Baseball By Paul

Philadelphia shortstop Jimmy Rollins ripped the second pitch from Mark Mulder down the left field line for a double, his 38th straight game with a hit. He is 19 games away from breaking Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak record.

Ken Griffey Jr. smacked his 537th home run to break a tie for 12th place with Mickey Mantle. The home run also marked his 1538th run batted in, breaking him out of a tie with Joe DiMaggio for 38th overall. A healthy season could move Griffey to as high as 8th on the All-Time list should he meet his 162-game average of 41 home runs. It is more likely that he'll play closer to 135-140 games, but that could catapult to 9th above Rafael Palmeiro. Since joining Cincinnati in 2000, Griffey Jr. has averaged 98 games played with 23 home runs per season.

All-Time HR Top 12 List

1. Hank Aaron 755
2. Babe Ruth 714
3. Barry Bonds 708
4. Willie Mays 660
5. Sammy Sosa 588
6. Frank Robinson 586
7. Mark McGwire 583
8. Harmon Killebrew 573
9. Rafael Palmeiro 569
10. Reggie Jackson 563
11. Mike Schmidt 548
12. Ken Griffey 537

Young catcher Jeff Mathis is starting his first game of 2006 in place of Jose Molina.  The 23-year old prospect posted a .839 OPS in Salt Lake City last year with 50 extra base hits including 21 home runs.  Mathis figures to get some quality at-bats and could even supplant Molina with a good showing.   

In the most predictable story of 2006, Dodgers 1B Nomar Garciaparra is headed for the disabled list. The off-season free agent acquisition suffered a strained ribcage muscle in the last game of the Spring Training delaying his effort in logging more games than the 81 and 62 played in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Thankfully for their fans, the Dodgers were smart enough (or as smart as you can be when purposely getting Nomar) to limit the Garciaparra signing to just a one-year deal. Though just 32, Garciaparra is beginning to make critics and supporters alike wonder if he can get back to the days of dominance when he won back-to-back American League batting titles (1999 & 2000) or even as recently as 2003 when he smacked 78 extra base hit (including 13 triples) while playing a career-high 156 games.

Further troubling for the Dodgers is that another off-season acquisition, Kenny Lofton, was also placed on the disabled list with a strained calf muscle. Tough to be too surprised by this news given that Lofton is 38 years old and has logged 110+ games every year but one (2004) since 1992. Another of the Dodgers' pickups this off-season was Sandy Alomar Jr., a name that is synonymous with "injury", who is 40 years old and hasn't managed more than 97 games since 1998. To be fair, he is simply supposed to back up Dioner Navarro, but I can't make sense of this kind of signing. Of course, it has all been done before. General Manager Ned Colletti built his own Jurassic Park in San Francisco, too, leaving a roster that features 13 players with 10 or more years of experience with six of them having been around for 15 or more.

For now, the Dodgers continue on, filling in the holes left by Lofton and Garciaparra and simply wait for the other shoe to drop.   That other shoe of course being whatever ailment is sure to strike Mr. Malady himself, J.D. Drew.  Because as they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.