As the start of the Major League season approaches, the interest of fans in Venezuela grows for what will be the home run production of Miguel Cabrera in his eighteenth campaign as a bigleaguer, and the possibilities of becoming this year in the 20th batter to pick 500 home runs in history.
The slugger maracayero who for the thirteenth year will wear the Detroit Tigers shirt, after having played his first five seasons (2003-07) with the Marlins, is missing 23 homers to reach the important mark.
He will have to make a great effort to reach that goal in the sixty games that are set in the shortened schedule. No one doubts that he will try, especially when he has had enough time to recover from the ailments, as he demonstrated in the 12 preseason games he played in March and hit 29-10 with 3 home runs and 7 RBIs
With 477 homers in 2,400 games, Cabrera ranks 29th on the historical list of home runners, equaled by Dominican Adrián Beltré., Who retired in 2018 after playing 21 seasons.
To reach the 28th position shared by the legendary Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff with 493 logs each, Cabrera needs to take 16 balls.
A 62 hits de Vizquel
The designated hitter for the Tigers can also catch Omar Vizquel in the first place among the most unstoppable Creole sluggers on this shortened schedule of 60 games.
He has 2,815 hits, 62 fewer than the 2,877 Vizquel shot in 24 seasons between 1989 and 2012.
Curious anniversary
Four years ago, on June 28, 2016, Miguel Cabrera became the first and only Venezuelan slugger to hit home runs against the 30 major league teams.
In the interleague encounter, he downloaded a three-run shot, against left-hander Adam Conley, in a fifth inning in which Detroit capitalized on a seven-run cluster to beat Miami 7-5.
With the flying number 425 of his career against the Miami club, with which he began his career, Cabrera managed to bill all-round draw against all current clubs in the major leagues.
The 477 that Cabrera totals in 17 seasons are distributed as follows: Indians (46), Twins (42), White Sox (38), Royals (28), Orioles (22), Phillies (21), Rays (21), Nationals ( 21), Yankees (19), Athletics (19), Braves (18), Angels (16), Rangers (15), Mariners (15), Astros (15), Mets (13), Blue Jays (13), Dodgers ( 12), Jingle Bells (11), Red Sox (11), Rockies (10), Giants (10), Cubs (8), Cardinals (8), Brewers (7), Pirates (6), Parents (5), Reds (4), Marlins (2) and Tigres (1).
Two other active Creole players can reach the curious mark of Miguel Cabrera. Asdrúbal Cabrera has home runs against 29 teams in his thirteen service seasons (2007-19), he just needs to get the ball out against the St. Louis Cardinals. The other is Wilson Ramos, who has bounced the ball against 28 clubs in his 10-year career (2010-19). Twins and Dodgers are missing.
Retired natives like Bob Abreu, Alex González, Ramón Hernández and Melvin Mora hit homers against 29 of the 30 MLB teams.
