Bogus "Ultimate Home Run Derby"
So ESPN is running this poll to see who wins their "Ultimate Home Run Derby." You can vote here: http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/listranker?id=722. Now, since I have nothing better to do, I went ahead and voted and was very disturbed by the results.
At this point, the voters have returned this list:
1. Babe Ruth
2. Ken Griffey Jr.
3. Hank Aaron
4. Barry Bonds
5. Mark McGwire
6. Mickey Mantle
7. Alex Rodriguez
8. Willie Mays
Are you kidding me? Willy Mays at #8? The man hit 660 homeruns, after spending the first couple years of his career in the Negro Leagues and after losing another year and a half to serve in the Army in '52 and '53. What's more is he was never on the juice.
Furthermore, how do you rank A-Rod so low? He's got 494 homeruns at age 31. Hell, at age 31, Bonds had like 50!!! Not really, but in all seriousness, if A-Rod gets out of New York, with all its distractions, then I think there's a good chance Bonds doesn't stay on top of the career homeruns list for very long. If A-Rod played 6 more seasons until he was 38 or so and averaged 35 homeruns a year (plus the 20 more I'll give him credit for during the rest of this season), he'd finish his career with 724. But if, like Bonds, he doesn't actually start hitting with power until he's 35 . . . well, then I think he finishes his career with like 1000 homeruns!
3 comments:
I think the chance of Barry Bonds still having the record in 25 years is very small. A-Rod is likely to be the first to pass him, but it won't stop there. If Pujols stays healthy he'll pass it too... He's having the worst year of his career as far as power goes, yet he's on pace for 30+ homers.
Also lots of young guys, like Ryan Howard and Miguel Cabrera, that could have a chance some day.
I think you're right about A-Rod, and I think you may be right about Pujols, assuming that the greatest player in the history of baseball decides to come out of his "year long slump" where's he's on pace for something like .315 batting average, 31HRs and 105RBI.
Cabrera doesn't have the power to put up those numbers over his career though and Howard, while he does have the power, is not young. He played behind Jim Thome in the Phillies for too long (like three years while he was ready for the majors). Howard is 27 years old, which is oddly enough the same age as Pujols who has only 130 career HRs more than Howard at this point.
Wow, I should have checked my facts before I posted. I could have sworn Howard was only about 24.
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