It's no secret that the Jays have hit a lot of home runs this year. They lead the majors with 181, 20 more than the Boston Red Sox, and are "on pace" to hit around 250, which would put them only 14 back of the all-time record.
Another thing we all know is that the home runs have been very evenly distributed - it seems like everyone is producing. But a closer look into this "everyone is producing" statement tells us that this year's team is approaching historical territory.
The first thing that jumped out to me on the team's B-R Page is that eight different Jays have already hit double-digit homers this year: Bautista, Wells, Lind, Hill, Buck, Overbay, Encarnación and Gonzalez. (Yes, Gonzalez is no longer with the team, but he hit double-digit jacks before he was traded.) On top of those eight guys, Snider and Lewis both have eight on the season, so it's likely that by the end of the season Toronto will have ten hitters with 10+ home runs. That's a lot, isn't it??!
As it turns out, there have been seven teams in major league history with ten double-digit clobberers, all occurring between 1998 and 2004. Let's take a look at them!
1998 Baltimore Orioles: Rafael Palmeiro (43), Eric Davis (28), B.J. Surhoff (22), Brady Anderson (18), Chris Hoiles (15), Cal Ripken (14), Roberto Alomar (14), Mike Bordick (13), Joe Carter (11), Lenny Webster (10). Total Home Runs: 217
Comment: The O's finished under .500 despite their long ball prowess, thanks to a typically tough division that saw an 88-74 Blue Jays team finish third. Also, one of these divisional rivals made this very list...
1998 New York Yankees: Tino Martinez (28), Bernie Williams (26), Paul O'Neill (24), Darryl Strawberry (24), Derek Jeter (19), Scott Brosius (19), Chuck Knoblauch (17), Jorge Posada (17), Chad Curtis (10), Shane Spencer (10). Total Home Runs: 207
Comment: Even though the '98 Yanks blasted ten fewer dingers than the Orioles, the New Yorkers managed to score about 150 more runs. This was partially a result of their team OPS, about 30 points higher than the O's, but you've gotta figure there was some luck involved there; sure enough, they OPSed .860 with RISP, something you've gotta do if you want to win 114 games.
1999 Detroit Tigers: Dean Palmer (38), Tony Clark (31), Damion Easley (20), Juan Encarnacion (19), Gabe Kapler (18), Karim Garcia (14), Deivi Cruz (13), Bobby Higginson (12), Frank Catalanotto (11), Luis Polonia (10). Total Home Runs: 212
Comment: This was not a good team. The Tigers of '99 won 69 games: their offense was actually below average due to a low batting average and on-base percentage. Their best starting pitcher was Dave Mlicki with a 4.60 ERA. Seems the homers didn't help.
1999 Cincinnati Reds: Greg Vaughn (45), Sean Casey (25), Ed Taubensee (21), Mike Cameron (21), Jeffrey Hammonds (17), Dmitri Young (14), Aaron Boone (14), Barry Larkin (12), Michael Tucker (11), Pokey Reese (10). Total Home Runs: 209
Comment: 1999 was a heartbreaking year for the Reds. They won 96 games, and lost the division by one to Houston. So they went to a one-game playoff against the Mets, who had also won 96, and lost. Imagine that: 96 wins and no playoffs.
2000 Cincinnati Reds: Ken Griffey Jr. (40), Sean Casey (20), Dmitri Young (18), Dante Bichette (16), Michael Tucker (15), Alex Ochoa (13), Chris Stynes (12), Aaron Boone (12), Pokey Reese (12), Barry Larkin (11). Total Home Runs: 200
Comment: The Reds were the only team to pull off the feat in consecutive years, and they did it with quite a bit of turnover: four of the '00 sluggers were not on the '99 list, including Griffey.
2000 Baltimore Orioles: Albert Belle (23), Charles Johnson (21), Brady Anderson (19), Mike Bordick (16), Cal Ripken (15), B.J. Surhoff (13), Jeff Conine (13), Chris Richard (13), Harold Baines (10), Delino DeShields (10). Total Home Runs: 184
Comment: Once again, an Orioles team makes the list and fails to break .500. This team hit a remarkably low number of home runs considering their inclusion here (184), and unsurprisingly their top homerer only hit 23. Yet despite all those unimpressive stats, Will Clark was one jack away from making this the first team in history with 11 double-digit sluggers.
2004 Texas Rangers: Mark Teixeira (38), Hank Blalock (32), Alfonso Soriano (28), Kevin Mench (26), Michael Young (22), David Dellucci (17), Rod Barajas (15), Laynce Nix (14), Brad Fullmer (11), Gary Matthews Jr. (11). Total Home Runs: 227
Comment: A distinctly Jays-centric list with Barajas, Young, Dellucci, Mench and Fullmer. These Rangers were also one of three teams on the list who had all their starting position players (according to Baseball Reference) hit in the double digits (the others were the '98 Yanks and '99 Reds).
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So there's your seven teams. But wait just a second... you may have noticed that I never said this was a record. In fact, it isn't. There has been one team in history that has had 11 players hit ten or more home runs. I mentioned before that the 2000 Orioles almost became the first, so it must have come after that...
2004 Detroit Tigers: Carlos Pena (27), Carlos Guillen (20), Ivan Rodriguez (19), Eric Munson (19), Rondell White (19), Dmitri Young (18), Craig Monroe (18), Omar Infante (16), Brandon Inge (13), Bobby Higginson (12), Marcus Thames (10). Total Home Runs: 201
Comment: Once again, we encounter a team who didn't really hit all that many home runs in total (201), and wasn't a very good team (72-90). Also: Dmitri Young is apparently the king of this stat, having appeared on three of the eight teams mentioned. We need to sign that guy.
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It's certainly a pretty meaningless fact, but at least it's fun. At first glance, it seems strange that none of these teams were particularly prolific home-run hitting teams; they just distributed the wealth evenly. This year's Jays are on pace to considerably out-homer every team on the list. Maybe that means they're fated to fall short of the double-digit-double-digit.
I suppose there's a very small chance that Toronto equalizes Detroit for the all-time record: the next contributor after Lewis and Snider would probably be Arencibia, who would have to hit eight the rest of the way. Yunel Escobar is another candidate; he's hit double-digit home runs the last two years, after all, but only has three so far this year.
I used the incredibly useful Lahman Database to compile this list, and if you're familiar, you'll know that it's split up into two different spreadsheets (well, actually three) at the 1960 mark. I considered not even looking at the pre-1960 teams, but eventually I decided to for posterity's sake, and there were in fact two teams that came very close to making the cut: the 1952 Giants (of New York), for whom Willie Mays did not hit 10+ (he wouldn't become a regular until 1954), and the 1958 version of the same franchise, in their first year in San Francisco.
Another thing we all know is that the home runs have been very evenly distributed - it seems like everyone is producing. But a closer look into this "everyone is producing" statement tells us that this year's team is approaching historical territory.
The first thing that jumped out to me on the team's B-R Page is that eight different Jays have already hit double-digit homers this year: Bautista, Wells, Lind, Hill, Buck, Overbay, Encarnación and Gonzalez. (Yes, Gonzalez is no longer with the team, but he hit double-digit jacks before he was traded.) On top of those eight guys, Snider and Lewis both have eight on the season, so it's likely that by the end of the season Toronto will have ten hitters with 10+ home runs. That's a lot, isn't it??!
As it turns out, there have been seven teams in major league history with ten double-digit clobberers, all occurring between 1998 and 2004. Let's take a look at them!
1998 Baltimore Orioles: Rafael Palmeiro (43), Eric Davis (28), B.J. Surhoff (22), Brady Anderson (18), Chris Hoiles (15), Cal Ripken (14), Roberto Alomar (14), Mike Bordick (13), Joe Carter (11), Lenny Webster (10). Total Home Runs: 217
Comment: The O's finished under .500 despite their long ball prowess, thanks to a typically tough division that saw an 88-74 Blue Jays team finish third. Also, one of these divisional rivals made this very list...
1998 New York Yankees: Tino Martinez (28), Bernie Williams (26), Paul O'Neill (24), Darryl Strawberry (24), Derek Jeter (19), Scott Brosius (19), Chuck Knoblauch (17), Jorge Posada (17), Chad Curtis (10), Shane Spencer (10). Total Home Runs: 207
Comment: Even though the '98 Yanks blasted ten fewer dingers than the Orioles, the New Yorkers managed to score about 150 more runs. This was partially a result of their team OPS, about 30 points higher than the O's, but you've gotta figure there was some luck involved there; sure enough, they OPSed .860 with RISP, something you've gotta do if you want to win 114 games.
1999 Detroit Tigers: Dean Palmer (38), Tony Clark (31), Damion Easley (20), Juan Encarnacion (19), Gabe Kapler (18), Karim Garcia (14), Deivi Cruz (13), Bobby Higginson (12), Frank Catalanotto (11), Luis Polonia (10). Total Home Runs: 212
Comment: This was not a good team. The Tigers of '99 won 69 games: their offense was actually below average due to a low batting average and on-base percentage. Their best starting pitcher was Dave Mlicki with a 4.60 ERA. Seems the homers didn't help.
1999 Cincinnati Reds: Greg Vaughn (45), Sean Casey (25), Ed Taubensee (21), Mike Cameron (21), Jeffrey Hammonds (17), Dmitri Young (14), Aaron Boone (14), Barry Larkin (12), Michael Tucker (11), Pokey Reese (10). Total Home Runs: 209
Comment: 1999 was a heartbreaking year for the Reds. They won 96 games, and lost the division by one to Houston. So they went to a one-game playoff against the Mets, who had also won 96, and lost. Imagine that: 96 wins and no playoffs.
2000 Cincinnati Reds: Ken Griffey Jr. (40), Sean Casey (20), Dmitri Young (18), Dante Bichette (16), Michael Tucker (15), Alex Ochoa (13), Chris Stynes (12), Aaron Boone (12), Pokey Reese (12), Barry Larkin (11). Total Home Runs: 200
Comment: The Reds were the only team to pull off the feat in consecutive years, and they did it with quite a bit of turnover: four of the '00 sluggers were not on the '99 list, including Griffey.
2000 Baltimore Orioles: Albert Belle (23), Charles Johnson (21), Brady Anderson (19), Mike Bordick (16), Cal Ripken (15), B.J. Surhoff (13), Jeff Conine (13), Chris Richard (13), Harold Baines (10), Delino DeShields (10). Total Home Runs: 184
Comment: Once again, an Orioles team makes the list and fails to break .500. This team hit a remarkably low number of home runs considering their inclusion here (184), and unsurprisingly their top homerer only hit 23. Yet despite all those unimpressive stats, Will Clark was one jack away from making this the first team in history with 11 double-digit sluggers.
2004 Texas Rangers: Mark Teixeira (38), Hank Blalock (32), Alfonso Soriano (28), Kevin Mench (26), Michael Young (22), David Dellucci (17), Rod Barajas (15), Laynce Nix (14), Brad Fullmer (11), Gary Matthews Jr. (11). Total Home Runs: 227
Comment: A distinctly Jays-centric list with Barajas, Young, Dellucci, Mench and Fullmer. These Rangers were also one of three teams on the list who had all their starting position players (according to Baseball Reference) hit in the double digits (the others were the '98 Yanks and '99 Reds).
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So there's your seven teams. But wait just a second... you may have noticed that I never said this was a record. In fact, it isn't. There has been one team in history that has had 11 players hit ten or more home runs. I mentioned before that the 2000 Orioles almost became the first, so it must have come after that...
2004 Detroit Tigers: Carlos Pena (27), Carlos Guillen (20), Ivan Rodriguez (19), Eric Munson (19), Rondell White (19), Dmitri Young (18), Craig Monroe (18), Omar Infante (16), Brandon Inge (13), Bobby Higginson (12), Marcus Thames (10). Total Home Runs: 201
Comment: Once again, we encounter a team who didn't really hit all that many home runs in total (201), and wasn't a very good team (72-90). Also: Dmitri Young is apparently the king of this stat, having appeared on three of the eight teams mentioned. We need to sign that guy.
---
It's certainly a pretty meaningless fact, but at least it's fun. At first glance, it seems strange that none of these teams were particularly prolific home-run hitting teams; they just distributed the wealth evenly. This year's Jays are on pace to considerably out-homer every team on the list. Maybe that means they're fated to fall short of the double-digit-double-digit.
I suppose there's a very small chance that Toronto equalizes Detroit for the all-time record: the next contributor after Lewis and Snider would probably be Arencibia, who would have to hit eight the rest of the way. Yunel Escobar is another candidate; he's hit double-digit home runs the last two years, after all, but only has three so far this year.
I used the incredibly useful Lahman Database to compile this list, and if you're familiar, you'll know that it's split up into two different spreadsheets (well, actually three) at the 1960 mark. I considered not even looking at the pre-1960 teams, but eventually I decided to for posterity's sake, and there were in fact two teams that came very close to making the cut: the 1952 Giants (of New York), for whom Willie Mays did not hit 10+ (he wouldn't become a regular until 1954), and the 1958 version of the same franchise, in their first year in San Francisco.
