Many baseball people have the number 745 on their minds right now, and who can blame them? If it isn’t that number, it’s probably 500, because several hitters are capable of reaching the milestone of 500 career home runs this season. But one number that really holds my interest this season is 1000.  

No one, with the exception of myself, really knows for sure whether or not the New York Yankees will score 1000 runs during the regular season. Going into today, through 36 games, the Yankees — who possess what is perhaps the most powerful lineup ever assembled in the history of professional baseball — have scored 200 runs, putting them on pace to score 900 runs by the end of the year. That’s 100 short of 1000, but you have to remember: this is the Yankees we’re talking about, a team with a circular offense, and it would be no surprise at all if they really poured it on at any given moment for an extended period of time, such as June through September.

The fact that Alex Rodriguez has almost twice as many RBIs as Derek Jeter tells you all you need to know. It’s just a matter of time before the rest of the offense catches up and begins to produce the way the way it is expected. If the figure I just gave you isn’t convincing enough, consider that Rodriguez currently has more home runs than the combined total from Jeter, Johnny Damon, Robby Abreu, Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, Mickey Rivers, Jorge Posada, and the underrated Doug Mientkiewicz. This shows that the Yankees can play small and big ball, what my former teammate Bob Aspromonte called smig ball.

Smig ball echoes my belief that you cannot win on the home run alone. Teams have a greater chance of scoring more runs when they have hitters who are capable of getting on base. Jeter has two home runs right now, but he is hitting .375. He also has three stolen bases, and it’s another good sign that he has already been caught as many times this year as he was last year. So he’ll steal 30 bases the rest of the year without being caught, matching his 2006 numbers. Things will even out by the end of the year, because baseball is streaky and consistent.

While it is true that both the Boston Red Sox — with 205 — and Detroit Tigers — with 199 — are currently competing with the Yankees for most runs scored, you have to consider that the Red Sox offense simply isn’t as good as you’ve been led to believe. And the Tigers, well, you’re talking about a team that struggled to hit .200 against the likes of Jeff Weaver (0-6, 14.32) and Anthony Reyes (0-6, 5.08) during the World Series — a team of players that had to play the best baseball of their lives in order to eliminate the Yankees. The entire Tigers lineup is now a year older, which could only have a negative impact down the stretch. (Rick Sutcliffe told me that Sean Casey was about to be sent to the Tigers’ AARP affiliate, and for a second I believed him before realizing what he said.)

You also have to realize that, right now, the Red Sox and Tigers have played one more game than the Yankees, because some games are played during the daytime and others are at night, or on the West Coast, while others are rained out and rescheduled, and then you also have to factor in days off. And some times you play each other, as the Red Sox and Tigers are doing through Thursday. So that’s nine whole innings that both the Red Sox and Tigers have over the Yankees.

In other words, the Yankees won’t just reach 1000 runs this season. They’ll surpass 1000 runs.