So yeah, Raul Ibanez is swinging a hot bat lately. The homers in four straight games and the 10 this month and seven in the last 10 days is a pretty good indicator of Ibanez’s hotness.
But did you really know how hot Ibanez is? Try historically hot. Like hotter than Babe Ruth hot.
How so?
Well, according to the good folks at Baseball-Reference, only seven players in history have three 100-RBI seasons at ages 34, 35 and 36. They are Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Andres Galarraga, Paul O’Neil, Rafael Palmeiro, Gary Sheffield and Ibanez.
Ibanez, with a league-leading 42 RBIs in 41 games is well on his way to getting another 100-plus RBI season to join an even more rare group.
Only Babe Ruth, Paul O’Neil, Rafael Palmeiro and Andres Galarraga drove in 100 RBIs during the seasons in which they were 34, 35, 36 and 37. Ruth, Palmeiro and Galarraga added their 38th years to the list, too, with “The Big Cat,” the only man to do it from ages 34-to-39.
Could Ibanez go as long as Galarraga? Sure, why not… he is signed with the Phillies for the next two seasons, so he’ll get his chances in hitter-friendly CBP.