Philly Front Office

Last night, the Phillies played their 81st game of their 162 game season. Kyle Schwarber didn’t homer, but the Phillies won anyway.¹ He is currently sitting at a major league leading 29 with half the season in the rearview and half a season to come. Where does that place him among the great home run seasons of all time at the halfway point? Let’s find out…

Kyle Schwarber, MVP?

Let’s start with Kyle himself. He hit 56 home runs last season, his best in a single season by 9. At this point last year, he was at only 24. Kyle played a full 162 last year and hit 32 in the second half, aided of course by his 4 HR day on August 28. His other two great HR seasons in 2022 and 2023 featured 25 and 21 HRs at the 81 game mark respectively.

When you think of great Phillies HR hitters, there’s Kyle, Ryan Howard, Jim Thome, and Mike Schmidt. Howard’s 58 HR 2006 year still leads the team in terms of single season records and that is what Schwarber is chasing. Schwarber is slightly ahead of the Big Piece² at the halfway mark. Howard had 28 at this point that year. The big difference is that the Phillies have a better situation going on now than those Phillies teams. Down the stretch in Howard’s MVP season, he barely got any pitches to hit (he still hit everything he saw out though) since he was hitting cleanup while Schwarber has Bryce Harper hitting behind him.³ Schmidt and Thome never came close, topping out 48 and 47 HRs in a season respectively.

Now let’s take a wider view. Unsurprisingly, the record for most HRs at the 81 game mark is 39 by Barry Bonds in 2001 and 37 by Mark McGwire in 1998. They had even missed a few games each in getting there too. In 3rd place is Babe Ruth back in 1921. He hit 35 in the first 81, but that was back when they only played 154. At his halfway point he had 31. In more recent history, Cal Raleigh had 32 after 81 just last season, Shohei Ohtani had 30 back in 2001, and Aaron Judge had 29 in both 2022 and 2024.

PSP: The Phillies Almost Traded Rookie Ryan Howard to the Pirates

Some guys start out incredibly hot and either cool down or fly to close to the sun and get hurt. Most notably was Reggie Jackson in 1969. He had 35 dingers to start the season but finished with only 47 in 152 games. Jose Canseco started with 30 in 1999, but injuries landed him at only 34. Even Willie Mays was capable of a letdown (if you can even call it that considering he won MVP and the batting title) when he started the 1954 season with 30 HRs but finished with only 41.

The saddest group on the list has to be the 1994 trio of Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, and Matt Williams. The Kid had 32 while the others had 30 in what was looking like a HR chase for the ages at the time. The single season HR record was 61 at the time by Roger Maris, who also happened to have 32 HRs at the midpoint. They were battling each other and history. Maris would set his record in 163 games, but the 1994 season ended on August 12 due to the Player Strike. Griffey finished with 40, Thomas had 38, and Williams had 43, all in about 112 games.

So how does the halfway point dictate full season home run success? Let’s see how the greatest HR seasons in history looked at the halfway point and in total:

Name	Year	Total HRs	81 games
Barry Bonds	2001	73	39
Mark McGwire	1998	70	37
Sammy Sosa	1998	66	32
Mark McGwire	1999	65	26
Sammy Sosa	2001	64	27
Sammy Sosa	1999	63	32
Aaron Judge	2022	62	29
Roger Maris	1961	61	32
Cal Raleigh	2025	60	32
Babe Ruth	1927	60	29
Babe Ruth	1921	59	35
Giancarlo Stanton	2017	59	21
Jimmie Foxx	1932	58	33
Hank Greenberg	1938	58	28
Ryan Howard	2006	58	28
Aaron Judge	2024	58	29
Mark McGwire	1997	58	28
Luis Gonzalez	2001	57	32
Alex Rodriguez	2002	57	24
Ken Griffey Jr	1997	56	29
Ken Griffey Jr	1998	56	31
Kyle Schwarber	2025	56	24
Hack Wilson	1930	56	24
Shohei Ohtani	2025	55	27

What does all this mean? Nothing. Who knows how many HRs Schwarber hits this season. It should be a lot of fun watching though.

Stats: Halfway and Totals

Photo: Tim Shaffer/Reutters

1. Their third in a row in a series for the ages featuring 3 comeback wins, two when they were down to their last strike and fifteen 9th inning runs overall. ↩︎
2. I’m sorry Charlie, but this is still a silly nickname. The Flyin’ Hawaiian was fine, but those Phillies teams didn’t have the best nicknames: Pat the Bat, Hollywood, The Man…none J-Roll off the tongue other than Chooch. ↩︎
3. For fun, does anyone remember Raul Ibanez in the 2009 season? He hit 26 HRs in his first 74 games but finished the year with only 8 more. ↩︎