Vladimir Guerrero Is Back

Vladimir Guerrero is back after an injury-riddled 2009 season in which he played in only 100 games.

Last night he took over the RBI lead for the majors when he homered twice and drove in five runs in an 8-7 defeat of the Royals.

His .347 batting average is second in the AL behind Justin Morneau, who is hitting .383.

Guerrero has been on fire in May while hitting 10 home runs and driving in 29 runs. He has been held hitless only twice during the month of May. He needs only three homers and eight RBI to reach his 2009 numbers while batting 207 fewer times than he did last season.

He needs 690 hits to reach the 3,000-hit plateau, and he has a real shot at 3,000 if he can stay healthy since he is 35 and could play four or five more seasons. His .322 lifetime average is fifth best among active players.

Guerrero has hit 419 home runs, which places him sixth on the list for active players, but is only 11 home runs behind Chipper Jones, who has hit only two home runs so far this season, so he has a chance to move ahead of Jones into fifth place.

Baseball-reference.com compares his numbers to Hall of Famers Duke Snider, Chuck Klein, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize, and Orlando Cepeda, so he is almost a lock for the Hall of Fame already and can only add to his great numbers before he retires.

Nelson Cruz has picked up where he left off before going on the DL and was the AL Player of the Week. He has three home runs and 13 RBI in his last 10 games. Since his return on May 14 he has hit three home runs and driven in 17 runs in 11 games.

The New York Mets and Oakland Athletics traded Cruz before he ever played a major league game for them, and the Brewers played him in only eight games before trading him to the Rangers in the Carlos Lee trade.