When a historical stat comes out and your name only appears next to a legend like Albert Pujols, you will definitely feel proud, in the clouds. This is how it should have happened this week to the Cuban Yordan Alvarezwho continues to take solid steps in building an impressive legacy in the best baseball in the world.
The young man from Las Tunas from the Houston Astros –he turned 25 last Monday– matched the star starter from Quito as the Latinos with the most extra-base hits (156) in the first 300 games of their respective careers, which is not a small thing if we take into account the offensive power exhibited by dozens of players from Puerto Rico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Cuba.
Illustrious members of the Cooperstown Hall of Fame such as Roberto Clemente, David Ortiz, Tany Pérez, Tony Oliva, Orestes Miñoso, Edgar Martínez, Vladimir Guerrero, Roberto Alomar or Iván Rodríguez, could not come close to this accelerated production of extra-base hits by Pujols and Yordan , two authentic wooden phenomena at the ready.
Yordan Álvarez will play in his 300th career MLB game this afternoon. He is the ONLY player in MLB history to accomplish this stat line in his 1st 300 games:
80+HR
240+ RBI
320+H
130+ BBincredible! pic.twitter.com/v3wIq1wNb6
— Greg Harvey (@BetweenTheNums) June 29, 2022
But the Cuban’s impact is being felt far beyond what we could have imagined when we saw him make his first swings in MLB. To get an idea, Álvarez is the only player in Major League history with 320+ hits, 80+ home runs, 240+ RBIs and 130+ walks in his first 300 games, analyst Greg Harvey revealed on Twitter.
It may sound pretentious, but the Cuban is in a position to fight for a place among the best hitters in baseball history if he maintains such a ferocious pace. This was demonstrated in this same month of June, in which he led all Major League players in offensive average (.418), on-base percentage (.510), slugging (.835), OPS (1.346) and RBIs (. 28), in addition to hitting nine home runs, 14 extra-base hits and receiving the same number of walks (13) as strikeouts in almost a hundred trips to the plate.
That performance should be enough for him to be awarded the American League Player of the Month award, although it is not wise to take Japan’s Shohei Ohtani, an alien disguised as a baseball player, out of the race for that award.
The Angels boy had an outstanding month from the plate, with six home runs, 13 extra-base hits, 17 RBIs and a .973 OPS, but he also shone on the mound, with 38 strikeouts, only seven walks and a 1.52 ERA in 29.2 innings of work. . The right-hander had four wins in five starts and opponents hit him an anemic .204 in more than a hundred official at-bats.
His dominance was much tighter in the last three outings, in which no runs were scored against him and he retired 30 of the 72 opponents he faced via strikes. In all, Ohtani has 21 2/3 scoreless innings, the longest streak since he made his major league debut four years ago.
It shouldn’t surprise us that this particular dispute between Yordan Álvarez and the Japanese phenomenon extends beyond June. They are very likely, along with Aaron Judge, Rafael Devers, José Ramírez and Mike Trout, the great contenders for the coveted award of Most Valuable Player of the American League at the end of the season.
Adolis, symptoms of progression
If we talk about racing production, Adolis García is the second Cuban with the most trailers in 2022, only surpassed by Yordan Álvarez. The 29-year-old Avilanian outfielder has quietly established himself as one of the Rangers’ most important bats and one of the West Indians with the greatest impact on the Big Show.
Last year Adolis left consistent numbers in his first full season in the Major Leagues, but in the present he has the pace to break all his marks. For example, this Friday he drove in a run in Texas’ loss to the Mets and reached 50 RBIs for the season, which places him among the top ten in that section in the American League.
“El Bombi” is now in a position to exceed a hundred RBIs for the first time in his short career, and could also leave behind his records for hits, doubles, triples and home runs, according to the projections from Baseball Reference.
In addition, he has managed to lower his strikeout rate to 26.5% (he had 31.2% in 2021), a very positive detail if we consider that this has been the evil that has hit him the most since his MLB debut.
Jorge Soler and the 40 thousand hits of the Marlins
Last Thursday, in front of the shipments of the right-hander Dakota Hudson, the Cuban Jorge Soler forever recorded his name in the history of the Marlins. With two outs on the board and a runner at second base, the West Indian slugger hit a line drive to right field that became the 40,000th hit for the South Florida franchise since its inception in 1993.
According to the specialized site Fish Stripesthe Marlins’ 40,000 hits come nearly eight years after breaking the 30,000 mark.
* Jit 30 thousand for the Marlins occurred on July 1, 2014 and featured Casey McGehee, who hit a single against shipments from AJ Burnett (Phillies).
* Jit 20,000 for the Marlins occurred on May 28, 2007 and featured Matt Treanor, who singled off Scott Eyre (Cubs).
* Jit 10,000 for the Marlins occurred on June 25, 2000 and featured Luis Castillo, who hit a single against shipments from Ruben Quevedo (Cubs).
The fact went somewhat unnoticed in the midst of Miami’s losing streak, which lost five consecutive games between June 24 and 28. However, it is worth recognizing Soler’s deed, who knew how to take advantage of the moment and add at least one positive note in June not so noticeableas he finished with a poor average of .220, only two home runs and nine RBIs in more than one hundred appearances in the offensive box.
With Soler’s hit, the Marlins became the 23rd MLB franchise to achieve 40,000 hits from 1993 to date. In that period, only five teams have not exceeded the mark: Mets, Brewers, Athletics, Pirates and Padres, while Arizona and Tampa have a long way to go, since they debuted in the Major Leagues in 1998.
Randy Arozarena and the goal of 40 steals
In Cuban Major League history, only five players have stolen at least 40 bases in a season. The list is headed by Bert Campaneris, who broke that mark eight times, while Alex Sánchez, Armando Marsans, José Canseco and José Cardenal achieved it once.
It is still too early to venture to give a forecast, but Randy Arozarena from Pinar del Río could join that short list in 2022. The Rays patrolman got ten scams in June and already has 17 this season, a pace that would allow him to fight for 40 steals at the end of the season.
Not even halfway through the season, Randy is just three swindles away from matching his personal best (20), set last year when he won the American League Rookie of the Year award. At the moment, the Cuban is third among the best robbers in the young circuit, only surpassed by the Dominicans Jorge Mateo (Baltimore) and Julio Rodríguez (Seattle).
This privileged position has been sustained, above all, by his aggressiveness during the last month. Randy was the second player who got the most steals in June, behind Jon Berti (18), the absolute leader of the Majors with 24 steals since the beginning of the contest.
The Vuelta Bajajero achieved a streak of three games with at least one steal this week and in two of them he got a couple of scams. This was the first time that Arozarena had stolen two bases in consecutive duels since he made his MLB debut, something that only six Cubans had previously achieved: Bert Campaneris, Leonys Martin, Alex Sánchez, José Cardenal, Zoilo Versalles and Armando Marsans.
