Just about all of the 30 Major League teams reached the 100 games played mark the Sunday after the All-Star Game. Even with a five game losing streak, the Tigers won the Sunday game for their 60th victory of the season against 40 losses. That was the best record of all the teams. And the Tigers were the only team with 60 wins.
The Chicago Cubs and the Milwaukee Brewers of the National League Central were the only teams to win 59 while the Los Angeles Dodgers topped the National League West with 58 wins. The Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets headed the N.L. East with 56 victories.
The Houston Astros had 57 wins to top The American League West while the Toronto Blue Jays were the best in the East with 58 wins. In my opinion, the A.L. East is baseball’s best division with several good teams including the New York Yankees (55 wins) and the Boston Red Sox (54 wins).
The rest of the 162 game season should prove interesting. Will Cal Raleigh, who had 38 home runs for his Seattle Mariners as the team played its 100th game, continue as baseball’s top homer hitter over Aaron Judge and Shohei Otani?
Of course, with games played daily, several teams, by the time you’re reading this, have won 60 or more, but the Tigers had the best record and were the only team with 60 wins at the 100-game mark.
Can more players bat over .300? Only six teams in the 15-team American League had one player with a batting average over .300 while the Los Angeles Dodgers were the only team out of 15 with one player over .300.
Aaron Judge is batting his way into the record books. He’ll soon pass Yogi Berra’s 358 home run career mark and then will only be three homers shy of Joe DiMaggio’s 361 homers as a Yankee. Lou Gehrig’s 493 career homer mark should be passed in the 2028 season and so should Mickey Mantle’s 536 in 2029.
Babe Ruth’s 659 homers as a Yankees player could be passable as early as 2030. Judge will turn 38 years old at the end of the first month of the 2030 season and will have to stay free from injuries that would keep him from the batters box for long periods of time. And, of course, as he ages will the timing of his ability to swing affect his batting average and how far he could hit a ball?
Berra, DiMaggio, Gehrig and Mantle played their whole careers while wearing the uniform of the New York Yankees. Ruth, however, spent several seasons early in his career as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox before turning to the outfield. The Babe hit 49 homers with the BoSox and he also wore the uniform of the National League Boston Braves after his Yankee years in 1935 and managed to hit six home runs while heavy and out of shape to bring his career total to 714.
