The Professional 500 Homerun Club

The other night, I found myself wondering what would happen if we took the career totals of the top homerun hitters in major league history – say, everyone with more than 300, from Barry Bonds to Chuck Klein – and added their minor league totals. So I went ahead and did it.

In the end, the results were separated into three groups: the Professional 500 Homerun Club, active players who are either part of or stand a reasonable chance of joining that club, and players with more than 300 major league and 100 minor league homeruns.

—The Professional 500 Homerun Club—

As of right now, 25 players have hit more than 500 homeruns in the major leagues. (The next will probably be Albert Pujols, sometime late in the 2013 season.) When minor league totals are added to the list, that number swells to 33. Also, please note the slight reshuffling that takes place at the top of the list. I imagine some people will be happy to see that.

—Active Players—

Four active players already have more than 500 combined homeruns, including three with more than 600 (we’ll see if Carlos Delgado can rebound from his recent setback to join them). The remaining eight all have at least a shot; my money’s on Konerko, Pujols, and Dunn to actually make it.

—The 300-100 Club—

Let’s take a moment to applaud Rocky Colavito, whose 150 minor league homeruns (the most for any player with more than 300 major league homeruns) allowed him to become the most unlikely member of the Professional 500 Homerun Club. Every player below, with the exception of Greg Vaughn, made his professional debut at the ripe old age of 17 or 18.