So what in the world is that? It might sound more complicated than xWOBA, but it\u2019s actually not. It\u2019s simple. When this week began, this dude was leading the American League in 10 major categories\u2026<\/p>\n
Average
Homers
RBIs
OBP
Slugging
OPS
Runs
Hits
Times on base
Total bases<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a lot of stuff! And if I threw in extra-base hits, he\u2019d be stalking an Undecuple Crown. But let\u2019s go easy on the rest of the league and stick with 10. Because it\u2019s time to ask:<\/p>\n
What\u2019s so historic about that?\u00a0The RBI became an official stat in 1920. Since then, the complete list of players who have led either the National League or American League in all 10 of those categories in the same season consists of \u2026<\/p>\n
Carl Yastrzemski, AL, 1967
Rogers Hornsby, NL, 1922<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a wrap!<\/p>\n
So yes, Alvarez is chasing a thing that has been done exactly once in the last 104 years \u2014 and by nobody since baseball had division play. Crazy.<\/p>\n
Special bonus Yordan nugget \u2013\u00a0All right, you don\u2019t have to tell me that America loves the Triple Crown more than the Decuple Crown. I got that memo. So all you Triple Crown fans should know that Alvarez entered Wednesday night just one home run and four RBIs shy of holding (or sharing) the major-league lead\u00a0in all three Triple Crown categories. Does that also seem hard?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re going to go with yes. In the last 100 years, only three men have led both leagues in batting average, homers and RBIs. How \u2019bout this list: Mickey Mantle in 1956, Ted Williams in 1942 and Lou Gehrig in 1934. I\u2019m thinking you\u2019ve heard of them!<\/p>\n
Moral of the story: Air Yordan isn\u2019t just chasing history. He\u2019s chasing legends.<\/p>\n
Zeroing in on Vladdy![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2286707375-scaled.jpg\")
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\n Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is somehow homerless at home this season. His last regular-season long ball at Rogers Centre was on Aug. 17, 2025. (Mark Blinch \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
We\u2019re now up to 69 hitters \u2014 from Rowdy Tellez to Justin Foscue \u2014 who have swatted a home run in their home park while playing first base this season. Still not pictured in that group, somehow or other: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s one of the most mind-boggling paragraphs I\u2019ve ever typed in any edition of this column. But it\u2019s not even the first time I\u2019ve typed it this year, because the Blue Jays first baseman has racked up an incredible 59 games and 251 appearances in the batter\u2019s box in Toronto \u2014 without making a single home run trot.\u00a0How even?<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays can\u2019t explain it, so I\u2019m not going to try. What I am going to do is attempt to answer the question this column was invented to explore:<\/p>\n
What\u2019s so historic about that?\u00a0With the assistance of STATS Perform\u2019s Greg Harvey, we\u2019ve pretty much established that players like Vladdy never have seasons like this. You don\u2019t even have to take our word for it. We can prove it.<\/p>\n
He was once in the 40-homer club!\u00a0As recently as 2021, Guerrero tied for the major-league lead in homers with 48. So shouldn\u2019t it be impossible for a guy who once hit 40 (or more) to later have a season in which he hit zero at home? You know that answer.<\/p>\n
In the history of this sport, it has been\u00a0literally impossible, because it has never been done\u00a0 \u2014 at least if we use 50 home games as the minimum threshold. But in a month and a half, will we still be able to say it has never been done? Let\u2019s just say the Blue Jays are getting nervous.<\/p>\n
From home run champ to zero hero!\u00a0Imagine Aaron Judge going through a season homerless in Yankee Stadium. Imagine Shohei Ohtani going \u201cOh\u201d for Chavez Ravine or Kyle Schwarber baking a season-long doughnut in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Feared mashers who outhomer everyone on Earth one year do not turn around and forget to put the \u201chome\u201d in \u201chome run\u201d in some future year. That\u2019s clearly not possible, right? Right,\u00a0say your favorite baseball historians.<\/p>\n
The live-ball era goes back to 1920. Want to guess how many players (minimum: 50 home games ) have A) led the big leagues in homers (or tied for first) in any of those 126 seasons and B) later hit zero home runs at home after\u00a0winning that home run title?\u00a0 Yep, that would be zilch.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s make Vladdy feel better by dragging in the dead-ball era champs. If Guerrero were to pull this off, he would be the first former home run champ to do it since \u2026 Wally Pipp, a Yankees legend for a whole different reason.<\/p>\n
The Pipster led the dead-ball AL in 1916 (with 12), then put up a zero in 1927. But if a \u201cslugger\u201d back in the Woodrow Wilson administration could lead the whole sport with 12 homers, does that feel like even remotely the same thing as this? Only the Vladdy Guerrero Fan Club could possibly answer yes.<\/p>\n
Speaking of Zero Heroes<\/p>\n
How extinct is the good old .300 hitter? As recently as a decade ago, the AL had a dozen of them. In 2009, it had 23. Go back to the 1930s, and there were two seasons with 30 \u2014 in an eight-team league.<\/p>\n
But this year? It\u2019s now so hard to hit that the AL has exactly three qualifying .300 hitters: Alvarez, Tampa Bay small-ball king Chandler Simpson and his teammate, Yandy D\u00edaz. That would be the fewest in an AL season in almost 60 years, since Yastrzemski stood alone in 1968. But we haven\u2019t even asked yet \u2026<\/p>\n
What\u2019s so historic about that?\u00a0Check out the home run totals by the men who rank 1-2 in that strange AL batting race:<\/p>\n
Alvarez \u2014 36
Simpson \u2014 0<\/p>\n
How long has it been since we had a duel like this \u2014 in which the guy who led the league hit 30 homers (or more) and the guy who finished second hit none?<\/p>\n
How about 1940! The top two from that year:<\/p>\n
1. Joe DiMaggio<\/p>\n
.352<\/p>\n
31 HR<\/p>\n
2. Luke Appling<\/p>\n
.348<\/p>\n
0 HR<\/p>\n
But what if Yordan makes it to 40 homers and beyond (which seems likely)? That would be a truly bizarre first.<\/p>\n
Do you believe in playoff reincarnation?![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2290930488-1-scaled.jpg\")
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\n The Red Sox have rejuvenated their season after being 14 games under .500 in the last week of June. (Brian Fluharty \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
What a weird season. The Tigers were dead, right? The Red Sox were the biggest bust in the AL, right? The Phillies were so buried after starting 9-19, how could they possibly recover, right?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see now. That would be \u201cwrong,\u201d \u201cwrong\u201d and \u201cwrong\u201d again.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not all. The Cubs lost 10 in a row, but their postseason slot now looks almost cinched, barring unforeseen Cubbie-like occurrences. The Phillies are also in playoff position after reeling off 10 losses in a row. And the Marlins dropped 12 in a row in July, but they\u2019re still not dead, either. So \u2026<\/p>\n
What\u2019s so historic about that?\u00a0Have we ever seen a season like this, when so many teams have come back from the dead? It doesn\u2019t look like it. Let\u2019s show you why.<\/p>\n
Is there life after 10 games under?\u00a0The Tigers were once 16 games under .500 \u2014 then traded the reigning Cy Young Award winner (Mr. Tarik Skubal). The Red Sox were once 14 under \u2014 in the last week of June. The Phillies were once 10 under \u2014 and fired the manager. (Remember Rob Thomson?) The Blue Jays were once 10 under \u2014 and traded away one of the faces of their franchise (Kevin Gausman).<\/p>\n
OK, now check those standings. Going into Wednesday, those teams were all within one game of being a playoff team.<\/p>\n
Only once in history has there been a season in which even two teams lived to play a postseason game after falling to at least 10 under. That was 2024, when the Astros (12 under) and Mets (11) both did it. But could three teams do that this year? Or four? Hey, if you don\u2019t even need to have a winning record to be a playoff team anymore, how is anything out of the question?<\/p>\n
Is there life after 14 games under?\u00a0Only three teams have ever tumbled 14 games below Mount .500 and scrambled back to make the postseason: Lefty Tyler\u2019s 1914 \u201cMiracle\u201d Braves (16 under), Rennie Stennett\u2019s 1974 Pirates (14) and Adam Everett\u2019s 2005 Astros (15).<\/p>\n
But is it really possible we could see three in 122 years, then get two more\u00a0just this year?\u00a0The Tigers and Red Sox say: You\u2019d better believe it.<\/p>\n
Is there life after 10-game losing streaks?\u00a0Here we go again. Just four teams have made the postseason after a season that included a double-digit losing streak: Bobby Thomson\u2019s 1951 Giants, Dale Murphy\u2019s 1982 Braves, Yasiel Puig\u2019s 2017 Dodgers and Jhonkensy Noel\u2019s 2025 Guardians.<\/p>\n
But could we be looking at three more just this year: the Phillies, Cubs and Marlins? Weirder stuff has happened \u2014 and it\u2019s happening before our eyes, right here in 2026.<\/p>\n
The Miz kid<\/p>\n
We know Jacob Misiorowski tops 100 more often than the thermometers in Death Valley. But if we\u2019re just counting up how many times he throws a baseball 104 mph, we\u2019re missing the story the Brewers care about most. By which I mean\u2026<\/p>\n
His strikeout rate \u2014 39.8 percent
His walk rate \u2014 5.9 percent
His K-BB rate \u2014 33.9 percent
His K\/BB ratio \u2014 6.77-to-1
His opponent AVG \u2014 .150
His WHIP \u2014 0.75<\/p>\n
OK, so \u2026<\/p>\n
What\u2019s so historic about that?\u00a0Oh, not much, except for the part where those numbers tell us this is probably the most dominating season by a starting pitcher ever.<\/p>\n
I know it all depends on how we want to define that magic word,\u00a0dominating.\u00a0But how \u2019bout we define it based on sheer untouchability? If we do that \u2014 and also disqualify the 60-game pandemic season from 2020 \u2014 here\u2019s what we\u2019ll find: The Miz is neck-and-neck with Gerrit Cole, 2019 edition, for that claim to fame.<\/p>\n
STAT\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0COLEMIZ<\/p>\n
K\u00a0rate\u00a0<\/p>\n
39.9%\u00a0<\/p>\n
39.8%<\/p>\n
BB rate\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
5.9%<\/p>\n
5.9%<\/p>\n
K-BB rate\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
34.0%\u00a0<\/p>\n
33.9%<\/p>\n
K\/BB ratio\u00a0<\/p>\n
6.79-to-1\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
6.77-to-1<\/p>\n
Source: FanGraphs<\/p>\n
Cole gets bonus points for burning through more innings (212 1\/3) than Misiorowski (on pace for 189). So if we stopped right there, we\u2019d tap our magic wand on Cole\u2019s forehead. But not so fast. If you\u2019re ready for the Miz bonus points, here they come. And I think they\u2019re game-clinching, assuming he maintains them to the finish line.<\/p>\n
STAT\u00a0\u00a0COLE\u00a0\u00a0Miz<\/p>\n
Opponent AVG\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
.185\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
.150<\/p>\n
His WHIP<\/p>\n
0.89<\/p>\n
0.75<\/p>\n
OK then. Advantage, Misiorowski. But wait. There\u2019s one more thing. The Miz hasn\u2019t merely been more unhittable than just peak Gerrit Cole. He\u2019s been more historically unhittable than anybody. Ever.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2290281784-scaled.jpg\")
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