Prior to the season my guess for Eric Hosmer home runs in 2012 would have been 25 to 30. I don't want to look at one series too much, but his two home runs in the opening series make me think the likelihood of 30+ might be better than my preseason projection. So, for fun, I went and looked at the list of players who have hit 30 or more home runs in their age 22 or younger seasons, and what a list it is.

Eddie Matthews (twice), Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Bench, Juan Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez (twice), Mel Ott, Boog Powell, Frank Robinson (twice), Albert Pujols (twice), Ted Williams (twice), Jimmie Foxx (twice), Bob Horner (twice), Hal Trosky, Giancarlo Stanton, Miguel Cabrera (twice), Jose Conseco (twice), Earl Williams, Tony Conigliaro, Andruw Jones, Jason Thompson, Jim Ray Hart, Ruben Sierra, Pete Incaviglia, Jeff Burroughs.

Most of the Hall of Famers (I'm including Pujols, A-Rod, and Miguel Cabrera) cracked the 35 HR barrier and/or made the list twice, but even a lot of the guys not in the HOF here were very good baseball players. Hosmer has a chance to be great, we all already knew that, but what I really want to point out is for everyone to remember how young he is. If Hosmer can have the season we are expecting he will be more accomplished than many of the big time contemporaries like Adrian Gonzalez, Mark Texeira, and Joey Votto were at this point in their careers. This does not guarantee that Eric Hosmer becomes a stud, but it makes it a lot more likely.