Last night Jose Altuve recorded his 900th and 901st career Major League hit. It took him 722 games, which is awfully impressive. So, because I'm trying to find something to write about, I thought we could make a little comparison to Altuve and some other notable players over their first 722 career games.
Let's start off with Altuve:
Jose Altuve: 901 hits, .307/.348/.425, 184 stolen bases, 112 wRC+, 114 OPS+
Cool.
How about Craig Biggio: 706 hits, .273/.351/.382, 120 stolen bases, 112 wRC+.
Derek Jeter: 924 hits, .320/.389/.468, 102 stolen bases, 125 wRC+.
Dustin Pedroia: 871 hits, .305/.374/.464, 121 wRC+.
It gets a little tricky trying to do this with older players, but we'll get as close as we can.
Rod Carew had 842 hits after 722 games. In his first 727 games: .309/.357/.404, 117 OPS+
Pete Rose had 862 hits after 722 games. In his first 759 games: 899 hits, .295/.351/.413, 110 OPS+.
Paul Molitor had 878 hits after 722 games. In his first 752 games: 899 hits, .292/.349/.421, 189 stolen bases, 115 OPS+.
Carl Yastrzemski had 830 hits after 722 games. In his first 743 games: 847 hits, .296/.374/.464, 127 OPS+.
Hank Aaron had 907 hits after 722 games. In his first 732 games: .316/.365/.543, 230 stolen bases, 145 OPS+. So Altuve isn't Hank Aaron. Intriguing.
This is fun.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
