The Future Home Run King
A look at which players are on track to break Hank Aaron's all-time home run record.

Make note - 2007 might be the year that we see the all-time Major League home run record broken. Barry Bonds only needs 22 more long balls to break Henry Aaron’s record of 755 career home runs. Regardless of whether he deserves the crown or not, the record will more than likely be broken this year or next (pending health). It’s only a matter of time before we see a new home run king after Bonds breaks the record, given the powerful offensive era at present. The big question is: Who will it be?

In a thread last year, some of the Cafe members posed this question. Members speculated players like Ryan Howard, David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, and Albert Pujols to name a few. What the members didn’t do before speculating, was look at the numbers.

I tabulated a small sample of sluggers who are currently playing in the big leagues, with a running total of their career home runs from year to year. I was mainly interested in the player’s career home run total at each age, as the biggest factor in accumulating home runs is longevity. Players usually do not posses the ability to play at the elite level past the age of 40 (just ask Julio Franco) - and even not that long for some. It seems only fitting that age be the base for comparison.

The number in parentheses next to the player’s name is the age that the player will be in 2007. All totals are inclusive of the 2006 season.

 

Age	Rodriguez (32)	Pujols (27)	Ortiz (32)	Griffey Jr (38)	Bonds (43)	Dunn (28)	A. Jones (30)	Howard (28)	Aaron (42)
18	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19	5	-	-	-	-	-	5	-	-
20	5	-	-	16	-	-	23	-	-
21	41	37	-	38	-	-	54	-	13
22	64	71	1	60	16	19	79	-	40
23	106	114	10	87	41	45	115	-	66
24	148	160	10	132	65	72	149	-	110
25	189	201	20	172	84	118	184	2	140
26	241	250	38	189	117	158	220	24	179
27	298	-	58	238	142	198	249	82	219
28	345	-	89	294	176	-	300	-	253
29	381	-	130	350	222	-	341	-	298
30	429	-	177	398	259	-	-	-	342
31	464	-	229	438	292	-	-	-	366
32	-	-	-	460	334	-	-	-	398
33	-	-	-	468	374	-	-	-	442
34	-	-	-	481	411	-	-	-	481
35	-	-	-	501	445	-	-	-	510
36	-	-	-	536	494	-	-	-	554
37	-	-	-	-	567	-	-	-	592
38	-	-	-	-	613	-	-	-	639
39	-	-	-	-	658	-	-	-	673
40	-	-	-	-	703	-	-	-	713
41	-	-	-	-	708	-	-	-	733
42	-	-	-	-	734	-	-	-	745
43	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	755

As suspected, players like Ryan Howard and David Ortiz are already significantly behind the eight ball, as they broke into the league too late. Unless their home run rates increase drastically, there is little chance that they will be able to break Aaron’s (or soon to be Bonds’) record. Howard has a grand total of 82 career home runs at the age of 27 this year - Aaron passed 82 during his age 24 season and ended that year on 110. Ortiz at the age of 31 has roughly the same amount of home runs that Aaron had when he was four years younger.

Ken Griffey Jr. is an interesting case. His whole career, Griffey has been ahead of Aaron, in terms of career home runs at each age. Injuries have been the biggest concern for Griffey Jr., as his playing time (and opportunities to hit home runs) has taken a turn for the worse. At age 34, he was even with Aaron. His lack of production recently has seen him fall behind Aaron’s totals.

As one may have expected, Alex Rodriguez is well on his way to breaking the record. The rate at which he is accumulating home runs is astounding. Rodriguez broke into the league before he could legally gamble at the age of 19 and started mashing. In 2006 at the age of 31, Rodriguez has 98 more home runs than Aaron had at the same age. That total is 26 more than Griffey Jr., and 172 more than Bonds.

Albert Pujols, although not as established as Rodriguez, is actually ahead of Rodriguez’s career total at the same age. His current total of 250 at the age of 26 is the fastest for any player his age - 9 ahead of Rodriguez when he was 26. There is no doubting Pujols’ ability, therefore it will be interesting to see how he maintains his current pace in the years to come, and whether he can maintain the level of durability that Rodriguez has.

The real dark horse in this race is Andruw Jones. When I was putting together this analysis, I didn’t even think to include Jones until I noted his career total. He completely slipped under the radar. Jones broke in at the same age as Rodriguez, and currently is 40 home runs behind Rodriguez’s total at the age of 29 - he was actually ahead of him in the early stage of his career. Jones’ recent power surges have certainly helped his cause. He is definitely one to keep an eye on.

Well there you have it. When you start to read about Bonds’ home run chase in the coming months, don’t get too comfortable with the thought of a new home run champ. Another could be on the horizon, and it may not be the player you expected it to be.

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