2007: Year of the Milestone

Via Baseball Musings, FoxSports.com's Dayn Perry sets the table for the season in his column today about the various milestones up for grabs in 2007. Perry handicaps each event with a percentage likelihood, too.

Not only is the all-time home run record vulnerable to Barry Bonds this year, but Roger Clemens is hard after 350 wins, Craig Biggio might get 3,000 hits, Tom Glavine might get 300 wins, and Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez all have a shot at 500 home runs:

Each member of this slugging quartet is within hailing distance of vaunted 500-dinger mark. Thomas needs 13 more, Thome needs 28, Ramirez needs 30 and A-Rod needs 36. Whether by virtue of age, health history or distance from 500, none of these players is a sure bet, but it's also conceivable that all four will reach the mark in 2007. That's never happened before. Heck, the safest bet might be Ramirez, who's totaled at least 33 homers in each of the last nine seasons. Thomas is obviously much closer, but his grim injury history must be taken into account.
Chance for Thomas: 75%
Chance for Thome: 60%
Chance for Ramirez: 75%
Chance for Rodriguez: 50%

Not only that, but Trevor Hoffman has the chance to be the first ever closer to complete 500 saves. Hoffman is already the all-time saves leader with 482, which is sort of mind-blowing, especially for the fact that it's not more highly publicized.

Oh, and one more milestone: Sammy Sosa's chase of 600 home runs. If Sammy can regain any of his prior, He-Man-esque form ... well, look out, 600.