White Sox rookie first baseman Jose Abreu continued his power show yesterday, smacking his 14th homer of the season. Not only does that lead all of MLB this year, Abreu is just the seventh player in baseball history with at least 14 homers through his first 40 career games.
Here’s the complete list, via Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index:
Wally Joyner 15
Wally Berger 15
Albert Pujols 14
Mike Jacobs 14
Kevin Maas 14
Sam Horn 14
JOSE ABREU 14
That’s a pretty weird list, actually. Albert Pujols is amazing, Wally Berger was a great hitter in the 1930s, and Wally Joyner was a good hitter for a long time, although he never really showed a ton of power after that fast start. And then Sam Horn, Kevin Maas, and Mike Jacobs combined to hit 227 career homers.
Abreu is already 27 years old, but even then I’d certainly feel safer grouping him closer to Pujols than to, say, Maas and Jacobs. But then again once upon a time people felt the same way about Maas too.
