Opening Day 2019: Your Active Leaders

SLIDESHOW:�A couple of first-ballot Hall of Famers retired (Adrian Beltre, Ichiro), while a few big names (such as Big Sexy) are in limbo�not retired, not signed�but overall it's pretty much the same list as last year. Pujols still dominates the counting numbers, Trout the percentages. Jose Altuve hasn't wrested the batting crown from Miguel Cabrera yet. In ptiching, it's C.C. for counters and C.K. in percentages. Let's go. It's Opening Day.�
BATTING AVERAGE:�There are only nine active players with BAs over .300, and a couple of those�Dustin Pedroia at .300, Pujols at .302�could easily drop off this season. (Albert left St. Louis with a .328 career average but never cracked .300 in the AL.) From there, it's Blackmon (.302), Cano (.304), Posey (.306), Trout (.307), Votto (.311). The difference between the top two? Miggy's at .3165 and Altuve's at .3164. That's a battle. Altuve is seven years younger so I expect this will be his in a year. Or by April 15.�
ON-BASE PERCENTAGE: At .427, Joey Votto is 12th all-time, and (minus Williams and Bonds) everyone ahead of him played before WWII.�Yet he has someone on his tail. Exactly: Trout, swimming upstream. Votto's OBP over the last three years is an astonishing .436 but Trout's is even better: .447. No one else in MLB has a career OBP over .400.�
SLUGGING PERCENTAGE: Trout's on top with .573�and rising. Pujols is second at .554�and sinking. Third is Miggy at .551�and sinking. FWIW, Aaron Judge is at .565 but only has 1,271 of the requisite 3,000 plate appearances. See you in a few years, big guy?�
OPS:�Six qualified players have a lifetime OPS over .900 (including Miggy, Albert, Goldschmidt and Stanton), but only two are above .950: Votto at .957 and Trout, on top, with .990. He's rising. FWIW, the $300 million man, Bryce “Future Boo Bird” Harper, is seventh at .899.�
GAMES: Last year I was hoping Adrian Beltre might become the ninth man in baseball history to break 3,000 games played, but he stopped 67 games short. (I think nobody but me cares about this stat.) The new active leader is Uncle Albert at 2,692: 32nd all-time. Only three other guys have played more than 2,000 MLB games: Cabrera (2,264), Cano (2,078) and Nick Markakis, of all people (2,001). Seattle's own (for now) Edwin Encarnacion is seventh at (1,809).�
HITS:�It's not only the same top four here but in the same order: Pujols (3,082), Cabrera (2,676), Cano (2,470) and Nick Markakis (2,237). Markakis has never had 200 hits in a season but he's a few good seasons from knocking on 3,000. Has that ever happened, btw? Has a player ever not gotten 200 in a season but 3,000 for his career? Believe it or not, it's happened five times. These guys: Cap Anson, Carl Yastrzemski, Dave Winfield, Eddie Murray and Rickey Henderson. Go know.�
DOUBLES:�Same four, same order: Pujols (639), Miggy (556), Cano (534), and Markakis (474). Albert is 10th all-time, and another season like last (when he hit 20) and he‘ll be seventh. Can he reach 700? Only four guys in baseball history have ever done that: Speaker, Rose, Musial, Cobb. Last year’s MLB leader was Alex Bregman with 51.��
TRIPLES: In 2008, something shocking happened that went unnoticed by everybody: the active leader in triples, Johnny Damon, didn't have triple digits. The last time that had happened?�1886. Thankfully, in 2010, Carl Crawford passed the triple digit barrier, and then Jose Reyes did, and Reyes would be the active leader this year but he's unsigned. And if he remains unsigned? Double digits again: Curtis Granderson will be the active leader with 94, followed by Dexter Fowler (really?) with 81, then Brett Gardner (really?) at 61. My kingdom for a Willie Wilson.
HOMERUNS:�Pujols has more than 600 (633�shit, he passed Junior!); Miggy has more than 400 (465�would love to see him hit 500), and that's it for above 400. You know who's third? Double E, Edwin Encarnacion, with 380. He‘ll probably get his 400th this year�something Seattle fans can look forward to. Except, of course, if he’s doing good he‘ll be trade bait. Then it’s Nellie Cruz (360), Granderson (332), Braun (322), Cano (311), Stanton (305).�
RBIs:�Last season, Pujols drove in just 64 runs, tying a career low. Even so, this season, barring catastrophe, he‘ll become the fifth man in baseball history to cross the 2,000 RBI Rubicon. He’s got 1,982. Who are the four others? Aaron, Ruth, A-Rod, Cap Anson. Second on the active chart is Miggy with 1,635. Then it's a big dropoff to Cano, third, at 1,233.
RUNS:�Pujols again, at 1,773, which is 22nd all-time, followed as always by Miggy at 1,388 (99th). Can you guess who's third on the active list? Not Cano�he's fourth. It's Ian Kinsler with 1,215. He's scored more runs than all but 170 players in MLB history.�
BASES ON BALLS: Albert is 48th all-time with 1,279 (five more and he passes Edgar), followed by Joey Votta (1,104/78th) and Miggy (1,087/tied for 85th). They‘re the only guys north of 1,000. Only 18 guys have more than 1,500 career, and only four have more than 2,000: Teddy Ballgame (2,021), Babe Ruth (2,062), Rickey Henderson (2,190), and the Great Cheater himself, Barry Bonds, way out in front with 2,558. Sad!
STRIKEOUTS:�The first player to strike out 100 or more times in a season was the Tolkienesque Sam Wise, 104 in 1884, but that was a rarity. From 1900 to 1931, the league leader K’d 100+ times in only eight seasons�all of it during the supposed deadball era rather than the big-swinging Ruthian ‘20s. This began to change in the ’30s. And the last guy to�not�lead the league with 100+ Ks? Duke Snider in 1949. The guy above, Mark Reynolds, was the first to 200+ in a season: 204 in 2008. Since, we‘ve only had one season (2014) where the league leader wasn’t in the 200s. Reynold's 1,870 is 12th all-time. Curtis Granderson is second on the active list with 1,818.��
GROUNDED INTO DOUBLE PLAYS:�All-time career leader Albert Pujols added 12 to his total last season (a down year for him) for 374. Second is Miggy with exactly 300 (he's 10th all-time), then Robinson Cano (261) and Yadier Molina (240). For comparison: How often does a speedy guy like Ichiro GDP? Nineteen years, 92 times. Hitting lead-off helps, too.�
STOLEN BASES:�Ichiro's retired and Jose Reyes is unsigned, so the active leader is ... Rajai Davis? Yes, with 415. The last time the active leader was that low was 1965 when Luis Aparacio had 392. Then Maury Wills zipped past him before passing the baton to Lou Brock, who passed it onto Campy, and onto Joe Morgan, and onto, yeah, Rickey who owned it for a while.� Jacoby Ellsbury is second active with 343, then Dee Gordon with 309. Coming up on the outside, in fifth place, is Billy Hamilton, who has 277 after five full seasons�although last year was his first without 50+ SBs.�
DEFENSIVE WAR:�The king (Adrian) is dead, long live the king (Andrelton). I still have issues with this stat. Andrelton Simmons is first with 25.3 after seven seasons; second is Yadier Molina with 24.4 after 15 seasons. So seven seasons of Simmons at short is worth more than 15 years of Molina beind the plate? Who's involved in every freakin' pitch?� I don't think so. After that, it goes Kinsler (18.1), Tulowitzki (16.9), Pedroia (15.5). Lorenzo Cain is the highest-ranked outfielder (7th, 13.8). The first non up-the-middle guy is Nolan Arenado (10th, 13.3).
WAR FOR POSITION PLAYERS:�What‘s�a good WAR cutoff for the Hall? Seems about 70. It’s cuspy there: Gary Carter, Barry Larkin, Ron Santo. There are first-ballot guys below you (Tony Gwynn, 69.2) and underrated guys ahead of you (Bobby Grich, 71.1; Lou Whitaker 75.1). But you‘ll definitely be in the conversation. I bring this up because two active players are exactly there: Miguel Cabrera, 69.6, and Robinson Cano, 69.3. To me, Miggy’s in: two MVPs, two Triple Crowns, tons of black ink. Cano, with no MVPs, no black ink and (mostly) a PED suspension, needs another few good years just to get in the convo again. Both men are surrounded by Angels: Albert on top with 99.9, and Mike Trout gunning toward them with 64.2.
WINS: Big Sexy, with 247 wins, ain't signed, so this one goes to C.C. Sabathia at 246. He says this is his last season, and, barring disaster, he‘ll make it to 250. Bigger question: Will he be the last to do it? In second place is Justin Verlander with 204, and he’s 36 years old. Then it's Zack Greinke (187), Jon Lester (177), King Felix (168), Max Scherzer (159), Cole Hamels (156). Clayton Kershaw has 153 wins but at 31 he's hardly a kid anymore. Either way, 300 seems a pipe dream now. The last to reach that milestone? Randy Johnson in 2009. Maybe the last ever.�
ERA:�Last year, an injury-plagued season, was the first since 2010 that Kershaw didn't finish in the top three in NL Cy Young balloting. Think of that for a second. And guess what? He still had a 2.73 ERA. Career, his 2.39 ERA is 27th all-time, and the only ones above him are Mariano Rivera and the ghosts of 19th-century and early 20th-century pitchers. On the active list, Chris Sale is second with 2.89, followed by Madison Bumgarner (3.03), Corey Kluber (3.08), Stephen Strasburg (3.14), and Max Scherzer (3.21). Of the six, guess which wasn't drafted in the first round? Yes, Kluber: 4th round, 2007, San Diego. They traded him to Cleveland in 2010. So it goes.�
STRIKEOUTS: C.C. needs just four wins for 250 and only 14 Ks to become the 17th man in baseball history to reach 3,000 strikeouts. He's at 2,986. The 3,000-strikeout boys go in bunches. For 100 years it was just Walter Johnson until Bob Gibson joined him in 1974. Then between 1978 and 1986, 10 guys barged in: Gaylord, Nolan, Tom, Steve, Fergie, Don, Phil, Bert. Then nothing until 1998-2008 when we got six more: Roger, Randy, Greg, Curt, Pedro, John. Nothing since Schmoltzie. Until this year.�
BASES ON BALLS: A year ago, I wrote, “C.C.'s the only active guy with more than 1,000 career walks” ... and he still is. He's got 1,060, Justin Verlander is second with 808. An old saw: You gotta be good to be able to walk that much. C.C. is 94th all-time. The top 5 guys career in BBs? Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Phil Niekro, Early Wynn and Bob Feller. We could build a team around that starting five.�
INNINGS PITCHED: There are nine active players with more than 2,000 IP (the usual suspects), but there is only one with more than 3,000 IP, and he‘s�way beyond 3,000: C.C. at 3,470. No active pitcher is within 700 IP of him. Last season, the IP leader was Max Scherzer with 220, so you do the math. Not many war horses left. With reason. Did you see “War Horse”? Who wants that?�
COMPLETE GAMES: Every year of the 20th century some pitcher threw double-digit CGs. Every year. Even strike-shortened ’94 when Greg Maddux threw 10. Then the calendar flipped and the CGs just disappeared. It's like in John Updike's “Rabbit Is Rich” when the ‘70s turn into the ’80s and disco just goes POOF. In the 21st century, only two pitchers have thrown double-digit CGs: C.C. in 2008 (10) and James Shields in 2011 (11). Now it's hardly even a stat. Who led the league in CGs last season? Well, eight pitchers tied for the lead ... with two. The active leader is C.C. with 38 followed by Felix and CK, both with 25. Want to talk unbreakable records? The all-time leader is Cy Young with 749.��
SHUTOUTS:�This one's even less. The shutout leaders last season were 19 guys with one each. The last time there were no crooked numbers among shutout leaders? 1871! Even in 2017, you had two guys with three: Ervin Santana and Corey Kluber. Put it this way: You almost always had someone with three. No longer. Trivia: Who was the last guy to pitch at least five shutouts in a season? That would be King Felix in 2012. Felix is tied for third with Ervin Santana on the active list with 11. Second is C.C. with 12. First is C.K. with 15 but he hasn't thrown a shutout since 2016.��
WILD PITCHES:�This always stuns me. I never think of the King as a wild man but he's not only leading this category, he's dominating it: 151 WPs while second is Francisco Liriano's 99. (For all his IP, Sabathia has only thrown 74 WPs.) All-time record? Discounting 19th century craziness? Nolan Ryan with 277. Felix is 37th all-time. Legends loom ahead of him. Three more and he ties Walter Johnson; five more and he ties Cy Young.��
SAVES:�Good good, someone sign Craig Kimbrel already. Right now, his 333 saves (14th all-time) aren't the active leader because he's not active. Instead, coming out of the bullpen, we get (no, please god, no) Fernando Rodney and his 325 saves despite a career 1.36 WHIP. Read that again: Dude's got a 1.36 WHIP. For his entire career. He comes in for one inning and on average lets 1.3 guys on. Meanwhile, unsigned, is Kimbrel and his career 0.920 WHIP. And you thought baseball was a meritocracy.��
WAR FOR PITCHERS:�I assumed this would be C.C. again. He was leading last year and added a respectable 2.4 WAR. But the No. 2 man, Justin Verlander, kicked some serious ass, adding 6.2 WAR, his fourth-best season ever, and swamped him. It goes: JV (63.6), CC (62.1), CK (61.9), Zack (61.1). These are the only active pitchers with WARs above 60. For the record, only nine pitchers have career WARs over 100: Cy, Kid, Walter, Grover, Lefty, Tom, Roger, Greg and Randy.�
EXIT MUSIC (FOR A SLIDESHOW):�That's it, kids. Enjoy the season.�ABY.�*FIN*