Full Count – September 14th

By Kyle Soppe

Tim Wakefield finally recorded his 200^th career victory. It took him eight starts, but this win helped the Sox hold off the surging Rays late push for a wildcard spot. The knuckleballer (45 years and 42 days old) became the oldest player in the last 80 years to reach the 200 win plateau.

Mo Rivera closes to within 1 save Trevor Hoffman’s all-time record. Rivera recorded save number 600 with a game ending caught stealing, the fourth time he has finished a game in that fashion.

Adrian Gonzalez is in good shape to lead the majors in batting average. On the season, the BoSox slugger is 1-1 in stolen base attempts. The last player to lead the league in hitting and have less than 2 SB’s was Wade Boggs in 1986. Boggs went 0-4 in stealing bases that season (at least Gonzalez capitalized the one time he decided to run). Boggs’s lack of base stealing was more magnified than Gonzalez, as he was on first base 255 times (singles + walks) that season. Gonzalez has been on first base only 189 times thus far.

Albert Pujols is only 6 RBI away from his 11^th straight 100 RBI campaign to open his career. If he can raise his batting average up to .300 (currently sitting at .297) it would be the 11^th straight year for that as well. Lastly, another 6 runs scored, and he will have had 11 straight seasons with 99 runs (yea, he finished with 99 runs in 2007; a nice round 100 would look better, but still). All of these numbers, on top of his 30+ homers every year, are why Fat Albert is considered the best hitter in the game. The previous record for seasons like this (.300-100-30-99) to begin a career was 7. Despite injuries and ineffectiveness at times, it seems likely that Pujols will reach his typical numbers once again. Side bar: As Pujols neared this record, the Redbirds rostered Larry Walker in 2005. Walker and his 1994 Expo teammates are mourning the 17-year anniversary of their lost season, in which they had their best shot at a world championship.

Ryan Howard is leading the league in RBI (112) this year and has struck out 163 times this year. That is the third greatest amount of strikeouts by the MLB RBI leader in the last 14 years. He trails only the 2008 version of Ryan Howard (199k’s) and the 2006 version of Ryan Howard (181k’s). Strikeouts drive a manger crazy, but the runs in which Howard drives in seem to make it worth the occasional fundamental breakdown.

Jose Bautista needs 4 more home runs this season to bring his 2 year total to 100. If “Joey Bats” hits those 4 homers without knocking in 12 more runs this season, he will have the lowest RBI total of all players to hit 100 homers in 2 consecutive seasons. Mark McGwire (1996-97) hit 110 long balls, and only drove in 236 runs. Bautista currently has 96 homers with 224 RBI, with 14 games to play.

Bronson Arroyo leads the league in HR’s surrendered this year with 40. He is looking at roughly 2 more starts this season, and could approach the highest number of homers given up in the last 11 years. If he can find it in him to allow 5 more, he will have given up the most dingers since Jose Lima in 2000.

Justin Verlander recorded his 23^rd victory on Tuesday night, giving him the most win since Randy Johnson won 24 in 2002. If Verlander can win his remaining 2 starts, not much of a stretch considering he has won 11 straight starts, he would have the most wins since 1990, when Bob Welch won 27 times. Bob Welch didn’t win the MVP.

Johnny Cueto is tied for the lead league in ERA (2.36). Assuming he win one more time this year, and holds onto at least a share of the league lead in ERA, his 10 wins would tie for the least by the MLB leader in ERA, with a minimum of 150 innings pitched. Bill Swift won 10 games in his 1992 campaign in which he compiled a 2.08 ERA in 164.2 innings pitched.

Overpaid and overrated AJ Burnett has managed to throw 25 wild pitches this season. The AL record for wild pitches thrown in a season is 26, set by Juan Guzman in 1993. Burnett may only need one inning to catch and pass Guzman, but it remains to be seen how much more action he will see.