It’s common to hear about individual milestones today in Major League Baseball. Having veteran players approaching career milestones is very exciting for baseball fans. Especially for those who have been watching baseball for a while and can remember when a lot of these veterans were rookies. Single season individual accomplishments are exciting as well, just ask anyone who was watching Giancarlo Stanton approach Roger Maris’ home run total of 61 down the stretch in 2017. Stanton’s at bats became must-see TV, even though the Marlins were out of the playoff race by the end of it.
Team and league-wide milestones can be exciting to watch as well. All teams in the majors combined to hit more home runs last season than any other season ever. According to Matt Snyder of CBS sports, there were 6104 home runs hit last season. That shattered the previous record of 5693 set in 2000, which was the middle of the dreaded steroid era in baseball history. All these homers hit could potentially mean that some team could approach an offensive milestone that hasn’t been done since the Cleveland Indians back in 1999. That is having a team score 1000 runs in a season.
The Indians in 1999 had a formidable lineup, complete with Hall of Famers in Roberto Alomar and Jim Thome. Other notable players on that team were former all-stars in Manny Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, David Justice, Richie Sexson, Harold Baines and Omar Vizquel. Ramirez had a ridiculous 165 RBI’s that season, while Sexson, Thome and Alomar all topped the 100 RBI mark. This team proceeded to go 97-65 before losing in the ALDS to the Boston Red Sox that year.
Now, out of teams currently in the league, which teams would be the most likely to threaten this mark? Well one frontrunner has to be the defending champion Houston Astros. They have a young, incredibly talented lineup with the likes of 2017 AL MVP Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, 2017 World Series MVP George Springer, and many more. They also led the majors in runs scored with 896 in 2017, and with a lineup as young as theirs is, it’s scary to think that they may still have room for improvement.
Another candidate is the New York Yankees. Their high-profile addition of 2017 NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton provides even more pop to an already loaded lineup that finished second to the Astros in runs last season. Bringing in a guy who hit 59 HR and drove in 132 runs will be an instant boost to any team. Now when that team already has the 2017 AL MVP runner-up in Aaron Judge, and that team also plays half its games in the hitters haven that is Yankee Stadium, then that potentially makes for a lot of fireworks. Stanton didn’t wait around in 2018 to get settled either, belting 2 homers against the Blue Jays on opening day. That, along with the Yankees adding other pieces such as Brandon Drury, Neil Walker, and bringing up the third-ranked MLB 3rd base prospect (according to MLB.com) in Miguel Andujar, and opposing pitchers will have a long day facing this lineup.
One other team that could reach 1000 runs is the Washington Nationals. First off, they have Bryce Harper, who is playing in a contract year and has hit 6 home runs in his teams first 9 games in 2018. They have a healthy Adam Eaton this year, who missed most of last season with a knee injury and was who they acquired from the White Sox before the 2017 season. They also have young speedster Trea Turner, and power bats in 2017 All-stars Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Murphy, as well as Anthony Rendon who finished 2017 with exactly 100 RBI’s. Lastly, they play in a relatively weak division. According to FanGraphs, only one other team in their division (the Mets) is projected to finish with more than 75 wins (projections as of April 8). On top of that, their division foe Miami Marlins are also projected to have the worst record in the majors, also from Fangraphs. So Washington will have plenty of games against lesser competition to score plenty of runs.
To sum it up, it would be awesome as a baseball fan to see a team challenge the 1000 run mark. With the offensive firepower that some teams possess this year, it could be a real possibility that a team reaches this mark for the first time in almost 20 years. We’ll see what happens!
BaseballNerd 