Hello Fans,
Unfortunately, only a couple weeks after commenting on the ‘at this pace’ type of analysis and considering whether or not any players may contend for the Triple Crown past the All-Star break (i.e. Matt Kemp and Josh Hamilton), I watched Hamilton play in four games last week. Well, let me clarify that. It was actually quite fortunate that I saw those games live on the tube. The timing was poor because I may appear repetitive squawking about Hamilton again. Plus, it will now be difficult to refrain from writing something to the effect of ‘he could end up with such and such if blah, blah, blah’ because Hamilton put on quite a show last week. And then Wednesday came! By the end of Tuesday night’s 10-3 Texas victory over, dare I say it, first place Baltimore, Hamilton had five HRs and 10 RBI for the week. That’s a great month for most players. He finished the week with nine homers, 18 RBI, and 10 runs scored while hitting a scorching .467 and slugging a whopping 1.433. He belted four bombs and threw in a double on Tuesday after blasting a two-run homer in his last at-bat Monday to cap off a 14-3 Rangers’ win. At one point, he had three consecutive at-bats result in two run HRs as table-setter extraordinaire Elvis Andrus was on first for all three. UNBELIEVABLE!
Perhaps more impressive than his 18 homers on the year, may be his 15 RBI lead on Miguel Cabrera of Detroit and Toronto’s Edwin Encarnacion (and a lead of 12 over NLers Carlos Beltran and Andre Ethier). That RBI total and lead is beyond ridiculous seven weeks into the season. And don’t forget, Hamilton missed three games for back spasms. Derek Jeter is having an incredible season whether he is 37 or was still 27 years old. Through 5/13, he’s hitting .372 and has a .418 OBP. That is awesome, but he’s still hitting 30 points LOWER than Hamilton. You gotta be kidding me! And DJ and JH are well ahead of AL third place batter David Oritiz’ .348 clip. I will refrain from any ‘pace’ ratio numbers, and regardless of how long JH can maintain this Triple Crown threat, you must enjoy and watch, when you can, the show this guy is putting on. He’s hitting the ball so well that all nine of his bombs last week were with the same bat!!! It finally broke in last night’s game–on an RBI single of course. That bat was ancient and must have been tired after roughly 3600 feet of homers, not to mention his two doubles and three singles. Plus, hardly anyone is talking about Beltran’s week as a result of this amazin’ demo. He hit .360 with 6 HRs and 13 RBI last week. That’s a sick week of pounding the ball, but he did it during perhaps one of the top ten hitting weeks ever to get his thunder stolen.
Let’s take a look at some historical seasons for a better perspective. It is only mid-May, but this could be the beginning of the closest Triple Crown threat in nearly two generations of ballplayers. The Triple Crown is rarer that rare and it hasn’t been done since Carl Yastrzemski’s magical ’67 season of 44 HR, 121 RBI, and .326 average, which followed Oriole Frank Robinson’s ’66 Crown of 49 HR, 122 RBI, and .316 average in the pitching rich era. (That’s why MLB lowered the mound five inches in ’69 to a height of 10 inches.) There hasn’t been an NL Crown since Joe Medwick of the Cardinals hit 31 HR, 154 RBI, and .374 average in ’37. It’s only been accomplished a total of fifteen times since 1900 (the modern era) and Rogers Hornsby, Jimmie Foxx, and Ted Williams account for six of those fifteen with two each.
If JH could somehow pull it off, he would become the 16th Crown Winner just as he similarly became the 16th player to go deep four times in a game last week (and nobody has done that twice). Plus, Hamilton would join Lou “Iron Horse” Gehrig and Chuck Klein as the only THREE players with a Triple Crown AND 4-Homer game. However, Gehrig and Klein’s four-HR games were NOT during their Triple Crown campaigns Now that’s RARE! The numbers are what it’s all about and the show makes it fun so enjoy the ride while it lasts. Hamilton may not be able to maintain all three categories real deep into the season, but hey, ya never know. That’s why the play the games!! I know I’ll be watching.
Later Fans.