I mentioned a few days ago that I’m working on a monster project- listing as many major league alumni of the Valley League as possible. Previously, I’ve worked off the lists from the VBL seasons, which I could procure back to 2004.

I’ve also been working on my record books as I compile this list, so it’s taking quite a bit longer than I hoped. (For example, I can work through about ten players in a day before I run out of time. Or patience.) The list will most likely not be “complete” until the middle of the summer, but the reality is that I’ll probably be tweaking the list for the rest of time (making this sound more important than it really is).

Anyway, to give you a tiny taste of how this is changing things, here is the list of the players with the most home runs in the major leagues from the 2006 draft through the 2016 major league season:

1 Dan Murphy Luray ’05 87
2 Jason Kipnis Covington ’06-7 76
3 Yonder Alonso Luray ’06 39
4 Jon Jay Staunton ’04 31
5 Ryan Schimpf Luray ’08 20
6 Clint Robinson Harrisonburg ’05-6 15
7 Collin Cowgill Covington ’05 12
8 Joey Butler New Market ’06 8
Tyler White Haymarket ’10 8
10 Eric Campbell Luray ’06 7
Cory Spangenberg Winchester ’10 7

Now, here is the top twenty for the record book covering the history of the league (and this is not anywhere near being complete, just so you know, and I obviously need some years in there, too):

1 Mo Vaughn Harrisonburg 328
2 Reggie Sanders Winchester ’87 305
3 Steve Finley Harrisonburg 304
4 Aubrey Huff Staunton 242
5 Mike Lowell Waynesboro ’93 223
6 Chris Hoiles Harrisonburg 151
7 Luke Scott Staunton 135
8 Dan Pasqua New Market ’81 117
9 John Kruk New Market ’81 100
10 Dan Murphy Luray ’05 87
11 Kevin Kouzmanoff Winchester ’02 87
12 Jason Kipnis Covington ’06-7 76
13 Brett Gardner New Market ’03-04 63
14 Gaby Sanchez Staunton ’03 61
15 Emil Brown Waynesboro ’94 59
16 Billy Sample Harrisonburg 46
17 Yonder Alonso Luray ’06 39
18 David Eckstein Harrisonburg 35
19 Cliff Pennington Harrisonburg 33
20 Jon Jay Staunton ’04 31

Quite a difference. I’m hoping, at this point, to keep both the 2006-now record book and the history record book. I’m also hoping to have more time to work on all this, and some of you may wish that cows could fly. Time, of course, will tell.