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Will Josh Hamilton Win The Triple Crown?

After Josh Hamilton's historic week, he leads the American League in batting average, home runs and RBI. That's a great accomplishment in May, but can Hamilton maintain those leads through the end of the regular season?

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Al Yellon of SB Nation believes there's a reason we haven't seen a Triple Crown since 1967.

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The primary reason, I think, that this hasn't been done in so long is the specialization of hitting. Most power hitters sacrifice batting average. Many high-average hitters do so because they hit lots of singles, although power hitters Cabrera and Hamilton have accounted for the last two AL batting-average titles.

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The toughest lead for Hamilton to maintain will likely be batting average. While it might be possible to maintain a similar home run and RBI pace that he's on now, his .402 batting average will likely begin to fall. Perennial batting title contender Derek Jeter sits in second place right now at .372.

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Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.