Chasing the Big Numbers, Continued ...

Sunday, March 04 2007 @ 01:21 AM EST

The 2007 season brings with it, as any baseball season does, the possibility of many milestone numbers being reached. Which are the most likely to be cracked in '07?

Let's take a look ...

Did anyone realize we could have a record-shattering five different players break the once-hallowed 500-homer mark this year? The first four are actually pretty likely, and with Sheffield now in Detroit ... well, who knows?

That said, the following lists only include players who at least have a realistic, if outside, shot at reaching the total shown in the next upcoming season; for example, it's at least conceiveable that Jeff Kent will drive in 120 runs in 2007 to get to 1,500 for his career; A-Rod, as great as he has been, is not going to knock in the 153 he needs to get to that mark until some time in 2008, so he doesn't make it onto our short "watch" list.

Similarly, don't read this as an "active leaders" list -- that's unfair to a guy like Craig Biggio, who has scored 1776 career runs, second among active players only to Barry Bonds, but who is tremendously unlikely to get to the next major milestone as the 224 runs that would get him to 2,000 would destroy all modern records by a good margin. Bonds, for that matter, will almost certainly need more than a full season to score the 145 runs that stand between him and taking the all-time crown from Rickey Henderson's 2295 career total.

So, then ... who are we watching?

* indicates would set a new career MLB record

HITTERS' STATISTICAL TARGETS

Milestone (Current players and totals)

• 756 Homers* (Barry Bonds, 734)
• 600 Homers (Ken Griffey Jr., 563)
• 500 Homers (Frank Thomas, 487; Jim Thome, 472; Manny Ramirez, 470; Alex Rodriguez, 464; Gary Sheffield, 455)

• 3000 Games (Bonds, 2860)
• 2500 Games (Julio Franco, 2472; Omar Vizquel, 2443)

• 10,000 At-Bats (Bonds, 9507)
• 9000 At-Bats (Franco, 8587)

• 3000 Hits (Craig Biggio, 2930; Bonds , 2841)
• 2500 Hits (Vizquel, 2472; Griffey, 2412; Sheffield, 2390; Luis Gonzalez, 2373; Ivan Rodriguez, 2354)

• 600 Doubles (Bonds, 587)
• 500 Doubles (I. Rodriguez, 473; Thomas, 458; Griffey, 449)

• 1500 Runs (Griffey, 1467; Steve Finley, 1434; Sheffield, 1433; Thomas, 1404)

• 2000 RBI (Bonds, 1930)
• 1500 RBI (Jeff Kent, 1380)

• 2500 Walks (Bonds, 2426)
• 1500 Walks (Jim Thome, 1364)

• 288 HBP* (Biggio, 282)
• 150 HBP (Carlos Delgado, 149)

• 2000 Strikeouts (Thome, 1909)
• 1500 Strikeouts (Griffey, 1494; Bonds, 1485; Delgado, 1483; Ramirez, 1451; Kent, 1409; A. Rodriguez, 1404)

• 600 Steals (Kenny Lofton, 599)

• 129 Sacrifice Flies* (Ruben Sierra, 120; Thomas, 115)

• 1000 Games (Jose Mesa, 966; Mike Timlin, 961; Roberto Hernandez, 960)
• 900 Games (Todd Jones, 874; Trevor Hoffman, 821; Mike Myers, 811)

• 700 Starts (Roger Clemens, 690; Greg Maddux, 673)
• 500 Starts (Mike Mussina, 475)

• 100 Complete Games (Randy Johnson, 98)

• 50 Shutouts (Clemens, 46)
• 40 Shutouts (Johnson, 37; Maddux, 35)

• 350 Wins (Clemens, 348)
• 300 Wins (Tom Glavine, 290; Johnson, 280)
• 250 Wins (Mussina, 239)

• 200 Losses (Glavine, 191)

• 5000 Innings (Clemens, 4817.2)
• 4000 Innings (Johnson, 3798.2)

• 3000 Strikouts (Pedro Martinez, 2998; John Smoltz, 2778)
• 2500 Strikeouts (Glavine, 2481)
• 2000 Strikouts (Jamie Moyer, 1992)

• 500 Saves (Trevor Hoffman, 482)
• 300 Saves (Armando Benitez, 280)
• 250 Saves (Jason Isringhausen, 249)

• 400 GIDP Induced (Glavine, 392; Maddux, 392)

• 400 Home Runs Allowed (David Wells, 385)

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