Yankees gigantic rookie Aaron Judge is currently killing the ball. At the halfway point of the season, Judge has 29 home runs and if he continues on that pace he’ll sail past Mark McGwire’s rookie record of 49 home runs which has stood for almost 30 years. Judge’s onslaught, I’m guessing, is what prompted a commenter in a column I wrote yesterday about Yadier Molina to ask if a rookie had ever eclipsed 50 home runs. Not yet, but per above McGwire was close.
And because I love fooling around on Baseball Reference’s Play Index, below is the top ten (or 11) home run leaderboard by Cardinal rookies. Number one won’t surprise you but some of the others might.
- Albert Pujols - 37 (2001)
- Chris Duncan - 22 (2006)
- Ray Jablonski - 21 (1953)
- Johnny Mize - 19 (1936)
- Ken Boyer - 18 (1955)
- Joe Medwick - 18 (1933)
- Aledmys Diaz - 17 (2016)
- Randal Grichuk - 17 (2015)
- Matt Adams - 17 (2013)
- Bill Virdon - 17 (1955)
- George Watkins - 17 (1930)
If curious, Pujols also leads all Cardinals rookies in runs, hits, doubles, and runs batted in. By a wide margin in most of these categories, too.
Besides my column on Molina’s hitting in 2017, here’s what else you may have missed yesterday at VEB:
- Kolten Wong has begun his rehab in Springfield and Nick Cichielo detailed that as well as the rest of the farm report.
- Here’s Carlos Martinez imitating some of his teammates’ batting stances. He absolutely nailed Tommy Pham.
- The Cardinals beat the Marlins yesterday 4-3 to salvage a split in the series. As You Van Slyke It had the recap. Be sure to check out Tom Koehler’s picture.
That should do it, enjoy your weekend, everyone.