A Number of Great Career Avg. Hitters in Our Day

In my lifetime, (I'm 44), there have been three truly great, consistent hitters for average throughout their careers: Rod Carew (.328), Wade Boggs (.328), and, a step above them, Tony Gwynn (.338, number 15 all-time). You'd then have to drop down to .318 (Kirby Puckett) and .317 (Roberto Clemente). Larry Walker and Edgar Martinez are next at .313 and .312 (think those guys are hall-of-fame worthy? Maybe, maybe not) Yet in our current day a number of hitters approach these kinds of numbers up to this point in their careers. Among players with over 3000 AB's:

Todd Helton leads the way with an impressive .333 in 5000 AB (his was higher before the last 2 years). My man Albert Pujols (who just might have his homer mojo back!) is just behind at .3331. On his tail is Ichiro Suzuki at .330 (and likely over 1350 hits by the time his 6th season is complete, a phenomenal rate! I wonder if anyone has ever had 6 200-hit seasons in a row before, much less at the start of their major league career!) A step behind these three at .325 is Vladamir Guerrero (yeah, remember him? Only one of the best all-around players ever seen!) Another notch down and you find a revived Nomar Garciaparra (.319), a - Derek Jeter (.316) and the vastly unde - Manny Ramirez (.315)

Of course, the tricky part about categories like batting average is that your career numbers may DROP as time goes on (in fact, they usually do in the last few years of a career!) Still we ought to celebrate the plethora of great hitters in our day!

Another amazing thing: whereas Carew, Gwynn, and Boggs had only occasional home-run power, Pujols and Ramirez are among the most feared long-ball threats, and Guerrero and Helton hit a lot out, too. Even Garciaparra and Jeter go yard much more often than Gwynn and Co. Only Suzuki fits their pattern of slash hitter.