This List Of Unbreakable MLB Records Is Incredibly Stupid
List per FOX
1. Barry Bonds 762 career home runs
2. Shohei Ohtani 10 wins + 30 home runs
3. Joe DiMaggio 56 game hitting streak
4. Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina 325 starts as a battery
5. Cy Young 749 complete games
This list of the most unbreakable records in baseball came across my timeline at some point this weekend, and it quite simply took my breath away with how stupid it was. To be honest, it didn't really dawn on me how awful it was until I saw Cy Young's 749 complete games listed FIFTH. That's almost not even worth including on the list because it's that unbreakable. Doing some simple math, a pitcher would need to average 30 complete games over a 25 year career to top that mark. Only one pitcher in the 21st century has even had a season with double digit complete games (James Shields had 11 in 2011 which is pretty insane to think about). You can probably put just about any of Cy Young's career stats at the top of the list. 511 wins. 315 losses. 7,356 innings pitched. No pitcher will ever touch any of those numbers. So you just can just put Cy Young's entire career stat line as the most unbreakable record ever.
As for the rest of the list, Barry Bonds career home run record of 762 is probably in the top 10, but I definitely wouldn't put it at #1. It's helped by PEDs for sure, but Hank Aaron reached 755 cleanly so it's definitely possible to get in that range. And with so many young hitters being launch angle driven and home run happy, plus with people just evolving to become more athletic, I wouldn't be shocked at all to see this get overtaken someday.
The Ohtani one is hands down the dumbest on the list. First of all, that's not even a record. It's just a statistical feat. So I'm not sure we can even count it under the definition of a record. But even counting it, it's extremely breakable because Shohei Ohtani still exists. He can easily do it next year or the year after or the year after etc. I also think the popularity and success of Ohtani might lead to more and more two-way players in the future.
Joe DiMaggio's hit streak should be higher than Bonds or Ohtani. 56 straight games with a hit isn't Cy Young level unbreakable, but it's certainly more unbreakable than the others on the list. Only one other guy since 1923 has even eclipsed the 40 hit streak mark. League average is down to .243 which is the worst since 1968. Average might go up when the shift is banned next season, but (old man yells at cloud) hitters still just don't hit for average the way they used to. 56 straight games with a hit is almost unfathomable. I don't see this ever happening again.
And the Wainwright and Molina 325 starts as a battery is incredibly beatable. It's impressive and cool, for sure. But that's 32-33 starts together per season over 10 years. While it is rare to develop a homegrown, high end starter and catcher that can stick together for so long in the age of free agency, it's certainly possibly and not that statistically amazing.
So if I'm reordering just those five, I would go, from most unbreakable to least
1. Cy Young 749 complete games
2. Joe DiMaggio 56 game hitting streak
3. Barry Bonds 762 home runs
4. Wainwright/Yadi 325 starts
5. Ohtani 30 homers/10 wins
And that's just to prove how bad the listed ones were. Others that should have been included:
-Cal Ripken Jr. 2,632 consecutive games played. Up there with Cy Young in terms of unbreakable. That's 16 straight years playing 162 games. Nobody does that for even one season anymore. Will never be touched.
-Rickey Henderson's 1,406 stolen bases. Base stealing has been down for years and that's just such an absurd number that I don't see getting touched. He also had a .401 OBP to make that possible.
-Nap Lajoie's .426 single season average record. I mean who amongst us can forget Nap Lajoie? Everything I said above about the DiMaggio hitting streak applies here as well. This should probably be the #1 unbreakable as nobody will probably even sniff like .380 again.
So yeah overall, just a very stupid list!