Much like Biggio's team, Pujols' St. Louis Cardinals are out of the playoff hunt, so if you're manager Tony LaRussa, why not set him up to hit 100 for those numbers? Pinch hit him with runners on base. Have him pinch run after someone hits a triple. Place him in the lineup in multiple spots, transferring runs scored by Shadow Men to Pujols' statistics account. Purists will tell you that Shadow Men are not sentient beings and therefore cannot hold stats. So this is not only fair to Pujols, but it keeps the balance of all things beautiful in the world.
6. LF Jacoby Ellsbury — So Manny Ramirez is either really hurt or secretly wanting to be traded. (We may never know.) In the meantime, this rookie is becoming one of Taxachusetts' favorite new players, hitting nicely in the leadoff position, and is also doing something completely unnatural and scary for the Red Sox: fielding well in left field.
And in a division we thought was decided a couple months ago, the Red Sox have the smallest lead among the six divisions. Sigh. Fine, let's all watch Boston and New York have a gold-plated, diamond-encrusted fight to the finish to see which team makes the playoffs, and which team also makes the playoffs.
7. 1B Julio Franco — He's "officially" 49 years old and still on a major league baseball roster after being called up in September from Single-A Rome (a team I've actually seen play at home). Since the call-up, he's 1-for-4 with an RBI. So, he's not being used much.
Will he be done after this year? Will any other team have him? He's older than nine current MLB managers (Christ, he's older than Terry Francona). Here's to hoping he plays next year while 50 years old, and therefore literally allowed to sign up for his AARP discount coupons. But this may be the last week we see him in uniform, just wandering foul territory between innings with a metal detector.
8. LF Barry Bonds — So hey, do you want to know where Bonds will sign next year? Nobody else knows this but me. It's an exclusive, mainly because it's a guess.
Baltimore.
That's right, next year legendary baseball owner Peter Angelos will sign Bonds to the Baltimore Orioles for a 2-year, $30 million contract, so that Bonds can join the lineage of amazing power hitters like Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Jay Gibbons, David Segui, and Albert Belle.
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1 - REMF
And what about Michael Young, who became only the third person since 1940 to collect 200 for five straight seasons.