Catching and passing Piazza, still chasing Frank Robinson
It took longer than expected but Cody Bellinger finally caught Mike Piazza with his 35th home run on Saturday and passed him yesterday with his 36th home run. It was just a matter of time, and now Cody Bellinger holds the Dodgers Rookie home run record in a single season with 36.
Rk Player HR Year Age Tm PA OPS Pos 1 Cody Bellinger 36 2017 21 LAD 440 .967 *37/9HD 2 Mike Piazza (RoY-1st) 35 1993 24 LAD 602 .932 *2/H3 3 Corey Seager (RoY-1st) 26 2016 22 LAD 687 .877 *6/H 4 Joc Pederson (RoY-6th) 26 2015 23 LAD 585 .763 *8H 8 Frank Howard (RoY-1st) 23 1960 23 LAD 487 .784 *97/3H 9 Eric Karros (RoY-1st) 20 1992 24 LAD 589 .730 *3/H 10 Greg Brock (RoY-7th) 20 1983 26 LAD 543 .738 *3/H
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/4/2017.
With Mike Piazza now in his rear view mirror, the only reasonable record in sight is the NL Rookie home run record of 38 set by Frank Robinson. Frank hit eleven home runs from Aug 13th – Sept 3rd to get to his 36 home runs on this date. That was quite a run for Frank but he shot most of his bullets during that stretch. From Sept 4th on he only hit two more home runs and ended with the NL rookie record at 38. That was the major league rookie record until Mark McGwire came to town.
| Player | PA | HR | HR/PA | Sept 3rd | Total | Leader | Year |
| Frank Robinson | 575 | 36 | 15.97 | 36 | 38 | NL Rookie HR | 1956 |
| Mark McGwire | 368 | 36 | 10.22 | 40 | 49 | AL Rookie HR | 1987 |
| Shawn Green | 531 | 36 | 14.75 | 42 | 49 | LAD Alltime HR | 2001 |
| Cody Bellinger | 440 | 36 | 12.22 | 36 | ??? | Chasing | 2017 |
| Aaron Judge | 489 | 36 | 13.58 | 38 | ??? | Chasing | 2017 |
PA – this is the number of plate appearances it took for each player to reach 36 home runs. We used 36 home runs because that is where Bellinger is right now. This would be within 4 PA of accuracy as I didn’t check the game log for the specific plate appearance they hit the home run.
HR – This is a marker showing you 36 home runs.
HR/PA – this is the home runs per plate appearance pace when they each hit their 36th home run.
Total HR through August Sept 3rd
Total – season home run total
Leader – this is why they are on the list. For example Mike Piazza is the LAD Rookie Home Run Leader
Year – this is the year they accomplished the home run record that Cody Bellinger is chasing
- Posted in: Chasing Piazza ♦ Uncategorized
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 
CODY BELLINGER has a real shot at 42 HR in the regular season if he plays in every game remaining on the schedule.
If the Dodger play the maximum number of play off games (19) CODY BELLINGER could add six more for 48.
Just incredible. Prior to his call up he was known, but his performance is like out of nowhere.
No one expected this and just about everyone would have been pleased with a .750 OPS from this young man in his Rookie year at age 21.
Heck, the original plan for CODY BELLINGER in that first game in San Francisco was for him to just be a stop gap for a few days and enjoy a cup of coffee!
CODY BELLINGER has proved to be a human dynamo.
The Dodgers win-loss record with CODY BELLINGER in the lineup vs the record with him absent speaks for itself.
Really, CODY BELLINGER would secure a long term contract in the $30 mil. per season range
we’re he on the open market today. Instead, he is under team control for five more seasons,
when he will be just 26 years of age. Like Mike Trout.
Speaking of Mike Trout, I was talking with a scout who told me that some players in the MLB can take HGH without penalty if they have a condition that a doctor has diagnosed and that a prescription of HGH would help them with. He said that Trout was one of several MLB players who are doing this. I wonder if Goldschmidt is another? He has that supplemented look about him too.
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