Derek Jeter - 4,000 hits

[SteveA]

Jeter is the main reason I'm sorry we got rid of Simon.

I wanted to see a 97 mph heater between Jeter's numbers.

How do you do that when someone has a single digit uniform number?

[CA-ORIOLE]

How do you do that when someone has a single digit uniform number?

With precision command.

[Moose Milligan]

Here's the top 10 list for most hits all-time:

1 Pete Rose 4,256
2 Ty Cobb 4,191
3 Hank Aaron 3,771
4 Stan Musial 3,630
5 Tris Speaker 3,514
6 Carl Yastrzemski 3,419
7 Cap Anson 3,418
8 Honus Wagner 3,415
9 Paul Molitor 3,319
10 Eddie Collins 3,315

I personally doubt that Jeter will get especially close to 4,000. However he'll probably be in the top 5 all-time and it's certainly possible that he'll end up in the #3 spot for most hits all-time behind only Rose and Cobb.

Always surprised to see Molitor up there in the top 10 for hits. Have to wonder what his career would look like if he didn't miss so much time for injuries. I have to believe he's top 5 in hits, easy.

[DrungoHazewood]

Always surprised to see Molitor up there in the top 10 for hits. Have to wonder what his career would look like if he didn't miss so much time for injuries. I have to believe he's top 5 in hits, easy.

Molitor played about 80% of all possible games over his career, give or take. 2683 games total. Frank Robinson also played 21 years, and he played 125 more games than Molitor. Of course part of that is Frank played a decade with a 154-game schedule, and played a couple of years as a pinch hitter/manager. Brooks played 23 years, but only 213 games more than Molitor. Cal was the most durable player ever, played 21 seasons, and had 300 more games than Molitor.

So, if Molitor had been the most durable player ever and maintained the same rate of production he would have ended up with about 3700 hits. Or somewhere between Aaron and Musial.

What was more of an impact was that he was a top-of-the-order hitter with a relatively modest 8.9% walk rate. Not too dissimilar from someone like Ichiro or Lou Brock or Willie Keeler, tailor-made to generate lots of hits. Willie Mays and Molitor had similar numbers of PAs and batting averages, but Molitor had more hits because Mays walked almost 50% more.

[OFFNY]

Always surprised to see Molitor up there in the top 10 for hits. Have to wonder what his career would look like if he didn't miss so much time for injuries. I have to believe he's top 5 in hits, easy.

Good trivia question: Who is the only player ever to hit a triple for his 3,000th hit ??? Paul Molitor.