A-Rod Part II

This guy is becoming one of the best statistical players in history, after just becoming the 7th player all time to hit 600 homers and now has stolen 300 bases, which is tied for 156th overall with Scott Podsednik (34) and Frank Taveras. He now is the 3rd player ever to hit for 600 home runs and steal 300 bases. The other 2 players are Willie Mays with 660 home runs and  338 stolen bases and Barry Bonds with 762 home runs and 514 stolen bases.

Although Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees is still 1,106 steals behind the all-time record holder for steals Ricky Henderson with 1,406 overall steals, Alex is one of the fast home run hitters of the last decade. After the start of the steroid era power has been a huge part of the game, which has added guys who are almost like linebackers in stature. These guys can hit home runs, but once they get on base they fail to move well because of their lack of speed. A-rod is one of the few huge power hitters to be extremely fast. In fact, other then Rodriguez, Bonds, and Mays, the next highest stolen base leader with over 600 home runs is Hank Aaron with 240. That's only 4/5 of what Rodriguez has.

So whether or not you think that A-Rod is the top player in the majors right now, you do have to admit that he is one of the top players in our history.

The Significance of 600

As many of you may have already heard, Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th career home run yesterday in the bottom of the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays.  He became the youngest of the 7 players (Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Ken Griffey Jr., Sammy Sosa, Willie Mays, and A-Rod) in the 600 club. He has also played the 2nd least amount of games to get to this historic mark playing 2,267 games (Ruth did it in 2044). He is also the only admitted steroid user in the 600 club.

At 35 years and 8 days old A-Rod is over a year younger then the 2nd youngest player (Babe Ruth) to hit 600, and is 3 years and 8 days younger then Barry Bonds was when he hit the mark.

In the last 8 years 4 of the 7 players of the 600 club have hit their 600th home run, Bonds in 2002, Sosa in 2007, Griffey Jr. in 2008, and Rodriguez in 2010, which shows the controversy of the last 20 or 30 years really being years where pitching has been at an all-time worst.

Because A-Rod has hit this milestone at such a young age, many people believe that he will become the new home run champion in years to come and maybe even be the first player to break the 800 home run barrier. Even Barry Bonds, who posted on his website "Stay healthy and focused... Only 163 more to go." believes A-Rod will break his record in the future.

Someone who threatens to take over Alex Rodriguez's spot isn't much younger then A-Rod, 30 year old Albert Pujols had 366 home runs in his first 9 seasons, whereas Rodriguez only had 298. Pujols is in his 10th season and currently has 393 career home runs, when Rodriguez was finished with his 10th season he only had 345, 38 less then Pujols who still has 54 games left in his 10th season. If Pujols season were to end today, he would still be averaging 4.7 more home runs per season then Rodriguez.

This year Pujols is on pace to hit 36 home runs this year, which would give him 402 for his career, 57 more then Rodriguez.

A-Rod a threat for the All-Time Home Run Leader

The Top three active Home Run leaders are Ken Griffy Jr., who is 39 and has 617 Home Runs, Alex Rodriguez, who is 33 and has 562 Home Runs, and Jim Thome who is 38 and has 553 Home Runs. The Current all time Home Run leader is Barry Bonds who has 762 Home Runs, although it took him until he was 42 to hit all those Home Runs. So, if Alex Rodriguez averages the same amount of Home Runs that he has hit in the last three years, home many years will it take him to break Barry Bonds record? With his last three years average of 41.3 Home Runs per season it would take him 5 years to break Bond's record! That would be 6 years quicker than it took Bonds, but we have to calculate injuries, suspensions, and any slowdown in Homerun hitting such as Barry had when he was 40.

Alex was the youngest person to hit 500 homeruns, and he has proven the ability to come off of this years injury (hip cysts) and still hit homeruns. Although he only has 9 Home Runs this year, he still has a while to hit more, and it may not be a tie for his career high 54 Home Runs this season, he could definitely hit around 30-40.

So, will A-Rod break Bond's record? Can he be the all-time Home Run leader? Watch A-Rod and the Yankees to find out!