A-Rod Hits 21st HR, Ruth Better Than Bonds?
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Red Sox Lose Third in a Row For First Time in 2007
Season This may be the chance the Yankees have been waiting for with them winning on Tuesday night and the Red Sox losing their third in a row. This is first time this season the Red Sox have lost three in a row. Yankees were 14 1/2 games behind the Red Sox earlier this season. After their 17 hit barrage last night the Yankees may be ready to mount a serious challenge in the AL East or it may be a temporary blip in a terrible season. The Red Sox are overdue for a slump and are 5-5 in their last ten games. At this point of the season their lead of 11 1/2 games over the Yankees may not be enough for them to hold off the Yankees.
Around the Bases
Tyler Clippard 3-1 is the only Yankee pitcher with a winning record among pitchers with more than one decision. In fact he has one more win than his mound opponent Mark Buehrle 2-3 who pitched the only no-hitter this season for one of his wins....Chase Utley who homered in the 11th inning that won the game over the Mets is becoming one of the best players in baseball. He had 105 RBI's last season but with 23 games remaining in the first half of the season he already has 47 this season and projected by espn.com to have 131 by end of the season. He has a good chance to reach 200 hits for the second consecutive season. Phillies were wise to lock him up for seven years by signing him to a $85 million extension.
Tom Glavine failed for the third straight time to win his 296th game of his career and hasn't won since the 19th of May....Alex Rodriguez hit his major league leading 21st homer last night....C.C. Sabathia 9-1 pitched a complete game 1-0 shutout against the Royals....Victor Diaz former Met prospect now playing for Rangers has hit 3 homers and driven in 9 runs in his last two games including a grand slam last night....Chris Young of the Diamondbacks hit a walkoff homer in the 10th inning as Diamondbacks win 11 of their last 12 games....Alex Cintron of the White Sox was the only player on either team to not have a hit in the Yankees win over the White Sox.
Eric Byrnes Says Bonds Best Player Ever
Eric Byrnes has now gone on record calling Barry Bonds the best player ever. Wonder if he has ever heard of a player named Babe Ruth that not only hit 714 home runs and had a lifetime batting average of .342 but had a 94-46 record as pitcher with a 2.28 ERA. Bonds is yet to record his first win as a pitcher.
Side by side comparison of Ruth-Bonds hitting statistics.
AB Ruth 8399 Bonds 9644
Hits Ruth 2873 Bonds 2878 (5 more hits in 1245 more at bats for Bonds)
Doubles Bonds 593 Ruth 506
Triples Bonds 77 Ruth 136
Homers Ruth 714 Bonds 746
Runs Batted In Ruth 2213 Bonds 1956
Total Bases Ruth 5793 Bonds 5863
On Base Percentage Ruth .469 Bonds .444
Slugging Percentage Ruth .690 Bonds .608
Batting Average Ruth .342 Bonds .298
Extra Base Hits Ruth 1356 Bonds 1416
Stolen Bases
Ruth 123 Bonds 511 (Bonds clearly wins this one even taking into account the extra at bats...but Ruth did steal home ten times something Bonds probably hasn't done.)
Summation:
When taking into account that Bonds had 1245 more at bats which is close to two seasons and a half of extra at bats it is clear to see that Ruth was the better player especially combined with him winning 94 games as a pitcher. Ruth had 200 hits in a season three times and missed 200 by one hit in another season. Bonds never had more than 181 hits in a season and only two times had more than 160 hits.
Ruth had over 125 RBI's in season ten times while Bonds only did it twice. Ruth had more than 20 outfield assists twice while 15 is the most Bonds ever had in a season. The records speak for themselves and cannot be explained away even by those who say pitchers are better today since the extra 1245 at bats for Bonds give him an unfair advantage over Bonds. Ruth had back to back seasons of winning 23 in 1916 and 24 in 1917.
Stats Corner
Hitting
Magglio Ordonez is leading the majors in hitting with a .360 average with Jorge Posada next with .358 average...Alex Rodriguez leads in home runs with 21 with Prince Fielder next with 20....Ordonez leads in RBI's with 53 with Carlos Lee second with 52....Matt Holliday leads in hits with 81 and Ichiro Suzuki moved into the second spot with 78. Ichiro has 5 hits in last 10 at bats after being hitless in back to back games against the Rangers.
Ordonez leads Chase Utley in doubles by 28-25....Curtis Granderson leads in triples with 9 with Jimmy Rollins and Jose Reyes next with 8....Ordonez has 144 total bases with Rodriguez and Fielder next with 140....Jose Reyes leads in stolen bases with 31 with Brian Roberts far behind him with 19....Ordonez leads in slugging percentage at .654 with Rodgriguez next with a .643 percentage....Ordonez leads in extra base hits with 41 and Dan Uggla is second with 38.
Pitching
C.C. Sabathia won his 9th game yesterday making him the second pitcher to win 9 games this season with John Lackey being the other. Josh Beckett and Cole Hamels are the only 8 game winners. Lackey tries to become the first pitcher with 10 wins today....Erik Bedard leads in strikeouts with 95 with Jake Peavy second with 92....Peavy leads in ERA at 1.68 with Dan Haren next at 1.70....Kip Wells has the most losses with 10 with three pitchers next with 8 losses. Woody Williams could lose his 8th game today.
Francisco Cordero leads in saves with 22 and Jose Valverde is next with 20....Zach Duke leads in hits allowed with 95 with Sabathia next with 93 which is a surprise considering Sabathia is 9-1....Kip Wells not surprisingly leads in earned runs given up with 50 and Vicente Padilla is second with 48....Mike Maroth leads in homers given up with 15 with Ervin Santana next giving up 14.
