HR Milestones At The Halfway Mark

Many home run hitters today have had the advantage of better living through chemistry with the help of the Balco Laboratories and any pharmacy or cousin that dispenses performance enhancing drugs..

Alex Rodriguez

Yesterday Rodriguez passed up  fellow steroids user Rafael Palmeiro when he hit his 570th homer of the season. He didn’t play in his first game until May 8 yet has 17 homers and 50 RBI’s this season so could still have 35 homers and 100 RBI’s by the end of the season.

He needs 17 homers to pass up Harmon Killebrew 573, Mark McGwire 583 and Frank Robinson with 586. He should hit his 600th homer and  pass up Sammy Sosa with 609 homers early next season and move into sixth place alltime on the career home run list.

If  Ken Griffey Jr. retires he should move to fourth on the all time list with only Willie Mays,  Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds ahead of him. He will be 34 on July 27 so has plenty of years to catch up with Bonds.

Better living through chemistry has certainly paid off for Rodriguez.

Jim Thome

Thome has hit 13 homers this season and needs 10 homers to move ahead of Reggie Jackson into 12th place on the all time home run list. He needs 20 homers to pass up Rafael Palmeiro and Harmon Killebrew and move into tenth place on the list.

Manny Ramirez

Ramirez has hit nine  homers this season due to a 50 game suspension for using performance enhancing drugs. He is currently tied with Mickey Mantle with 536 homers and tied for 15th on the all time homers list. He could move into 13th on the list with 13 more homers passing up Mike Schmidt with 548.

Gary Sheffield

Sheffield has hit 10 homers this season and has 509 career homers. He is in a position to pass up six Hall of Famers if he can hit 13 more homers this season.

He would pass up Mel Ott 511, Eddie Mathews and Ernie Banks 512 and Ted Williams, Frank Thomas and Willie McCovey with 521 homers. He would move into 18th place on the career list behind Jimmie Foxx with 534 homers if he can pass the other players mentioned.

Vladimir Guerrero

Guerrero has hit only four homers this season and needs four more for his 400th homer. He is only 34 so if he can stay healthy he could hit from 500-550 home runs by the time he retires.

Andruw Jones

Jones with 14 homers this season needs 15 more homers to have 400 homers. Jones who is 32 could hit as many as 600 homers if he plays another eight years but he will have to be an everyday player to accomplish that feat. He is more likely to finish with 500 homers the way his career has been going lately.

Albert Pujols

Pujols has hit 32 homers this season and has 351 homers. He should hit his 400th homer next season at the age of 30.