We all know Barry Bonds is getting close to tie and break Hank Aaron’s career homerun record of 756. Barry currently stands at 753 through last night’s game.
Barry is also approaching 3,000 hits in his career. He currently needs 93 more to get there and probably will get it early next season. He would need to average 1.5 hits a game in the Giants remaining 63 games. We all know Barry won’t play in all of the games.
But what other milestones are players approaching.
Ken Griffey, Jr. is knocking on the door of 600 homeruns in his career as he stands at 587. He should get there by the end of the 2007 season.
With his homerun against the Royals last night, Alex Rodriguez now stands at 499 and is one away from 500. My guess is he breaks it tonight. Also trying to join the 500 homerun club are former Indians teammates Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez. They stand at 489 and 485 hrs each respectively.
Gary Sheffield is approaching 2,500 hits in his career as he is only 4 away. He should get there by this weekend. Luis Gonzalez stands at 2,471 hits and Ivan Rodriguez has 2,450. Both of them should reach 2,500 before the end of the season.
Jeff Conine is 38 hits short of 2,000 and should hit his milestone by the end of the 2007 season or early 2008.
Tom Glavine got his 299th win of his career last night and will go for 300 in his next start. Randy Johnson is next in line at 284 wins and will only get there if he is able to pitch in 2008.
Mike Mussina is on the cusp of 250 career wins as he has 244. With the way the Skanks are playing, he might get there this season, if not he will eclipse 250 in 2008. David Wells is at 235 wins and would need to pitch in 2008 to have any chance of achieving 250 wins in his career.
Andy Pettitte is currently chasing down 200 wins as he has 192 wins right now. As I said above with Mussina, Pettitte has a chance to break 200 this season but if he doesn’t, he will definitely get there in 2008.
Mariano Rivera is trying to get to 500 saves and needs 72 more to get there. I would expect him to get there by the end of the 2008 season.
Craig Biggio is trying to break a record that has stood for 104 years. It is the hit-by-pitch record that Hughies Jennings owns. Jennings had 287 HBP and Biggio has been 285 times. My best guess says he gets there by the time he retires at the end of this season.
And last but not least, Bobby Cox is currently tied at 131 career ejections with John McGraw. No doubt in my mind that Cox will get ejected again this season.
