1. Albert Pujols-He is currently 67 for 186 at bats and is batting .360. He has 32 runs and 34 RBI's (Runs Batted In). He has 42 singles, 13 doubles, 0 triples, and 12 home runs. He also has 2 stolen bases and has striked out 19 times.
2. Chipper jones-He is currently 76 for 182 at bats and is batting .418. He has 38 runs and 35 RBI's. He Has 43 singles, 11 doubles, 0 triples, and 12 home runs. He also has 0 stolen bases and has striked out 18 times.
3. Lance Berkman-He is currently 73 for 190 at bats and is batting .384. He has 56 runs and 46 RBI's. He has 37 singles, 18 doubles, 2 triples, and 16 home runs. He also has 10 stolen bases and has striked out 30 times.
4. Garrett Atkins-He is currently 67 for 200 at bats and is batting .335. He has 27 runs and 30 RBI's. He has 47 singles, 11 doubles, 1 triple, and 8 home runs. He also has 0 stolen bases and has striked out 30 times.
5. Miguel Tejada-He is currently 71 for 214 at bats and is batting .332. He has 43 runs and 37 RBI's. He has 45 singles, 16 doubles, 2 triples, and 6 home runs. He has 4 stolen bases and has striked out 26 times.
6. Aaron Rowand-He is currently 56 for 169 at bats and is batting .331. He has 21 runs and 30 RBI's. He has 35 singles, 14 doubles, 0 triples, and 7 home runs. He has 0 stolen bases and has striked out 17 times.
7. Bengie Molina-He is currently 56 for 170 at bats and is batting .329. He has 18 runs and 34 RBI's. He has 36 singles, 15 doubles, 0 triples, and 6 home runs. He has 0 stolen bases and has striked out 12 times.
8. Joe Mauer-He is currently 54 for 164 at bats and is hitting .329. He has 31 runs and 20 RBI's. He has 43 singles, 10 doubles, 1 triple, and 0 home runs. He has 0 stolen bases and has striked out 13 times.
9. Brian McCann-He is currently 58 for 177 at bats and is batting .328. He has 27 runs and 32 RBI's. He has 30 singles, 18 doubles, 1 triple, and 9 home runs. He has 0 stolen bases and he has striked out 18 times.
10. Milton Bradley-He currently is 55 for 168 at bats and is batting .327. He has 30 runs and 29 RBI's. He has 29 singles, 16 doubles, 0 triples, and 8 home runs. He has 0 stolen bases and has striked out 40 times.

1. Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth could play ball. Besides his fantastic hitting, he pitched pretty well too for some of his career. He hit homeruns and could get a high average at the same time. Especially in 1923 with the Yankees, he won MVP with a .393 batting average, 41 homeruns, and 131 RBI's. He played 22 seasons, and in those 22 seasons he hit 714 homeruns. He was at the top of the homerun list until Hank Aaron passed him.
2. Ted Williams. Some people put hitters into two categories. Contact and power. Well Williams could be one of the best hitter with a good mix of both. Babe Ruth was like that too but with more homeruns. However Williams won himself 2 MVPs in his career. He ended his career with a .344 batting average and 521 homeruns. This guy could hit.
3. Ty Cobb. Ty Cobb could be described as one of the best contact hitters of all-time. At the end of his career he had a .366 batting average; this average is still the best of all-time. He also went over a .400 average in some seasons.
4. Lou Gehrig. Lou Gehrig career was interrupted when he got sick. If he did not then maybe his stats would be even better than they are now. He ended his career with 493 homeruns, and a .340 batting average
5. Jimmie Foxx. Jimmie Foxx was a fantastic hitter. He won himself 3 MVPs in his career. At the end of his career he totaled 534 homeruns, a .325 batting average, and 1,922 RBIs. Jimmie Foxx may go down as one of the greatest all around hitters in the history of the game.
6. Josh Gibson. Josh Gibson has been said by some to be the best hitter of all time. Some even go as far to think he should be the homerun king. Why the dispute? He was in the Negro leagues. His exact career stats are unknown, but it is said he hit over 800 homeruns. How would he have done in the MLB? We may never know.
7. Hank Aaron. What can I say about Hank? Well, he had the most career homeruns, until Bonds broke that. 755 career homeruns. A career batting average of .305. He was one of the greats.
8. Willie Mays. Willie Mays is fourth as of now May 12, 2008 on the career homeruns list. He has 660. Not to mention a career batting average of .302. He won Rookie of the Year and two MVPs.
9. Alex Rodriguez. A lot of you may not agree with this one but its here anyway. Whether or not you want to believe it, it seems like A-rod could break the homerun record by the end of his career. That's not set in stone, but possible. He was the youngest player to 450 homeruns, 500, homeruns and maybe even more later. Do you see a pattern?
10. Stan Musial. Stan played 22 seasons in his career, all with the Cardinals. He ended his career with 475 homeruns. He also had .331 batting average. He was one of the greats.

Run average is a simple and effective way to determine how good a run scorer a player is. While many people look at on base percentage (OBP) as a way to determine a player’s capabilities in scoring runs, run average is arguably a more effective stat. While a player who gets on base at a high rate might score a lot of runs a player with a high run average is actually scoring runs at a high rate.

Run average is a much more valuable stat than batting average because a player who actually scores runs is much more valuable to a team than a player with just a high batting average.

In 2007 Japanese import Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners was second in the major leagues in batting average at .351 (behind Magglio Ordonez of the Detroit Tigers at .363). But Ichiro's run average was just .164. Gary Sheffield of the Detroit Tigers batted just .265 but his run average was .217. Despite a batting average that was .086 lower than Ichiro's, Gary Sheffield was a much better run scorer per at bat in 2007.

What is generally a good run average? Anything over .150 is good. Anything above .200 is excellent, and the very best players in history have occasionally gone over .300 in some seasons. The all time highest run average in baseball belongs to Babe Ruth at .259.

Players Who Had a Run Average Over .200 Last Season With a Minimum of 300 At Bats:

• Alex Rodriguez - .245
• Barry Bonds - .221
• Gary Sheffield - .217
• Rickie Weeks - .213
• David Ortiz - .211
• Kaz Matsui - .205
• Bobby Abreu - .203
• Ryan Braun - .202
• Carlos Pena - .202

Interesting list as it contains a couple of steroids linked players, an MVP, a Rookie of the Year, a Comeback Player of the Year, Big Papi of the World Champion Boston Red Sox, two New York Yankees, two Milwaukee Brewers, a Japanese player and a player who was recently indicted.

Best hitter in baseball decided to opt out of his big money contract with the New York Yankees. The Yankees offered him an extension of around $30 million a year and I think it will be hard for any other team in baseball to beat that offer. Is he worth that much money? His typical 162 game season is 44 HRs, 128 RBIs, 128 runs scored, .306 average, .389 OBP and .578 SLG. Great production but his post-season production is considerably below that (.279 average, .361 OBP, .483 SLG) and his teams are just 3-7 in the playoff series he's competed in. As he chases the all time HR record he will generate a lot of publicity for whoever signs him. Looks like he will re-sign with the Yankees for $275 million over 10 years.

Barry Bonds

Yes he's 43 years old but based on the stats he put up last season he's the next best free agent hitter after A-Rod. In 340 at bats he hit .276 with a .480 OBP and .565 SLG. Scored 75 runs last year for a great run average of .221. Really needs to go the American League where he can DH because he really can't play the field any more. After being indicted by the Feds his baseball career is likely over.

Andrew Jones

Hit only .222 last year with a .311 OBP and .413 SLG. Still managed to hit 26 HRs, drive in 94 and score 83 runs. Still only 30 years old and would expect him to bounce back at least a little for whoever signs him. His typical 162 game season stats are 96 runs scored, 34 HRs, 103 RBIs, .263 average, .342 OBP and .497 SLG.

Mike Lowell

Hit .044 above his career average, .034 above his career OBP and .033 above career SLG. He's a good player but whoever signs him is taking him at his career highs in all the above categories. Has reportedly received offers from the Red Sox and the Yankees.

Aaron Rowand

To compare him to Torii Hunter (see below), he has scored 419 runs in 2,664 at bats for a run average of .157. So he's a better run scorer than Torii Hunter. He also has a higher career batting average and OBP than Hunter and is just behind him in SLG. He looks like a better bargain than Hunter to me and is also a few years younger. Career OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) is .805.

Torii Hunter

Low OBP player, I would not break the bank to sign him. In his career he has scored 672 runs in 4,492 at bats for a run average of .150. That's decent and above average but just not worth paying really big bucks for. Career OPS is .793.

Mike Cameron

Not a great player but he's a serviceable OF for somebody. Career 162 game averages are 90 runs scored, 22 HR's, 82 RBI's, .251 average, .341 OBP and .445 SLG. Career OPS is .786 while his run average is .159.

Milton Bradley

Has not played a full season in 3 years now. Still he has talent. His career OPS is .797 and his career run average is .147.

Geoff Jenkins

Not a great year last season but career OPS is .843 and career run average is .150. He's 32 years old so he might be shot or he might bounce back for somebody.

Luis Gonzalez

Had a decent year for the Los Angeles Dodgers considering the home park is tough place to hit. In 464 at bats he scored 70 runs, hit 15 HRs and had 68 RBIs. That production is just about what the four players above him did but he is over 40 years of age.

Six Players Worth the Risk

Sammy Sosa

Cannot run well anymore and can't score runs but he did have 92 RBIs in 412 at bats for a great RBI average of .223.

Kaz Matsui

Scored 84 runs in 410 at bats (.205 run average) and stole 34 bases in 2007.

Luis Castillo

Can still get on base (.368 OBP in 2007) and score runs for you but has no power.

Kenny Lofton

Scored 86 runs in 490 at bats which is well above average major league hitter.

Mike Lamb

Had a .909 OPS last season. Need a 3B you can use him in a platoon.

Corey Koskie

Decent .833 OPS last season. Another 3B platoon option.

Three Players to Avoid

Yorvit Torrealba

No power and cannot get on base. Mets flirting with him but would be better off with Lo Duca for another year.

Sean Casey

Scored 40 runs and had just 54 RBIs in 453 at bats.

Rod Barajas

Cannot get on base

Edgar Martinez - his 162 game averages are as follows: 24 HR’s, 99 RBI’s, 96 runs scored, with a .312 average, .418 OBP and .515 SLG.

His .312 batting average currently ranks 80th on the all time list, and 75th on the retired list.

His .418 OBP currently ranks 20th on the all time list, and 17th on the retired list.

His .515 SLG currently ranks 61st on the all time list, and 42nd on the retired list.

Only 19 players in baseball history have ever had a higher OBP than Edgar Martinez. That is impressive.

Martinez finished his career with 2,247 hits, 309 home runs, 1,219 runs scored and 1,261 RBI’s. He scored over 100 runs five times, and drove in over 100 six times. He led the league 20 times in offensive categories, including two batting titles. He was an All Star seven times.

Anybody who ever watched Edgar Martinez play baseball knows he was a great hitter. But his stats come up a bit short when talking about the Hall of Fame. Also hurting him is the fact that he DH’d for most of his career. But the most important stat that will likely keep Edgar Martinez out of the Hall of Fame is his age.

Edgar Martinez did not play his first full season in the major leagues until he was 27 years old. He did play briefly in the majors at 24 and 25, and a little more as a 26 year old, but only a grand total of 246 at bats over those three years. Critical years for any player in terms of getting into the Hall of Fame.

The average Hall of Famer starts playing in the major leagues at around age 22. So Martinez is missing 5 years. If we take what Edgar Martinez did in his first two full years in the majors and average it out we end up with 85 runs, 157 hits, 13 HR’s and 51 RBI’s.

If we multiply those numbers by 5 and subtract what Martinez did do as a 24, 25 and 26 year old, we end up with 399 runs, 719 hits, 63 HR’s and 225 RBI’s.

Adding that to Martinez’s career numbers we get: 3032 hits, 372 HR’s, 1,486 RBI’s and 1,618 Runs.

Would Edgar Martinez get into the Hall of Fame if those were his career totals? Maybe not because he was a DH, but the 3,000 plus hits would probably get him in.

Edgar Martinez will likely not get into the Hall of Fame not because he wasn’t talented enough, but because he was forced to spend too much of his career playing in the minor leagues.