Kuzul

Miami Marlins outfielder Ichiro Suzuki cemented his place in baseball lore Sunday, as he became the 30th player in MLB history to record 3,000 career hits with a triple in the top of the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies:  

MLB.com shared video of the historic moment:

The 42-year-old veteran racked up 1,278 hits during his career in Japan, giving him a total of 4,278 hits in major professional baseball. 

Pete Rose is Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader with 4,256 hits, and while some consider Ichiro the Hit King due to his exploits in Japan, Rose disagrees, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today:

It sounds like in Japan they’re trying to make me the Hit Queen. I’m not trying to take anything away from Ichiro, he’s had a Hall of Fame career, but the next thing you know, they’ll be counting his high-school hits.

I don’t think you’re going to find anybody with credibility say that Japanese baseball is equivalent to major-league baseball. There are too many guys that fail here, and then become household names there, like Tuffy Rhodes. How can he not do anything here, and hit (a record-tying) 55 home runs (in 2001) over there?

It has something to do with the caliber of personnel.

Regardless of Rose’s position, Ichiro’s 3,000th MLB hit put an exclamation point on a career that likely has him ticketed for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, one day.

Ichiro is in the midst of his 16th MLB season, and while he is no longer the same player who made 10 straight All-Star teams and won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves, a Rookie of the Year award and an American League MVP award with the Seattle Mariners from 2001 through 2010, he continues to be a useful asset.

As the fourth outfielder for a Marlins team that is in the thick of the National League playoff race, he entered Sunday hitting .318 for the season. Players often back in to their 3,000th hit by virtue of hanging around for too long, but Ichiro has proven this season that he is still a capable performer at baseball’s highest level.

While Ichiro could decide to retire at the end of the 2016 campaign, the Marlins have a club option to retain him for 2017 should he opt to continue playing. Based on how well he has fared this year, the organization has every reason to keep him around if he’s willing to do so.

If Ichiro does play in 2017, he has a great chance to crack the top 20 in career MLB hits, which would bolster his Hall of Fame resume even further. Earlier this year, Ichiro told Marly Rivera of ESPN that he would like to play until he is 50.

Due to his unique hitting style and consistent production, Ichiro is a one-of-a-kind player. After reaching 3,000 hits, there is no denying his status as one of the greatest hitters to ever play the game.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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Ichiro Suzuki has been one of the biggest stars in Major League Baseball since his arrival in 2001. The Miami Marlins outfielder is on the verge of becoming the 30th player in MLB history with 3,000 hits, needing just two more to hit that milestone.

Speaking to ESPN.com’s Marly Rivera, Suzuki downplayed the significance of 3,000 hits because of where he is at in his career right now:

If you’re at the end of your career and you are limping toward that number, the goal is just to get to it. But for me, when you are part of a team, you’re out there just playing baseball, and you [just happen to] get to that number. I am not limping to that number. I am playing the game, and I happen to get to that number because that’s where I am.

This will actually be the second time Suzuki has made it to 3,000 hits, though the first time didn’t get nearly as much fanfare because it was in combination with the 1,278 hits he had in nine seasons playing in the Japan Pacific League. 

Suzuki told Rivera he’s not overwhelmed by this particular moment because of what his current job with the Marlins entails:

Obviously, I have had experiences in Japan and here regarding reaching particular numbers. But right now, I feel pressure every day because I am in a position where if you don’t perform, you don’t play. I am the fourth outfielder. I am trying to do well today so I can play tomorrow. I think it might be different if I was in the lineup every single day. But you’ve got to hit in order to play.

Playing in the National League without a designated hitter has afforded Suzuki plenty of opportunities to stay fresh. He has appeared in 86 of Miami’s 102 games, hitting a robust .335/.408/.394 with more walks (23) than strikeouts (18) in 214 plate appearances entering Friday’s slate of games. 

On the subject of career hits, Suzuki recently passed Pete Rose’s record of 4,256 hits, if you combine his numbers from Japan and MLB. 

Rose did make sure to pump up his own MLB accomplishments while still saying he would applaud when Suzuki reaches 3,000 hits, per the Associated Press (h/t Fox Sports): “Absolutely because he’ll be the 30th guy to get 3,000. There’s been two get 4,000, and I’m the only one you’re going to talk to at the present time because the other one is Ty Cobb.”

Suzuki told Rivera he didn’t mind anything Rose said about his career hit total: “I was actually happy to see the Hit King get defensive. I kind of felt I was accepted. I heard that about five years ago Pete Rose did an interview, and he said that he wished that I could break that record.”

Despite being 42 years old, Suzuki said he does not see himself retiring anytime soon, noting he wants to keep playing “until I am at least 50.”

He noted there really is no difference in the way he feels today in 2016 and how he felt in 2004 when he set the MLB record for hits in a season with 262. 

Based on the numbers Suzuki has put up so far in 2016, even in a more limited role, it’s hard to argue with him. He might be one of the few athletes who could reasonably expect to keep playing until they were 50 because he has such a unique hitting ability. 

Suzuki’s prime is in the past, but his physical conditioning has allowed him to remain one of MLB’s best bench assets at this stage of his career. 

It will culminate in a proper celebration with the Marlins when Suzuki reaches 3,000 hits and eventually gets elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame five years after he does decide to retire. 

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Miami Marlins outfielder Ichiro Suzuki hit a pinch-hit double in the seventh inning of Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, giving him 2,998 career hits to move within just two of the 3,000-hit barrier, per ESPN Stats & Info.

With the Marlins trailing 5-3 and catcher J.T. Realmuto on first base with one out, Suzuki was brought in to replace relief pitcher Mike Dunn, who had earlier taken over for a struggling Jose Fernandez.

Suzuki roped a ground-ball double to right field on the second pitch he saw from Cardinals reliever Jonathan Broxton, but right fielder Stephen Piscotty was able to cut the ball off before it reached the wall, holding Realmuto at third base and Suzuki at second.

Light-hitting Marlins shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria then grounded out to bring Realmuto home, but Suzuki (who represented the tying run) was stranded at third after infielder Chris Johnson was called out on strikes.

Although they got two more chances, the Marlins never got another runner past first base, grounding into double plays in both of the last two innings.

In any case, the 42-year-old Suzuki will soon become the 30th member of the 3,000-hit club, despite playing in his native Japan for his first nine professional seasons (from 1992 to 2000).  

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The tenures of Andrew Cashner and Colin Rea with the San Diego Padres have come to an end, as the team announced the pitchers were traded to the Miami Marlins on Friday

ESPN’s Buster Olney was the first to report the move, with Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports confirming the deal. Rosenthal reported that pitcher Tayron Guerrero was traded to Miami along with Cashner and Rea. In return, San Diego received Jarred Cosart, Josh Naylor, Luis Castillo and pitcher Carter Capps.

Miami entered play Friday five games out of first place in the National League East and in a tie with the St. Louis Cardinals for the second wild-card spot.

Acquiring Cashner and Rea gives the Marlins starting rotation depth behind ace Jose Fernandez, which is desperately needed in order to make a deep playoff run. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported that one reason for Miami’s move for Cashner and Rea is because Fernandez’s innings are “likely to be restricted.”

This season continues the downward spiral for the Padres, though at least they have now taken steps toward rebuilding for the future by trading James Shields and Drew Pomeranz before shipping Cashner to the Marlins. 

Cashner was one of the “old” veterans in San Diego, playing with the franchise since being acquired in a deal with the Chicago Cubs in January 2012. He has dealt with injuries and inconsistency throughout his career.

This season has been problematic for Cashner, who owns a 4-7 record with a 4.76 ERA, 1.39 WHIP and 67 strikeouts in 79.1 innings.

He has shown signs of life recently, though, allowing one earned run in three of his past five starts.

Even so, there are glaring red flags that Cashner’s new team has to consider. He’s made more than 25 starts in a season only twice in his career and has never come close to hitting 200 innings.

Pitching primarily in Petco Park should have kept Cashner’s ERA totals down, but he had an ERA over 4.00 in 2012 and is far beyond that number this season. He was excellent in 2013 and in 2014, however, with a combined 2.87 ERA in 50 games.

Rea is 26 years old and in the middle of his first full season as a starter at the major league level. He is 5-5 with a 4.98 ERA, 1.46 WHIP and 76 strikeouts in 99.1 innings.

This is a classic buy-low trade for Miami that could look like a bargain at the end of this season. Cashner has his work cut out to reach his full potential, but the talent is there for him to be a good investment at a low cost.

He is set to hit free agency at the conclusion of the season, so this move looks to be a pure rental meant to push the Marlins over the top and into the playoffs for the first time since 2003.

While Cashner isn’t having a great year by any means, Miami’s starting rotation is likely its biggest weakness. Fernandez is unhittable at times, and Adam Conley has performed well behind him. But Tom Koehler has struggled, while Wei-Yin Chen is on the disabled list.

The Marlins desperately need an arm capable of eating innings and keeping them in games. Rea provides some insurance in that regard, and if Cashner can stay healthy down the stretch and maintain his recent form, then he should at least give the team some solid outings at a reasonable price.

Stats via FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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Dee Gordon will return to the big leagues Thursday, and you’re allowed to have mixed feelings about that. 

On the one hand, the Miami Marlins second baseman served his time—an 80-game suspension under MLB‘s performance-enhancing drug policy. 

On the other hand, the icky emotions associated with Gordon’s positive PED test—which revealed testosterone and the synthetic steroid clostebol—won’t simply evaporate.

He is a reminder that PEDs still permeate the game nearly nine years after the release of the infamous Mitchell Report. His past accomplishments are tainted; his future exploits are dipped in suspicion.

Still, it must be said: Gordon’s comeback will almost surely help the Marlins’ push for the postseason.

It’s not every year a club adds the defending National League batting champion in late July without surrendering a single trade chip.

Entering play on Wednesday, Miami sits at 54-46, a half-game up on the New York Mets for the NL’s second wild-card slot.

If the Marlins reach the playoffs, Gordon will be ineligible under the tougher PED penalties MLB instituted in 2014. For the stretch run, however, he can provide a measurable boost.

“He could be even more of a lightning rod for us,” manager Don Mattingly said of Gordon, per MLB.com’s Patrick Pinak. “Our issue isn’t getting on base, it’s scoring runs.”

Sure enough, the Marlins enter play on Wednesday tied for sixth in the Senior Circuit in OBP, but they rank 11th in runs scored. 

And Miami ranks 12th in the NL with 33 stolen bases, six of which Gordon swiped before his suspension.

Tack on all the PED asterisks you want. Gordon’s .333/.359/.418 slash line from last year jumps off the stat sheet, as do his MLB-leading 205 hits and 58 stolen bases.

How much of that was chemically inflated? It’s impossible to say.

But Gordon enjoyed an All-Star season in 2014 with the Los Angeles Dodgers at age 26, and he has flashed superlative speed since he broke into the big leagues in 2011.

Cynics delight in pointing out that Gordon’s PED suspension coincided with Barry Bonds’ first year as the Marlins’ hitting coach. But the notion that Bonds arrived in the Sunshine State and introduced Gordon to steroids as his first order of business is somewhere between implausible and absurd. 

Beyond that, the timeline is murky. We won’t know what the post-suspension Gordon looks like until we see him in the batter’s box and on the basepaths.

Let’s assume, though, that he’s even a shadow of the man we watched last season. If so, he’s a weapon.

For what it’s worth, he’s been strong in his minor league stint, per MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro:

On July 18, Mattingly said Gordon’s return would be “more of a blend than just a throw him into the fire,” per Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. 

It helps that Derek Dietrich, Gordon’s replacement at second, owns a .272/.363/.756 slash line with 30 RBI.

“I wouldn‘t feel cheated,” Dietrich said of ceding playing time to Gordon, per Spencer. 

Interesting choice of words.

The Marlins have a cache of dangerous young hitters, highlighted by an outfield of All-Star Marcell Ozuna, super-slugger Giancarlo Stanton and red-hot Christian Yelich. 

Add ace Jose Fernandez, and you’ve got the makings of a rising power.

There’s always the question of how long this will last in South Beach, particularly under the leadership of polarizing, blow-it-up owner Jeffrey Loria.

Yet here Miami sits, in the thick of the October hunt, laden with up-and-comers and about to get one of the more dynamic players in the game back, warts and all.

The Fish are reportedly angling for deadline reinforcements, particularly in the starting rotation, and have recently expressed interest in New York Yankees right-hander Ivan Nova, per Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News.

The trouble is, Miami has a relatively barren farm system, which Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter ranked No. 26 in baseball. In a seller’s market, the Marlins could be squeezed out.

Mattingly must be careful, using Gordon strategically with the understanding that he’ll need an alternate second baseman and leadoff hitter come playoff time, if and when that time comes. It’s an odd predicament, fraught with pitfalls and potential second-guessing.

“We’ve talked,” Mattingly said, per the Miami Herald‘s Barry Jackson. “Whenever Dee comes back, we’ll just continue to be creative and keep everybody sharp.”

Easier said than done.

For now, here’s what we know: Gordon is about to return to the big leagues. He’s going to be a factor. You’re allowed to have mixed feelings about that.

But Marlins boosters are permitted to celebrate, or at least quietly hope.

Much like positive PED tests, memories of great seasons don’t simply evaporate.

All statistics current as of July 26 and courtesy of MLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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Fact: Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez struck out 14 batters against the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday. He is the first pitcher this season to have multiple games with at least 14 strikeouts.

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Leave it to Jose Fernandez, whose fastball is barely contained by the fabric of reality, to get somewhere really fast.

But while that’s all well and good, just how far can he go?

Before we get to that, let’s break from cryptic speaking for the news. Fernandez is the man of the hour, because he made history Monday night. He was long gone by the time Martin Prado slugged a game-winning home run in the 11th inning of Miami’s 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, but he got the Marlins started off right by striking out 14 in 6.1 innings.

The 10th of those was the 500th strikeout of Fernandez’s career, making him the fastest pitcher in history to get there. He also had a highlight that makes him look good and Cody Asche look like a dolt:

Fernandez isn’t the fastest pitcher to 500 strikeouts by every measure. As noted by the Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN), he needed more starts (65) than Yu Darvish (62) and Dwight Gooden (61).

But that’s not the best way to measure it. Per Evan Webeck of MLB.com, Fernandez’s 400 innings are the fewest any starting pitcher has ever needed to get to 500 strikeouts. Furthermore, Ryan M. Spaeder reveals Fernandez faced fewer batters than Darvish and Gooden:

It’s only fitting that Fernandez would make strikeout history in 2016. After striking out 10.5 batters per nine innings in his first three seasons, he now has a rate of 13.3 strikeouts per nine innings that places him far ahead of the rest of the field. To boot, the only qualified pitcher to ever do better in a single season was Randy Johnson at 13.4 per nine innings in 2001.

So, what we’re seeing is a case of a great strikeout pitcher getting even better. And since Fernandez is still only 23, you can’t help but wonder how many strikeouts he’ll put in the book in the end.

It could be a lot. Even if Fernandez never has a season as prolific as this one ever again, his career strikeout rate is still 11.3 per nine innings. That’s the highest ever for a pitcher through his age-23 season. Average that out, and he could join the coveted 4,000-strikeout club (only four members!) in just 3,200 innings.

Could…but won’t.

Look beneath Fernandez’s name on that list of the highest strikeout rates through the age of 23, and you’ll see the names Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. That comes off like a warning, and one that’s relevant in Fernandez’s case.

The two ingredients needed to climb MLB’s all-time strikeout list are talent and durability. Fernandez definitely has talent, but he’s still working on durability. He’s already had Tommy John surgery, and that’s never guaranteed to be a permanent fix.

“I can’t make them bulletproof,” Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed Fernandez’s surgery in 2014, told Jonah Keri for Grantland last year. “As hard as they throw, [after surgery] you’re going to be on the edge with every pitch.”

If Fernandez’s elbow doesn’t get him again, something else could. Efficient mechanics are arguably the best thing for warding off injuries, and there’s skepticism about Fernandez’s. Mechanics expert Chris O’Leary, for example, wrote at his website that Fernandez’s mechanics are “the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with the current state of pitching mechanics instruction and the modern power pitcher.”

It’s not fun to think about, but it’s thus not hard to picture Fernandez walking the same kind of career path as Prior and Wood: great at the beginning, but ultimately tragically short or injury-interrupted.

Even if Fernandez does stay healthy, he’s not going to rock an 11.3 K/9 for his entire career. Not even the Big Unit could do that, and he and Pedro Martinez are the only pitchers with more than 2,000 innings to strike out more than 10 batters per nine innings for their whole careers.

Injuries can take a chisel to a pitcher’s strikeout rate, but so can the usual aging curves. Per research by Bill Petti at FanGraphs, starting pitchers start leaking velocity in their mid-20s, and their strikeout rates begin to drop just a few years later.

If the same aging curves ultimately apply to Fernandez, he’s not going to get to 4,000 strikeouts in 3,200 innings. With a career K/9 in the neighborhood of 10, it would take more like 3,600 innings. That’s not an impossible total, but it’s a lot to ask of a guy without a track record of durability who exists at a time of pitch counts and innings limits.

As such, it’s best if nobody expects the quickest starter ever to 500 strikeouts to make it all the way to 4,000. Further injury trouble could derail things entirely. And even if Fernandez avoids that fate, he’ll probably still finish well short.

However, it’s not as hard to imagine Fernandez in the less rarefied, but still impressive air of the 3,000-strikeout club.

The trick will be making the most of his prime, which should have six or seven good years left in it if he stays healthy. With his current stuff, there’s a good chance he’ll get to 1,000 strikeouts by his age-25 season in 2018. At that rate, he could hit 2,000 in his age-29 season.

That would put Fernandez on roughly the same trajectory as Martinez, who was knocking on the door of 2,000 strikeouts as he entered his 30s. He no longer had his best stuff by then, but he got by on command and smarts long enough to cross the threshold of 3,000.

Fernandez could get there the same way. In the first couple years of his career, his M.O. was to simply challenge hitters with his mid-to-high 90s fastball and then finish them off with his cartoon curveball. But as we discussed recently, Fernandez’s fastball-curveball combination has turned into a fastball-curveball combination that’s bolstered by beautiful location patterns. He could always throw. Now he can pitch.

If Fernandez can’t stay healthy, all of this is obviously academic. But if he does stay healthy, it won’t be at all surprising to watch him continue making strikeout history.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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On Monday, Giancarlo Stanton became the first player in Miami Marlins history to win the Home Run Derby.

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Fact: On Wednesday, Giancarlo Stanton became the first player in Miami Marlins history to hit 200 career home runs with the franchise. 

Source: B/R Insights 

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We better have a good excuse if we’re going to put a modern pitcher in the company of Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. Their names are not to be used lightly.

Currently providing a good excuse, however, is Jose Fernandez.

You might have noticed the Miami Marlins ace racking up strikeouts like crazy in 2016. With a rate of 13.10 strikeouts per nine innings, he has a comfortable advantage over Max Scherzer (11.56) for the MLB lead.

Lest anyone think a strikeout rate that huge is nothing out of the ordinary, here’s the up-to-date list of the highest single-season strikeout rates ever recorded:

1. 2001 Randy Johnson: 13.41
2. 1999 Pedro Martinez: 13.20
3. 2016 Jose Fernandez: 13.10

Hence, Fernandez is in the company of Johnson and Martinez. This is a thing that is happening, and it’s worth investigating.

Fernandez being a strikeout pitcher isn’t anything new. Mainly with a blistering fastball and a knee-buckling, humiliation-inducing curveball, he posted a 10.5 K/9 across his first three seasons.

But in 2016, the Marlins’ hope was that the 23-year-old right-hander would actually become less of a strikeout pitcher.

“We want to see him continue to pitch and continue to develop his weapons, where he’s not having to have the mentality that I’ve got to strike everybody out,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said in March to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. “There’s nothing wrong with having guy hit a ground ball early in the count. That’s what I’ve talked to him about.”

To some extent, it looks like Fernandez is trying to oblige. He’s cut down on his fastball usage, dropping it from 55.6 percent in 2015 to 54.4 percent this year. He’s also eased up on his velocity. His average fastball has been 94.9 mph. That’s still really good, but it’s a substantial drop from last year’s average of 95.8.

But strikeout rates as high as 13.1 per nine innings don’t happen by accident. More recently, Fernandez provided a few clues to what’s going on.

“A lot of it is location and making the right pitches at the right time,” Fernandez said in June, per Steven Wine of the Associated Press. “It’s something we’ve been working on. I like to throw 155 mph every pitch, but there are things you learn, and you become a pitcher and not just a guy who has good stuff.”

The main key for Fernandez, as it is with every non-knuckleball pitcher, has been fastball command. This is something that got away from him before his Tommy John surgery in 2014, when a career-low 56.2 percent of his fastballs were finding the strike zone.

As Fernandez was on the comeback trail in 2015, one thing he stressed to Christina De Nicola of Fox Sports Florida was not letting his arm drop, so as to avoid putting stress on his surgically repaired elbow. Sure enough, Brooks Baseball shows his release point went up in 2015 and again in 2016:

When Fernandez’s release point was higher in 2013, his fastballs found the zone 57.6 percent of the time. Not so coincidentally, raising it back up led to a 58.9 zone percentage last year and an even better 60.6 mark this year.

And there’s more! As August Fagerstrom of FanGraphs highlighted last month, Fernandez has gone from mostly working right down the middle with his fastball to working on the arm-side edge of the zone. That’s in on right-handed batters and away from left-handed batters. Either way, tough to hit. 

With a better-location/harder-to-hit dynamic at play with Fernandez’s primary pitch, it’s naturally become more difficult for batters to gain an advantage against him. According to Baseball Savant, he’s been behind in the count at a career-low rate. 

When Fernandez has gotten to two strikes on hitters, there’s one thing that hasn’t changed: His curveball is still his preferred finishing move. What’s changed is the effectiveness of his two-strike breaking balls. Witness:

The big difference has to do with location. While Fernandez is throwing more fastballs in the strike zone, he’s throwing more curveballs outside the strike zone in 2016. Only 36.8 percent of his hooks have been in the zone. Moreover, their hot spot is in a place that makes them tough to lay off and tough to hit.

With movement that made it a legend in the first place now combining with its new location pattern, we’re seeing a lot of swings like this at Fernandez’s curveball in 2016:

Fernandez would be dangerous enough if he had only his fastball and his curveball working. But 2016 has also seen him continue to develop his changeup.

It’s always had the movement to be a third dominant pitch in his arsenal. It was drawing a crowd as far back as his rookie season in 2013. Three years later, it has become the stuff of GIFs:

Like he’s doing with his curveball, Fernandez is now making the most of his changeup’s movement with his location. He’s throwing only 42.1 percent of his changeups in the zone. Also like his curveball, the hot spot for Fernandez’s changeup is in a place that makes it tough to lay off and tough to hit.

All of this adds up to a pitch that would be especially useful as an out pitch against left-handed batters. You can guess where this is going:

The only thing that doesn’t make the grade here is the rate at which Fernandez’s changeup is finishing off strikeouts of left-handed batters. But next to everything else, that also looks like something that could fix itself and potentially take his already sky-high strikeout rate even higher.

In all, that’s three plus pitches working beautifully in tandem with one another. The result is a historic strikeout rate that, though eye-popping, feels inevitable.

Fernandez was an elite prospect with huge minor league strikeout numbers when he arrived in 2013, and he really needed only his fastball and curveball to win Rookie of the Year. If further development wasn’t in the cards then, Tommy John surgery has a way of changing things. In his case, the change has been better use of talent that was already there.

Fernandez is not without his flaws. He’s giving up too much hard contact in 2016, suggesting he’s not above getting hurt by mistakes. In addition, his rate of 2.8 walks per nine innings has reversed what had been a downward trend in that department.

Still, strikeouts are the most foolproof way to collect outs. Fernandez is collecting those en masse by setting hitters up with his awesome fastball and knocking them down with his awesome secondaries. 

If a pitcher can do that, he may indeed find himself sharing some special company.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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