The Cubs set an MLB record with five players 25 or under with 20 or more home runs and a team record for most players reaching that total.
The Chicago Cubs hung an NFL-like 17 runs on the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday, completing a three-game sweep in which they outscored the Pirates 27-5 and slammed the nail in the coffin for the 2017 season. They banged out 20 hits, four of which left the yard. Ian Happ and Anthony Rizzo hit one each and Kyle Schwarber launched two big flies.
Schwarber, you may recall, was so bad earlier in the season that he got sent down to Triple-A to figure out how to hit again. At the time, he was hitting .171/.295/.378. He found his swing among the cornfields of Iowa and was recalled a couple weeks later after crushing Triple-A pitching. In 42 games since returning from the minors, Schwarber was hitting .239/.338/.515 before going two-for-six with a pair of homers on Wednesday.
The two homers by Schwarber gave him 22 for the year. Ian Happ’s long ball was his 20th of the season. Happ’s home run also helped the Cubs set a major league record. It’s the first time in history a team has had five players aged 25 or younger with 20 or more home runs in a season. The five players are Schwarber (24 years old, 24 HR Happ (22 years old, 20 HR), Kris Bryant (25 years old, 24 HR), Willson Contreras (25 years old, 21 HR), and Javier Baez (24 years old, 20 HR).
There it is! Home run No. 20 for @ihapp_1! pic.twitter.com/wD11tsZGA4
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 31, 2017
Previously, the 2007 Milwaukee Brewers and 1979 Montreal Expos had four players 25 or younger with 20 or more home runs. The Brewers foursome included Prince Fielder (50 HR), Ryan Braun (34 HR), J.J. Hardy (26 HR), and Corey Hart (24 HR). Geoff Jenkins hit 21 that year, but he was an old man of 32.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
With all of that youthful power, those Brewers went 83-79 and finished two games behind the Cubs in the NL Central. That may not seem like much, but it was their most wins in 14 seasons. They improved to 90-72 the next season when all four players again hit 20 or more home runs. Hart was 26 years old this season, so they didn’t qualify for the “four players 25 or younger with 20 or more home runs” list, but they did earn their first playoff spot since 1982.
The quartet of 25 or under sluggers on the 1979 Expos were Larry Parrish (30 HR), Andre Dawson (25 HR), Gary Carter (22 HR), and Ellis Valentine (21 HR). They helped the Expos to the most wins they ever had with the name Expos stitched across their chests (the Nationals have won 98 and 96 games). Unfortunately, despite having the second-most wins in the National League, they finished two games behind the eventual World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates.
With the aforementioned 25 or under Cubs all having 20 or more home runs, plus 27-year-old Anthony Rizzo and his 31 home runs, the Cubs set a franchise record with six players with 20 or more home runs in a season. Three previous Cubs teams had five players with 20 or more dingers.
The 2008 team was led by Alfonso Soriano, with 29, and included Aramis Ramirez (27), Geovany Soto (23), Mark DeRosa (21), and Derrek Lee (20). Unless you’re a diehard Cubs fan, you’re probably shocked that Mark DeRosa ever hit 20-plus homers in a season. He actually did it twice. After having the best year of his career in 2008, DeRo was traded to Cleveland for Chris Archer, John Gaub, and Jeff Stevens. In 2009, he hit a career-high 23 home runs while playing for Cleveland and St. Louis. These days, he’s one of the co-hosts of MLB Central regularly dropping knowledge laden with former player slang about the game.
The 2004 Cubs also had five players with 20 or more homers. Moises Alou was the top dog, with 39, followed by Aramis Ramirez (36), Sammy Sosa (35), Derrek Lee (32), and Corey Patterson (24). Patterson was a talented player who rarely seemed to put it together, but he was at his best in the 2004 season. He was superb defensively, hit 24 home runs, stole 32 bases, and scored 91 runs. He was worth 5.0 WAR, according to FanGraphs, which was nearly half of the Wins Above Replacement he earned in his entire 12-year career (10.8 WAR).
The other Cubs team to have five players with 20 or more home runs was from nearly 60 years ago and the big bat was Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks. It was the 1958 team. Banks hit a league-leading 47 home runs and drove in a league-leading 129 runs in the first of back-to-back MVP seasons. Walt Moryn (26 HR), Lee Walls (24 HR), Bobby Thomson (21 HR), and Dale Long (20 HR) joined Banks in the 20-homer club. The 1958 Cubs set a franchise record for home runs in a season that wasn’t topped until 1987.
Next: Fall League rosters feature top prospects
It’s a good omen for the future that the Cubs have such impressive young talent, but in the present they are just 3.5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central. After winning the franchise’s first World Series since 1908 last year, and leading all of baseball with 103 wins in the regular season, this year’s Cubs look like a 90-win team that would be the underdogs against the Dodgers and Nationals.