Gary Sheffield was one of the coldest stars in the big leagues in April. The 38 year old Sheffield hit just .200 with a .306 slugging percentage in April and the chances of him hitting his 500th home run looked exceedingly slim.

But since then Sheffield has hit 14 home runs in 137 at bats. He has a. 652 slugging percentage in May and has had a .714 slg pct. thus far this month. In May and June combined he has only 14 strike outs. Having as many home runs as strike outs means you are hitting quite well. That's an understatement by the way. The only player I know of who has accomplished this feat recently is of course Barry Bonds who did it in 2004 when he had 45 home runs to 41 strikeouts. Bonds was also very close to accomplishing this in 2002 when he had 46 homers and 47 strikeouts.

Sheffield needs to hit 45 home runs this year to reach 500 this season. He currently has 16 which puts him on pace for 44 so it's looking like it could become quite close. I recently wrote an article about all of the placers approaching 500 home runs. In it I wrote that Sheffield would have to get very hot to have a shot at 500 home runs this season and that's exactly what he's done.


Gary Sheffield Autographed Baseball