOwen, a rightfielder for the High Desert Mavericks in the Class A Advanced California League, has now hit in 45 straight games. For the season, McOwen is hitting a nifty .355, one point behind the Cal League batting leader.
The 45 games is not a record in the minors. Not by a longshot. Similar to the majors, the hit streak record seems to be the hardest to conquer. He has 24 games to go. You have to go back to 1919 when Joe Wilhoit from Wichita had a 69 game hit streak. That remains the record today.
By the way, if the name High Desert Mavericks sounds familiar to you, then you probably heard the news story about the incredible 51-run game between the Mavericks and the Lake Elsinore Storm a couple weeks ago. The Mavericks came out on the losing side on that 33-18 wild one. McOwenās 2 for 6 performance in that game contributed to his streak.
Update: The streak is over at 45. Bus Leagues Baseball live-blogged what would have been the 46th game and McOwen came up short.
K-Rod: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K (SV)
Seattle was Francisco Rodriguez’ victim as he broke the all-time single season record for saves.
While I do, check out Baseball-Reference’s Progressive Leaders for saves (the answer’s there). B-R’s Progressive Leaders board is fun to look at for any stat. It lists 4 columns for EACH year going back to 1876; career leader, single-season leader, active player career leader, and yearly leader. It sounds rather mundane as I describe it but when you look at all four columns together, you get a sense of how the stat (in this case, saves) "progressed". Try other stats, too!
Oh, the answer is Dave Righetti with 46 saves in 1986.