2008 Targets for Active Players
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
2008 Targets for Active Players
Hitting
Batting Average: Ichiro Suzuki leads all major leaguers in career batting average with a .3335 average, which gives him the 25th best average in the history of baseball.
Runs: Barry Bonds is 3rd in runs with 2227 and could pass Ty Cobb (who has 2246) and Rickey Henderson (2295). Bonds scored 75 runs last season, so it is possible he could be first by end of the 2008 season.
Hits: Craig Biggio retired with 3060 hits, the best among players that played in 2007 and good for 20th on the all time list. Barry Bonds is 31st with 2935. Pete Rose, who should be in the Hall of Fame, is 1st with 4256 hits.
Slugging Percentage: Albert Pujols, with a .620 slugging percentage, is 4th all-time behind only Lou Gehrig (.632), Ted Williams (.633), and Babe Ruth (.689).
Total Bases: Barry Bonds is 4th in total bases with 5976, and needs 90 to pass up his godfather, Willie Mays with 6066. He would still trail Stan Musial with 6134 and Hank Aaron with 6856 who is the leader.
Triples: With Steve Finley apparently retired, Kenny Lofton is the new leader among active players with 116 for 106th place in triples. Johnny Damon is 225th with 86 and Jimmy Rollins is 263rd with 81, but is about 13 years younger than Lofton.
Home Runs: Barry Bonds leads both all-time and active players with 762. Sammy Sosa is 5th with 609. Ken Griffey Jr. is 6th with 589, and should hit No. 600 before the All-Star game. Alex Rodriguez is 17th with 518 and needs 4 to pass Ted Williams and Willie McCovey, who have 521 each. He also needs 17 to pass Jimmie Foxx with 534 and 19 to pass Mickey Mantle with 536. He needs 31 to pass Mike Schmidt with 548 and 46 to pass up Reggie Jackson with 563 and 52 to pass Rafael Palmeiro with 569.
So, he could conceivably based on hitting 54 like he did last season wind up with 572 home runs, which would leave him two short of passing up Harmon Killebrew, who has 573. So, he could pass up 8 players and move from 17th on list to 9th on the list then in 2009 would only need about 15 homers to pass up Mark McGwire with 583 and Frank Robinson with 586 and hit his 600th home run in the 2009 season.
Players trying to hit landmark home runs in 2008:
Ken Griffey Jr.: needs 7 home runs to hit 600th.Alex Rodriguez: needs 32 to hit 550th. Frank Thomas: needs 37 to hit 550th. Manny Ramirez: needs 10 to hit 500th. Gary Sheffield: needs 20 to hit 500th. Chipper Jones: needs 14 to hit 400th. Andruw Jones: needs 32 to hit 400th.
Runs Batted In:
Barry Bonds is 4th all-time with 1996 needing 4 to become the fourth player with 2000 RBI's with only Cap Anson, Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, the leader with 2297 ahead of him.
Stolen Bases:
Kenny Lofton leads active players in stolen bases and is ranked 15th all-time with 622 stolen bases, which isn't even half as many as leader Rickey Henderson has with 1406. Barry Bonds is next among active players at 32nd on the list with 514. Bonds sacrificed speed for power during the last 6 years having only 30 stolen bases in those six years.
Extra base hits:
Barry Bonds needs 38 extra base hits to pass Hank Aaron, who is the all-time leader with 1477.
Hit By Pitch:
Craig Biggio retired needing to be hit 3 more times to be the all-time hit by pitch leader. Instead, Hughie Jennings held on to his mark of 287. Jason Kendall is 7th on the list at 218.
Pitching ERA:
Pedro Martinez is ranked 100th all time with a 2.80 ERA and leads all active pitchers. Next is 182nd ranked Roy Oswalt at 3.07. Roger Clemens is 208th at 3.12.
Wins:
Roger Clemens is 7th on list with 354 wins. Other active players on list are No. 8 Greg Maddux with 347 wins who, needs 17 wins to pass Warren Spahn, who has 363 wins. No.21, Tom Glavine, who could move up 5 places with 17 wins next season is also top notch on the list, but Glavine hasn't won that many since 2002 when he won 18 for the Braves.
Won-Loss Percentage:
Pedro Martinez is 3rd alltime in won-loss percentage with a .692 percentage and Johan Santana is 9th with a .679 percentage. Al Spalding, who retired after the 1877 season, leads with a .796 mark.
Hits Allowed Per 9 Innings:
Pedro Martinez is 5th on this list allowing 6.887 hits per 9 innings. Only J.R. Richard, Sid Fernandez, Sandy Koufax, and the leader Nolan Ryan who allowed 6.555 hits per 9 innings have allowed fewer hits per 9 innings than Martinez.
Saves:
Trevor Hoffman leads in career saves with 524 with Mariano Rivera (3rd) with 443 and Billy Wagner 7th with 358.
Shutouts:
Roger Clemens leads active pitchers in shutouts with 46 which places him 26th on the list with Randy Johnson next with 37 at 57th on the list.
Strikeouts:
Roger Clemens has 4672 strikeouts good for 2nd on the list but still needs 1042 to tie Nolan Ryan who has 5714. Randy Johnson is 3rd and could pass up Clemens if Clemens doesn't play in 2008 if he can get 57 strikeouts. He currently has 4616 strikeouts good for 3rd on the list. With the lower pitch counts and the use of setup men and closers today it looks like Ryan's record will be safe for many years to come because starters normally don't pitch past the seventh inning.
Home Runs Allowed: Jamie Moyer is 6th on the list with 444 home runs allowed and only needs 4 more allowed next season to tie Frank Tanana with 448 and needs to give up 28 home runs in 2008 to tie Don Sutton with 472. Leader is Robin Roberts with 505 home runs allowed.
Losses: Greg Maddux is active leader in losses with 214 which is 30th on the list. Leader is Cy Young with 316.
