Most career HR through Age 29 season
Posted by Andy on June 8, 2009
Here are the current leaders for most career HR through Age 29 season (Age as calculated by Baseball-Reference.com, which is calculated on June 30th of each season.)
Cnt Player **HR** From To Ages G PA AB R H 2B 3B RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams +----+-----------------+-------+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+ 1 Alex Rodriguez 429 1994 2005 18-29 1592 7100 6195 1245 1901 338 25 1226 730 51 1265 98 16 61 136 226 56 .307 .385 .577 .962 *65/D SEA-TEX-NYY 2 Ken Griffey 398 1989 1999 19-29 1535 6688 5832 1063 1742 320 30 1152 747 170 984 47 6 56 109 167 60 .299 .380 .569 .949 *8/D379 SEA 3 Jimmie Foxx 379 1925 1937 17-29 1561 6605 5551 1216 1852 313 93 1345 985 0 859 9 60 0 0 71 53 .334 .435 .628 1.063 *35/2796 PHA-BOS 4 Mickey Mantle 374 1951 1961 19-29 1552 6699 5519 1245 1700 241 66 1063 1129 69 1136 10 13 28 57 124 29 .308 .425 .579 1.004 *89/645 NYY 5 Eddie Mathews 370 1952 1961 20-29 1482 6482 5466 1032 1548 223 55 992 930 55 886 16 31 39 72 55 26 .283 .387 .547 .934 *5/7 BSN-MLN 6 Andruw Jones 342 1996 2006 19-29 1607 6617 5836 962 1556 303 32 1023 647 61 1256 75 6 53 143 133 53 .267 .345 .505 .850 *89/D7 ATL 7 Hank Aaron 342 1954 1963 20-29 1511 6582 5940 1077 1898 321 77 1121 541 124 609 20 19 62 156 103 37 .320 .375 .572 .947 *987/453 MLN 8 Mel Ott 342 1926 1938 17-29 1739 7294 6148 1247 1939 336 61 1306 1035 0 516 37 74 0 44 60 0 .315 .417 .557 .974 *958/74 NYG 9 Juan Gonzalez 340 1989 1999 19-29 1248 5283 4831 791 1421 282 19 1075 344 63 947 48 2 58 129 21 15 .294 .343 .572 .915 97D8 TEX 10 Albert Pujols 337 2001 2009 21-29 1295 5626 4770 991 1595 355 13 1028 740 172 526 63 1 52 165 52 28 .334 .426 .626 1.052 *37/59D64 STL
Albert Pujols is #10, but he's in his Age 29 season right now and doesn't turn 30 until January of next year. He's on a torrid pace this year but if he finishes with just his average number of homers will get "only" 24 more this year for a total of 42. Still that would give him 361 HR through his Age 29 season and bump him up to 6th on this list.
Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey both got out to extremely fast starts in the first half of their careers. Injuries and now old age have spoiled the second half of Griffey's career and time has yet to tell on A-rod.
My gut tells me that in the end, Pujols will pass both those guys in career HR and career reputation. But we'll need 7-10 more years to find out about that.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I think we are already seeing the passing of the torch on career reputation. Pujols was having Triple crown worthy seasons year in and year out for the first part of his career while he played in the shadows of bonds and arod. Since bonds and now recently arod have fallen from grace due their steroid use, mlb has looked to pujols as the games most feared hitter. He gets all the headlines, hes entering his prime, and has his own competition at the all star game this year.
June 8th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Something tells me Albert Pujols is 33 years old.
June 8th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
I agree on Pujols' age. I remember seeing him when he was "23" and thought he looked 30 then. He still may end up with astonishing career numbers...
June 8th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
"Entering his prime"? I think he did that about 8 years ago.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
I disagree, Zimjim, about career perception. Griffey and A-rod were the same way at the same point in their careers--they were each the best player in baseball, and perceived as perhaps the best player in a generation, and also perceived as likely to break then then-record for career HR. Is Pujols going to pass 750 HR? Right now it would seem so, but he's not even halfway there yet. I think it will be at least another 4 years before he could be properly perceived as having had a better career than Griffey.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Let's say Pujols finishes this season with the 51 HRs he's on pace to hit, giving him his greatest HR season to date. That would give him 370 for his fantastic 9-year career. But even if he repeats in the next 9 years the incredible numbers he's put up from 2001-2009, that'd still "only" be 740 HRs. And what're the odds that he'll HAVE another 9-year run like he's already had? So, chance of passing Aaron or Bonds - small. As for passing a very-close-to-being-finished Griffey - pretty likely. Chance of passing ARod, who, given the new Yankee Stadium, should easily become the new career HR leader - very, very tiny.
June 9th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Note that most of those guys fell well below 600 HR or are expected to. A-Rod still hasn't gotten there yet, and anything can happen. Griffey got there limping. Which leaves Hank Aaron -- considered at that age LEAST likely of these guys to hit 600. No one even thought about it, while Mantle and Mathews were seen as megastars. So Pujols has his work cut out for him, as JP's math points out. What he does have working for him is that, like Hank Aaron, he's been overshadowed early in his career and has had the consistency and injury-resistance of Hammerin' Hank. He even plays a position with less wear and tear. So I wouldn't be surprised if he hits 600 or 700, but it's way too early to tell. A decade ago, everyone thought Griffey would hit 700. A few years ago, nobody thought Griffey would make it to 600.
June 9th, 2009 at 10:06 am
The actual birthdays don't change the numbers much, as eight of the ten had off-season birthdays. A-Rod had 20 fewer (409) on his 30th, but still heads the list. Andruw Jones nudges ahead of Aaron and Ott with 345. As stated, Pujols still has the rest of this season to move up from 10th to, perhaps, 6th.