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05/07/2004 Archived Entry: "This week in milestones: Piazza, Clemens and more"
This week in milestones: Piazza, Clemens and more
By Michael Toeset
MATT CLEMENT logged the first milestone of May by pitching his 1,000th inning on the 1st. Many believe Clement, who won a career high 14 games last season and already has five wins this year, will emerge as the true ace of the Cubs – at least until Mark Prior comes back. The way Clement has pitched since joining Chicago portends a long and prosperous career, so check back for inning No. 2,000 in a couple seasons.
ALFONSO SORIANO slugged 77 home runs over the 2002 and 2003 seasons, but it took him until May 2 to hit his second home run of 2004 – his 100th career home run. He still has been hitting well – a .304 average through the May 6 – but the fact that he hasn’t been launching shots out of the launching pad known as The Ballpark might be a concern. Many have been saying Soriano is the latest version of Juan Samuel, whose promising career came to a screeching halt at age 27. Here’s hoping he’s more Eric Davis (a healthy Davis, that is), whose career-beginning numbers mirror those of Soriano’s.
JUAN ENCARNACION, an underachiever in the Samuel power-speed mold, also blasted his 100th career home run on May 2. He’s got five home runs to date – but only one steal.
MIGUEL TEJADA, a notorious slow starter, collected his 1,000th hit on May 4. Unlike his starts of the past however, he’s currently hitting .333, which helped him post his hit milestone earlier than expected.
ALEX RODRIGUEZ has begun to turn things around after a dismal start in the worst place possible – New York. And on May 4, he drove in his 1,000th run. The 28-year-old A-Rod has numbers that look great – for a 35-year-old. Currently his career numbers read: .307 avg., 351 HR, 1,026 R, 1,002 RBI, 1,564 H and 179 SB.
MARK LORETTA got hit No. 1,000 on May 5. Loretta has never been a star – and never likely will be – but he’s quietly had himself a decent career. He’s having a great year so far with the Padres, hitting .345.
BRAD PENNY set a franchise record (yeah, it’s the expansion Marlins, but nonetheless, it’s a record) for most wins. He won his 43rd game on May 5, passing Ryan Dempster, who after a great career start in Florida is currently in pitching arm purgatory. Penny, meanwhile, is off to a great start: he’s 3-1 with a 2.18 earned run average.
MIKE PIAZZA, perhaps the greatest-hitting catcher in history, established a new mark for catcher-hitting prowess, slugging his 352nd home run as a catcher on May 5. Piazza passed Carlton Fisk on the list, and although Piazza is slowly evolving into a first baseman, he’s likely to add a few more round-trippers to his catcher resume. If Josh Gibson had been allowed to play in the majors, we might not be all that concerned with the doings of Piazza, but we can’t change history (unfortunately). At any rate, a comparison of the top five catchers in history, according to Bill James (these are total stats):
Yogi Berra: .285 avg., 358 HR, 1,175 R, 1,430 RBI
Johnny Bench: .267 avg., 389 HR, 1,091 R, 1,376 RBI
Roy Campanella*: .276 avg., 242 HR, 627 R, 856 RBI
Mickey Cochrane: .320 avg., 119 HR, 1,041 R, 832 RBI
Mike Piazza+: .318 avg., 364 HR, 899 R, 1,118 RBI
ROGER CLEMENS, by coming out of retirement, helped secure his place in history, and on May 5, he passed Steve Carlton on the all-time strikeout list to become the second greatest strikeout pitcher ever. By the end of Wednesday’s game, Clemens had 4,140 strikeouts to Carlton’s 4,136. As was noted in a previous article, Clemens has a zero percent chance to catch Nolan Ryan, who stands secure at No. 1 with 5,714 Ks – which makes Ryan’s record all the more amazing. If a man who has had sustained greatness since 1984 isn’t even close to Ryan, will anyone ever come close enough to cause Ryan (or his heirs) concern? For that matter, is anyone likely to ever approach Carlton and Clemens? We might be seeing the last of the great career strikeout artists in Clemens and Randy Johnson, who currently has 3,922 Ks.
* Campanella started his career in the Negro Leagues and didn’t play in the majors until he was 26.
+ Through May 6.
e-mail comments or questions to mtoeset@baseballguru.com
