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Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins One Home Run Shy of 200 for Career

Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins heads into the 2014 season needing just one home run to reach 200 for his career.

Coming off a disappointing six-homer season, the 35-year-old Philadelphia mainstay seemed to make a bad impression on Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg during spring training. The issue led to some trade rumors, which were silenced by Rollins, and it seems that Sandberg and the shortstop have settled things for the time being.

With the issue hopefully out of the way, Rollins is set to take aim at some milestones in 2014, first among them the aforementioned 200-homer mark.

Rollins has always offered plus power for a shortstop, as he hit 14 home runs during his first full season in 2001, then fell between eight and 14 homers in each of the following four years. Those numbers, while solid, fell far short of his production in other areas.

From 2001 to 2005, Rollins led the league in triples three times and averaged 33.6 stolen bases per season, while playing strong defense at a premium position and appearing in at least 154 games each year.

Known as a player who provided value with his speed, defense, durability and balanced offensive approach, Rollins rewrote the book in 2006, slugging a then-career-best 25 home runs.

Then, in 2007, he took yet another step, hitting a career-best 30 homers on his way to becoming one of the more surprising National League MVP Award winners in recent history.

Rollins wasn’t able to maintain that power, however, and fell back to 11 long balls in 2008 before posting highly variable totals of (chronologically) 21, eight, 16, 23 and six.

The inconsistency would look a bit better were it not for the fact that Rollins is 35. He’s well acquainted with the bounce-back season, but at this point in his career, anything more than 8-12 dingers should be considered icing on the cake.

With that in mind, we may have to wait a few weeks, or possibly even months, for No. 200.

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Clayton Kershaw Leads Dodgers to 1st 4-Game Opening Day Win Streak Since 1963-66

Following Saturday morning’s 3-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Los Angeles Dodgers have won their season opener in four consecutive years for the first time since 1963-66, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Such a streak comes as no surprise, given that the Dodgers had ace Clayton Kershaw on the mound for each of those four games.

The left-hander made his first Opening Day start in 2011, holding the San Francisco Giants scoreless for seven innings. The following year, he came down with an illness and had to be removed from the opener early, after tossing three shutout innings against the San Diego Padres in a game that the Dodgers would ultimately win, 5-3. 

Opening Day 2013 was the best of the bunch, with Kershaw facing just 30 batters in a complete-game shutout versus the archrival Giants. It was one of the more memorable early-season games in recent history, as the fire-balling lefty broke a scoreless tie in the eighth inning by hitting the first home run of his career.

While he’s pretty good in the batter’s box by a pitcher’s standards, Kershaw still has just the one home run and a mere three doubles in 347 career at-bats.

Saturday morning’s game may not have been as exciting as the Dodgers’ 2013 opener, but Kershaw still played a leading role, allowing one run in 6.1 innings with seven strikeouts on the way to his first of many wins this season. While the game itself was nothing special, the 26-year-old ace will always be able to say that he took the winning decision in the first MLB game played in Australia.

Given an Opening Day track record that includes just one run over 25.1 innings, it’s tempting to say that Kershaw steps his game up for the first start of the season. However, the sample size is still rather meaningless, as it’s hardly out of the ordinary for the Dodgers ace to string together a similarly impressive string of starts.

Another Opening Day win will surely be appreciated in Los Angeles, but the goal is to win the season’s last game, not it’s first. Having said that, the last time the Dodgers won four consecutive openers, they captured championships in two of those seasons (1963 and 1965), with a National League pennant in 1966 to boot.

Led by the legendary duo of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, those Dodgers teams surprisingly used three different Opening Day starters over the four-year period, with Claude Osteen joining the aforementioned pair of Hall of Famers.

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Derek Jeter Is Poised to Overtake Paul Molitor on MLB All-Time Hit List

With Derek Jeter‘s final Opening Day game—an April 1 matchup against the Houston Astros—quickly approaching, the New York Yankees captain is just four hits away from passing Hall of Famer Paul Molitor for eighth place on MLB‘s all-time leader board in that category.

Currently sitting at 3,316 hits for his career, the 39-year-old Jeter announced last month that his 20th major league season will be his last. The 13-time All-Star is already in elite company thanks to eight 200-plus-hit seasons, the last of which came in 2012 when he notched 216 base knocks. It was the second-highest total of his career.

A broken ankle, suffered in Game 1 of the 2012 ALCS, delayed Jeter’s return last year until July, and he was forced back onto the shelf after just one game due to a quad injury. He returned later in the month but made it through just four games before a calf issue sprung up. Renewed ankle discomfort in September ultimately ended his season after a mere 63 at-bats.

The Yankees are taking measures to lighten Jeter’s workload this spring in the hope that he can stay healthy and anchor a revamped lineup. Another 200-plus-hit season from Jeter in 2014 would push him past Molitor, Carl Yastrzemski, Honus Wagner and Tris Speaker—all of whom are enshrined in Cooperstown—into fifth place on the all-time hit leaderboard.

Either way, there’s no doubt Jeter will be joining those legends in the Hall of Fame come 2020, regardless of how many hits he collects during his final season.

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Adam Dunn Takes Aim at 450-Homer Mark This Coming Season

With his 14th major league season set to begin on March 31 against the Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox slugger Adam Dunn is just 10 home runs away from reaching the 450-homer mark for his career.

A second-round pick by the Cincinnati Reds in the 1998 amateur draft, the 6′6″ Dunn—who currently has 6,454 MLB at-bats under his belt—hit 40-plus homers in five consecutive seasons, from 2004-2008, but failed to earn an All-Star selection in any of those years. He’s been named to just one All-Star team over the past 10 seasons, despite hitting fewer than 34 homers just once during that span.

Of course, Dunn’s propensity for striking out—he’s fanned 164 or more times every season since 2004—and inability to hit for high average have had a lot to do with that. Despite the unproductive outs, Dunn has still been reasonably valuable to major league teams thanks to his elite power and ability to draw walks; he ranks 51st all-time in bases on balls (with 1,246) and owns a .366 career OBP.

In Major League Baseball history, only 35 players have hit 450 or more home runs, with Jeff Bagwell and Vladimir Guerrero both finishing just one shy of the mark.

Now 34 years old, Dunn is entering the final year of his contract with the White Sox and figures to be restricted to platoon duty, with Paul Konerko and Jose Abreu factoring in at first base and designated hitter. Still, Dunn said recently that he is planning to return in 2015, so it’s entirely possible he could eventually join the exclusive 500-homer club.

The Hall of Fame is likely a different matter, however.

 

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Michael Young Retires with Rangers Records for Hits, Runs, Total Bases

Infielder Michael Young fittingly announced his retirement in a Texas Rangers uniform Friday, after playing 14 seasons in the major leagues, 13 of those with the Rangers.

Young spent his first 13 seasons in Texas, before suiting up for the Phillies and Dodgers in 2013. It was a final chapter that most Rangers fans would rather forget, and Friday’s announcement provided a more palatable ending.

Young was never a superstar, but from 2003 to 2011 he didn’t once finish with a batting average below .284, and he topped the .300 mark seven times in those nine years.

Even more impressive than his ability to pile up singles and doubles was Young’s ability to stay on the field. During that aforementioned nine-year stretch, he logged 155 games or more eight times.

Given Young’s durability and his skill at spraying line drives all over the field, it should come as no surprise that he holds the Rangers all-time records in a number of categories. His notable team records include hits (2,230), doubles (415), triples (55), total bases (3,286), runs (1,085), games (1,823) and at-bats (7,399).

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