Three Years Deep

Three years deep into the 10-year, $1000 bet, Sean has taken an 11 home run lead. Sean's squad saw three of his five players HR totals drop from 2009, but Chris Young took a big leap forward hitting 27 jacks as opposed to his 15 last year. Most disappointing was Ryan Braun, whose HR total has dipped each of the three seasons, bottoming out at 25 this year. Tyler's team showed improvement over 2009 totals, but still did not match the yearly high of 181 in 2008. Only one player's totals dipped, as Ryan Howard hit a career-low 31 homers. This can be attributed to him missing 19 games, the majority of which in August, where he only hit one HR for the month. David Wright rebounded nicely from his 10 HR campaign in 2009, popping 29 on the season. The foreseeable future looks grim for Tyler's squad unless Howard can begin to hit 45+ HRs per season again. It is also very difficult for Tyler personally to have to root for A-Rod to revert back to his 40-50 HR's per season form, as he has only totaled 95 over the last 3 seasons. The player rankings for the 3-year totals look like this:

1. Pujols - 126 HR
2. Howard - 124 HR
3. Dunn - 116 HR
4. Cabrera - 109 HR
5. Fielder - 102 HR
6. Rodriguez - 95 HR
7. Braun - 94 HR
8. Holliday - 77 HR
9. Wright - 72 HR
10. Young - 64 HR

Although this contest was about longevity, it is interesting to look at the actual league leaders over the past 3 years in comparison to the players drafted. Only 3 years in, both Sean and Tyler would probably change quite a bit about their teams in terms of the players they selected:

1. Pujols - 126 HR
2. Howard - 124 HR
3. Dunn - 116 HR
4. Cabrera - 109 HR
5. Adrian Gonzalez - 107 HR
   
6. Mark Teixeira - 105 HR
   
7. Mark Reynolds - 104 HR
   
8. Prince Fielder - 102 HR
   
9. Carlos Pena - 98 HR
   
10. Dan Uggla - 96 HR

Finally, I present the worst news for Sean. Take a look at the first graphic, featuring the top HR leaders from the past 3 years. Sadly, Chris Young ranks 57th in baseball. If he turns it around, he could be devastating for the competition as he is still only 27 years young.