Toronto Blue Jays: 2014 Milestone Watch

The Toronto Blue Jays have a few guys on the roster that have been able to put up some pretty impressive numbers over the course of their careers. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to play with some of these stats and shed some light on some milestones that Mark Buehrle, R.A. Dickey, Casey Janssen, Jose Bautista, Jose Reyes, Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind, and Melky Cabrera could reach in 2014. This isn’t meant to be taken overly serious, but to spotlight the productive careers these guys have put together.

Let’s get to it.

Mark Buehrle has been one of the most consistent pitchers for the past decade and that consistency has put Buehrle in line to reach a couple milestones this season. Buehrle is the active leader in innings pitched and he is 3^rd in wins and complete games. Buehrle should easily eclipse 200 wins, 3000 IP, and 30 complete games in 2014. Buehrle will need 5 more wins this season, one complete game, and 44 IP. With Buehrle’s hot start to the season Buehrle shouldn’t have much of a problem getting there.

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R.A. Dickey could collect his 1000^th strikeout and 1500^th inning sometime in 2014. Dickey will have to strikeout 23 more batters, and pitch 142.2 additional inning in 2014 to reach his milestones. In 2013, Dickey had an up and down season and was still able to produce a 177 strikeout and 224 IP season, so I expect that Dickey will reach these milestones in 2014. However, he’ll need to make 22 more starts and average 6.53 innings per outing to hit the innings plateau.

Casey Janssen has quietly amassed 73 saves in his career. Janssen could collect his 100^th career save in 2014 if he’s able to convert more than 35 saves this year. Casey would have to set a career high to reach this milestone since his previous high was 34 in 2013. Even with the missed time this season, Janssen has received 9 chances and converted 8 saves since making his first appearance on May 12th, leaving him with 27 to amass. It is still a lot of work to get, but if the Blue Jays continue to play relevant baseball, the chances will come.

Jose Bautista will need to have a really good year to reach a couple of interesting milestones such as 250 home runs, 700 RBI, 700 walks, 200 doubles, 1000 hits, 700 runs, and 900 strikeouts. With his home run on Thursday night, Jose will need to hit 26 more bombs and drive in 86 more runs to hit the big marks. Additionally, he’ll need to walk 76 more times, notch 5 more doubles, collect 23 hits, and score 59 runs. We can do without the 54 additional whiffs he’ll need to get to 900 for his career, but we’re pretty sure that Jose can reach all these milestones in 2014.

Another Jose has a chance to reach a few milestones of his own. Jose Reyes has a chance to reaching 1000 runs, 1700 hits, 300 doubles, 500 walks, 700 strikeouts, and 450 stolen bases. Reyes would have to collect 92 runs, 64 hits, 8 doubles, 54 walks, 69 strikeouts, and 14 stolen bases in 2014 to eclipse these milestones. Reyes has struggled to stay healthy so might not be able to reach all these milestones, but if healthy Reyes won’t need a career year to reach these marks. The one milestone that Reyes will hopefully not reach is the 700 strikeouts. Reyes’ career high in strikeouts is 82 in 2008 as a member of the New York Mets and has averaged 76 strikeouts a year for his career, so let’s not set a career high this year.

Edwin Encarnacion has a chance to eclipse 600 runs, 1100 hits, 250 doubles, 250 home runs, 700 RBI, 500 walks, and 800 strikeouts. With his huge month of May, Edwin will have to collect just 2 more runs, 36 hits, 17 doubles, 37 home runs, 46 RBI, 41 walks, and whiff 75 times in 2014 to eclipse these milestones. Edwin shouldn’t have much trouble reaching many of these milestones, but will have to continue to swing for the fences if he expects to reach 250 home runs by the end of 2014. Edwin’s career highs in home runs is 42 respectively.

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Adam Lind would have to play in all of the Blue Jays final 108 games to reach 1000 games played as a Toronto Blue Jay. With Lind’s history of having back issues and the way John Gibbons is utilizing his bench this year, it is highly unlikely that Lind will reach a 1000 games in 2014. However, Lind has a chance of reaching the 1000 hits, 200 doubles, 600 RBI, 300 BB, and 700 strikeouts marks before the season ends, with the hits and RBI mark only being a very, very slight chance. Lind would have to collect 132 hits, which would give him his second highest yearly total at 162 , so that is likely out of the question. He would also need to drive in 108 more runs on the season, giving him a career-high of 121, but that would require a few Edwin-esque months to hit. That said, 20 doubles, 42 BB, and 31 more strikeouts are not necessarily out of the question.

Melky Cabrera has been a beast at the top of the Blue Jays batting order this year and if he continues he could eclipse 1200 hits, 600 runs, 250 doubles, 100 home runs, 500 RBI, 600 strikeouts. Melky will need to collect another 37 hits, 39 runs, 36 doubles, 20 home runs, 24 RBI, and whiff 53 times in 2014 to hit his marks. It is unlikely that Melky will notch the necessary doubles and home runs, but not impossible. Melky career high in doubles and home runs as a member of the Kansas City Royals in 2011, when he hit 44 doubles and 18 home runs. In 54 games this year Melky has 13 doubles and 8 home runs, extrapolated over 159 games (I am lazy and just want to multiple his stats by 3) would give him 39 doubles and 24 home runs. If Melky’s cold streaks aren’t too cold than these milestones are with his reach.

Tell me which milestone you find the most surprising and which milestone you think will be the toughest to reach. If I missed one that you know of feel free to let me know.

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