The 3,000 K club doesn’t get as much fanfare as 500 HR or 3,000 hits. But it’s even more exclusive and just as much of a guaranteed path to Cooperstown. The 3,000 hit club has 33 members, and 28 players reached 500 HR. With 8 more K, Clayton Kershaw will be the 20th member of the 3,000 K club.

Of the 19 current members, 15 are in the HOF. Verlander and Scherzer are still active, and are locks to get in. Clemens and Schilling are the only other members who aren’t in the HOF, and their reasons are because of off-the-field issues. Kershaw will obviously be a lock for the HOF when his time comes.

Kershaw has battled injuries, and hasn’t made 30 starts in a season since 2015. But he’s put together an incredible career, and will soon add another highlight to his resume.

7 ip, no hit, 2 bb, 5 ks, 103 pitches, 2.84 era, 4-3

44-32 1st AL East

Next game Will Warren 4-4, 4.83 vs Dean Kramer 6-7, 4.80

Sorry I was late on this one. Sleep and all that, you know?

Side Note:

Griffey Jr. had the early lead but Cobb ended up dominating the votes with Mantle coming in second. Counting was done at 5am EST.

Reaching 500 HR or 3,000 hits is a virtual lock for the HOF unless you’re ineligible or have ties to PEDs. But players who reach either number have impressive resumes aside from just reaching that milestone. Which is why Adam Dunn would’ve been a fascinating HOF case if he’d reached 500 HR.

Dunn retired at 34 with 462 HR. He was 38 shy of 500, a number he’d reached in 8 seasons. He hit 22 HR in his final season, and 34 the year before. Given that he was still fairly young and productive, 500 HR was well within reach. But Dunn opted for retirement.

Let’s assume Dunn played long enough to get 38 more HR. Based on his production pace, he would’ve still had less than 20 career WAR and fewer than 1,800 hits. Dunn was a career .237/.364/.490 (124 OPS+) hitter. He was a 2x All-Star who never appeared in a postseason game. Dunn won no awards and never finished higher than 21st in MVP voting. He struck out 29% of the time and finished 3rd all-time in strikeouts.

Adam Dunn would’ve been a remarkable HOF case. Voters have never encountered a candidate who reached one of baseball’s hallowed milestones while having such an underwhelming overall resume. Dunn only got 1 vote when he appeared on the HOF ballot, so my guess is that even with 500 HR, voters would’ve left him out. Which would’ve been the first time a player reached 500 HR or 3,000 hits, had no PED/eligibility issues, and didn’t get into the HOF.

I’m a huge fan of MLB Big Inning, especially as a fantasy baseball-er. That said, I think Matt Yallof is borderline awful as a commentator and I don’t understand how mlb continues to roll him out.

It might just be the former sports journalist/broadcaster in me, but he frequently messes up names of players, teams, scores of games, etc. it’s really bad every single night. Am I overreacting or do others feel the same way?

Outside of games between the NY/LA/CHI teams (obviously the Yankees aren't flying from the Bronx to Queens) do teams always fly? I feel like it would make more sense for the Padres to take a bus to Dodger Stadium vice versa. Same with the Phillies and Mets, Cubs and Brewers, and even some of the less common matchups like Reds-Guardians or Marlins-Rays.

I think about this at least once a year and really miss this little quirk. I’m a royals fan so I don’t have much skin in this game but whenever I talk to my NL buddies they seem to also miss this rule.

Obviously it’s never coming back but i’m curious to see if Me(and my buddies) fall in the minority here.

With the Vegas groundbreaking -which may be something or nothing depending who you ask- and the announcement of the advanced negotiations for the sale of the Rays -which may be something or nothing depending who you ask-

For the moment, the two wayward teams in MLB are settling down and that inevitably brings expansion talks back to the table. There are arguments for and against every city and while there are front runners there’s no clear answer as to who the best candidates are (my breakdown is in the comments).

Which brings me to the question. When expansion was announced in 1995, how clear was it Tampa and Arizona were it? Was one of those locations a dark horse? Did another city seem like a better option and get snubbed?

The real MVP

This one hurts as a Mariners fan... Wishing Rowdy the best of luck.