MLB Players Approaching Historic Marks with 2010 Season

Nearly every baseball fan remembers where he was when some player achieved the unthinkable. From Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb's all-time mark for career hits to Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played mark, some notable records have fallen over the past 30 years. Meanwhile, the 500-homer club has almost doubled in size. For the 2010 season, several players hope to make their marks by reaching some key milestones, and here's what you need to know follow their quests.

Career RBIs: In 2009, A-Rod tallied 100 RBIs despite missing significant games due to injury. It was 12^th straight season that Rodriguez knocked in 100 or more runs. Rodriguez also reached a few significant milestones. He moved from 31^st to 21^st for career RBIs. Rodriguez passed Cal Ripken on Sept. 25 and then passed both Frank Thomas and Reggie Jackson on Oct. 4. Now Rodriguez has an opportunity to move into the top 20 in career RBIs. He needs just 27 RBIs to match Honus Wagner's 1,733, and he needs 106 to match Frank Robinson's 1,812. Rodriguez, though, is only third among active players. Ken Griffey Jr. begins the season with 1,829 RBIs. That puts Griffey in 16^th all-time. With a strong season, he can move into the top 10. Willie Mays is 10^th with 1,903. Griffey, though, appears near the end of his career. One can't say that for the 33-year-old A-Rod and 37-year-old Manny Ramirez. Manny is 19^th all-time with 1,788, and he had 121 RBIs as recently as 2008. Essentially, Ramirez and A-Rod have an opportunity of surpassing Hank Aaron's leading mark of 2,297 career RBIs, but that wouldn't happen just yet. Thus, their career RBI marks will remain something to watch for several more seasons.

Career Home Runs: Alex Rodriguez also is approaching a significant milestone in this category. With 583 home runs, he is all but certain to break into the elite 600-homer club. He's already busted into the top 10. A-Rod is tied for eighth all-time with 583. Thus, his first blast will move him past Mark McGwire. A-Rod needs only three homers to catch Frank Robinson for the seventh spot. He also might catch Sammy Sosa, who is sixth with 609 homers. Again, Ken Griffey Jr. is ahead of Rodriguez. Griffey, 39, has 630 career homers. If Griffey's bat warms up this spring, the buzz will begin about him catching Willie Mays for fourth spot. Mays has 660 homers. Thus, Griffey would need 30 blasts, and he has accomplished that just twice (2005 and 2007) since 2000. Playing for the second straight season in Seattle, he'll only get enough at-bats if he hits better than the .214 he posted in 2009. After all, Seattle made several moves in the off-season to put them in the playoff picture. No other player is likely to make any serious bid to reach a homer milestone. Ramirez has 546, and he's almost certain to catch Mike Schmidt (548) for 14^th place by the end of April. Ramirez can reach Harmon Killebrew for 10^th place with a 27-homer season. Albert Pujols is nowhere near the top, but his 366 homers is impressive given that he's still only 29. With a 34-homer season, Pujols would reach the 400-homer mark.

Career Hits: In recent years, Wade Boggs, Rafale Palmeiro, Tony Gwynn, Craig Biggio, Rickey Henderson and Cal Ripken have reached the 3,000-hit club. There are only 27 players in this elite bunch, and there isn't going to be a 28^th during the 2010 season, Instead, the best baseball fans can hope to watch is Griffey's ascension to the 2,800-hit club. He has 2,763 hits, which puts him in 46^th place. Derek Jeter, who has 2,747, is also likely to join Griffey. In fact, Jeter might put himself just one more season from 3,000 hits. Ramirez needs six hits for 2,500, and Chipper Jones and Johnny Damon are likely to reach 2,500 hits.

Career Stolen Bases: With 41 more stolen bases, Juan Pierre will reach 500 career steals. That would make him 36^th overall. Pierre, 32, stole 30 bases for the Dodgers in 2009. Therefore, 41 is a realistic goal. That's especially true given that he's playing for Ozzie Guillen on Chicago's south side. While 500 steals would leave Pierre well behind Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson's all-time mark of 1,406, Pierre would be just one of three active players in the top 100 for career steals.

Career Doubles: The 41-year-old Gonzalez was moving up the ranks in lots of offensive categories when he retired in late 2009, but it's his doubles for which people are most likely to remember him. Gonzalez hit 596 doubles. That leaves him 15^th all-time, but he's also just 10 two-baggers away from claiming the No. 11 spot immediately behind Hank Aaron. Since he's unlikely to leave his front-office post with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Gonzalez will never reach 600 doubles. Manny Ramirez, though, just might. He has 531 doubles, and a big season from him could put him on the verge of breaking into the top 10 in the category either later in the 2011 season or early in the 2012 season. Bobby Abreu, Carlos Delgado and Chipper Jones also have a chance to make it into the top 50 in this category by reaching the 500-double mark during the season.

Consecutive Games Hit Streak: Miguel Tejada ended the 2009 season on a 21-game hit streak. He begins the 2010 season 34 games away from Joe DiMaggio's all-time mark of 56 straight games with a hit. Orlando Cabrera, who moved from Oakland to Cincinnati in the off-season, has an active 17-game hit streak that carries over from last season.

Career Wins: Now that 47-year-old Jamie Moyer has claimed the fifth starter spot with Philadelphia, you likely can pencil him in for 10-12 wins. Moyer has 258 career wins. At his age, the 300-win mark seems out of reach. But keep an eye on things. If he has a particularly strong season, there might be at least a small part of the lefty hurler that desires to push on toward 300. If he wins 11 games for three more seasons, the baseball world will be celebrating Moyer's 300^th victory in late 2012. If he struggles or is injured this season, though, all bets are off. After Moyer, there are but three other players with more than 200 career wins. Smoltz (213) is unlikely to hit 300, but there might be a little left in a few 38-year-old arms. Andy Pettitte has 229 career wins, and Pedro Martinez has 219 career wins. Both pitchers would need to play at least four more seasons to have a shot at 300. First, though, they'll have to demonstrate this spring that they still can throw the ball. Martinez has just 22 wins in the past four seasons. Pettitte has posted an ERA higher than 4.00 for four straight seasons, but he also has won 57 games in that stretch.

Career Strikeouts: Pedro Martinez has 3,154 career strikeouts. He's likely to pass Fergie Jenkins for 12^th all-time at some point this season, but he'll need to pitch a lot of innings to inch up on Greg Maddux, who is 10^th all-time with 3,371 strikeouts. Kevin Millwood needs 192 strikeouts to reach 2,000.

Career Saves: The old saves category remains one where guys at the top are still tossing the rock. In fact, all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman is ready to go again this spring, and the 42-year-old Milwaukee Brewer is just nine short of the 600-save mark. There are only three other active pitchers with 300 or more saves. Mariano Rivera is one of them. He is second all-time with 526 saves, and he'll need a big season if he hopes to surpass Hoffman somewhere down the road. If anyone ever catches the two, it might be Francisco Rodriguez. He has 243 saves and is just 28 years old.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/all_time_leaders.jsp
http://espn.go.com/mlb/players
http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/leaders.jsp?c_id=mlb
http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/milestones.jsp
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/himenu.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/