Who's on deck for 3000?

Monday, May 16 2011 @ 10:23 PM EDT

Contributed by: Mick Doherty

According the greatness of our friends at BaseballReference.com, there are currently 27 (okay, actually 26) players who already have at least 1800 career hits. The active career hit leader, with  2965 is, of course, Derek Jeter, who will join the 3000-hit club some time in the next four or five weeks. Who else will join Jeter in the Rose-to-Clemente dropdown list?

Let's take a look ... there aren't really all that many candidates!

Player (age)

Hits

 Get to 3000? Comment

Derek Jeter (37)

2965

Give him  a month or so ..he’s a  mortal lock, first Yankee to get there

Ivan Rodriguez (39)

2832

Showing age, probably unlikely to be first catcher to get to 3000 overall …

Omar Vizquel (44)

2813

Start carving the HOF plaque, but he doesn’t have another 180+ hits left in him, does he?

Alex Rodriguez (35)

2703

Will be the all-time leader in hits among Rodriguezes by the end of 2012, then on to 3000 and beyond.

Johnny Damon (37)

2607

First in 3000-hit club to not make the Hall of Fame? It’s possible …

Manny Ramirez (39)

2574

Well, he retired last nonth, so not so much!

Chipper Jones (39)

2529

May need some time DHing for an AL club to get there.

Vladimir Guerrero (36)

2470

500+ hits away? Father Time not going to make it.

Miguel Tejada (37)

2311

Seems wildly unlikely.

Bobby Abreu (37)

2296

He’s 37? Really? Miht have to settle for aiming at 2500.

Ichiro Suzuki (37)

2294

Already way, way past 3000 as a pro, including Japan. Wouldn’t be shocked if he played until he’s 45 and ends up near Hank Aaron’s 3700+.

Todd Helton (37)

2274

Fading a bit, not going to get another 700+ hits.

Edgar Renteria (34)

2270

Um .. no.

Jim Thome (40)

2228

Great career, HOFer, not getting to 3K.

Magglio Ordonez (37)

2089

Best case scenario: unlikely.

Carlos Lee (35)

2002

Just crossed 2000, which you could have gotten pretty good odds against five years ago

Orlando Cabrera (36)

1986

Not going to happen.

Scott Rolen (36)

1964

2000 seems likely, hey?

Albert Pujols (31)

1942

Not clearly a slam dunk, but hard to imagine Albert NOT getting there; he’s just 31!

Adrian Beltre (32)

1926

Shockingly, Beltre is just a year older than Albert and has almost as many hits. Not a bad bet.

Jason Giambi (40)

1917

Um … fuhgeddaboutit!

Paul Konerko (35)

1910

Older than you’d think, and not the kind of guy who’s going to get 1100 hits in the next five or six years.

Michael Young (34)

1902

He’s hitting .340 this year; if he can adjust to full-time DH or find a defensive position, this could happen.

Placido Polanco (35)

1888

Shocking he has this many as it is.

Juan Pierre (33)

1880

No, no, no.

Derrek Lee (35)

1878

Great hitter, once.

Andruw Jones (34)

1849

The oldest 34 in MLB history.

The only other players already across 1500 career hits who are younger than 35 are Carlso Beltran (1798 at 34, not happening), Jimmy Rollins (1757 at 32, not unthinkable), Aramis Ramirez (1654 at 33, not happening), Rafael Furcal (1613 at 33, nope), Aubrey Huff (1586 at 34, not happening), old pal Vernon Wells (1555 at 32, we know better) and the only under-30 on the list, Carl Crawford (1512 at 29 but seems a reach).

 

Anyone else to add?

10 comments



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