Stanton eclipses career strikeout record, breaks into top 10 career HRs

Giancarlo Stanton supplanted Alex Rodriguez in the record books, setting a new DMBL mark for career strikeouts.

Chipper leaving his mark in final season

One of the all-time great DMBLers is making the most of his retirement tour through the league. The cornerstone of the controversial yet record-setting Newark Sugar Bears dynasty, Chipper Jones will leave the DMBL among the all-time leaders in virtually every category but triples and stolen bases.

After a sluggish first half, Jones enjoyed an unexpected power surge in the third quarter of the season. Now with 23 home runs, Jones has vaulted up the all-time home run list, becoming the 6th player to reach 450 round-trippers and passing some select company. During a stretch of only about a week or so, the Brick City third basemen passed Sammy Sosa (#9, 446), Vlad Guerrero (#8, 447) and Ken Griffey, Jr. (#7, 448). Number 6 all-time is likely where he'll finish since Philly's Albert Pujols is just too far out of reach at #5, with 484.

Alex Rodriguez is the active leader in home runs. In limited playing time this season with Las Vegas, A-Rod has slowly snuck up to near 600. The suspected PED user has smacked only 9 home runs this year but is second all-time with 594, way behind Barry Bonds at 689.

Earlier in the year, Jones broke the all-time record for most doubles, eclipsing longtime teammate Manny Ramirez, who had 538. Chipper enters the season's final weeks with 562 doubles. In a more recent career milestone a couple weeks ago, Chipper jumped ahead of Manny (1,728) for second place in career RBIs, with 1,732, trailing only Bonds (2,060).

A lock to make the DMBL Hall of Fame once he becomes eligible, Jones won't catch his future HOF colleague Derek Jeter of Marietta for the all-time hits record. He's safely ensconced in second place, more than 200 hits ahead of Guerrero, with 2,809, but several dozen behind Jeter (2,877).

Guerrero ties Sosa for 6th all-time in home runs

In what's shaping up to be his final DMBL season, Vlad Guerrero is taking a few final swings into the record books. Even though he's on pace for a career-low in home runs, Guerrero launched his 12th of the season last week, matching Sammy Sosa for 6th in league history with 446 career homers. In the Rowdy Roddy Pipers' 5-3 home win last Saturday, Guerrero went 4-for-4, including a two-run shot in the 3rd inning off Hillsborough's Felix Hernandez.

The Rowdy designated hitter needs two more home runs in the season's final 35 games to match Ken Griffey, Jr. for 5th all-time with 448 home runs. Guerrero's pace this season has seen about one home run every 9.5 games, or more specifically, one every 34.25 at bats.

Getting to No. 4 all-time might prove difficult for Vlad the Impaler: Manny Ramirez sits almost 50 home runs away, with 498 round-trippers. But Guerrero also has a unique chance to set another all-time record, at least temporarily. He enters today's doubleheader just one hit behind Derek Jeter for most hits all-time. Guerrero started this season about 20 hits behind the Marietta shortstop and both have passed Barry Bonds, who started 2012 with the league record (2,575).

Jeter, who has 2,670 hits entering Sunday's action, overtook Barry Bonds early this season as the DMBL's all-time hits leader. Since he plans to come back for another DMBL season in 2013, even if Guerrero does pass the Marietta shortstop this year, it looks like Jeter has all of next year to regain the crown. Guerrero currently has 2,669 hits, could call it quits after this season.

The 37-year-old Dominican native hit a career-high 52 home runs in 2001 (along with a staggering 164 RBIs) with the Kentucky Hillbillies and a career-low 16 homers in 2010 with New Jersey Team Buddah. Guerrero has played for 8 franchises in his 16 seasons, his most dominant stretch with the Toledo Mutthens/Tijuana Banditos/South Boston Gang from 2002 to 2007. He posted 100-RBI seasons in six straight years between 2003 and 2008.

2k hits for Pujols, 200 SBs for Ichiro

Albert Pujols became the 14th player in DMBL history with 2,000 career hits. Philly's main man reached the milestone during the week leading up to the all-star break. While he homered off Roy Oswalt later in the game, it was a first-inning single that turned out to be 2k for Pujols. The Endzone Animals eventually topped Las Vegas for an 11-8 win, thanks to 10 runs in the last two frames, capped by a walk-off David Wright grand slam.

The first overall pick of the 2002 draft is on track to pass Mike Piazza (2,025) and Jeff Bagwell (2,047) and if he can pick up his current pace slightly (now 88 hits in 88 games), Pujols could surpass current free agent Bobby Abreu (2,089) for 11th all-time by season's end. Catching Ken Griffey, Jr. -- 10th with 2,176 hits -- would have to wait until the 2013 campaign. The Dominican native is still a few seasons away from challenging all-time hits leader Derek Jeter, who took that crown earlier this year.

(Trivia question: Who was selected second overall in the 2002 draft, after Pujols? Answer at the end of this post.)

Pujols had a career-low 161 hits in 2011, a year after his career-high 208 (when he won his second straight Mitchell Award), and has averaged 192 hits per season. He has been remarkably steady, logging at least 600 at-bats in each of his 10 seasons and playing an average of 160 games per year.

Two other players could reach the 2,000-hit mark this year: Vancouver's Todd Helton started the second half of the season needing just 13 more hits while Pujols' teammate, Ichiro Suzuki, was 29 hits away.

Ichiro reached his own career milestone this week. The Japanese import stole his 200th career base on Monday night, in the first game after the all-star break. The theft broke a tie with Chuck Knoblauch for 8th all-time. Ichiro started the year tied with Otis Nixon and Alex Rodriguez, each with 197 stolen bases.

(Trivia answer: The now-defunct Honolulu Sharks selected Oswalt -- way!)