WINFIELD JOINS ELITE COMPANY, BECOMES ONLY THIRD PLAYER IN SIMBL HISTORY TO 3000 CAREER HIT MILESTONE

40 Year-Old Continues Late-Career Resurgence To Future SIMBL Hall Of Fame Induction

SIMBL history is captured as Las Vegas' Julian Winfield connects on his 3000th SIMBL hit becoming only the third player in the league's 34-season to achieve the plateau.  Winfield, once written off as a highly-rated under-performer for the first decade of his career after a 2020 SL Rookie Of The Year in his first season and 2021 SL MVP in his second season, has put together SIMBL Hall Of Fame numbers after the age of 31 and has resurrected his career in leading San Diego to two SIMBL championships after two separate trades to get him in 2024 and 2033 almost a decade apart.

Veteran SIMBL slugger and future SIMBL Hall Of Famer Julian Winfield made SIMBL history and became just the third player in the SIMBL's 34-season history to join the exclusive 3000 Hit Club in 2038 SIM 21.

The 40 year-old Winfield is in his 19th SIMBL season playing with Las Vegas and is currently atop all top five lists in SIMBL history.

Winfield was the 13th overall pick as a raw prospect in the 2019 SIMBL New File Era Inaugural Draft by then-Rochester Roosters GM Jamey Carter.  It wasn't long before Winfield stormed into the league by hitting .294 with 39 HR and 121 RBI at the raw age of 21 years-old winning the 2020 SL Rookie Of The League Award, being named a first-time All-Star and also being named to the 2020 All-SIMBL Team in his first SIMBL season.

In his second SIMBL season, he promptly won the 2021 SL MVP at age 22 by hitting .329 with 38 HR 99 RBI stealing 60 bases and posting a league-leading 1.033 OPS.  In his third season, many SIMBL pundits felt Winfield's star had peaked and faded as he hit .255 with 23 HR and 80 HR in 2023.  

In a one of the biggest deals in SIMBL history that shocked the SIMBL at the time, in his fourth SIMBL season at the July 31, 2024 SIMBL trade deadline, the then-24 year-old former MVP was traded to San Diego in a trade that featured future SIMBL Hall Of Famers, the top ace in the league at the time, current SIMBL Hall Of Famer Alberto Tovar, and fellow current SIMBL Hall Of Famer catcher Taki Taketo, going to the Roosters in a deal centered on them for Winfield in mid-season.  Winfield took some time to adjust and finished the 2023 season with a .288 batting average with 23 home runs and 101 RBI combined in 158 games with the Roosters and Warewolves and made his first All-Star team since the 2021 season.

One season later, Winfield returned to the main stage and was a prime factor in leading San Diego to their 10th SIMBL title being named that season's SLCS MVP and hitting .275 with 4 HR and 18 big RBI and a .901 OPS in the 'Wolves' 18-game path to a return to championship status.

Winfield played his second full season in San Diego in 2025 and didn't make the All-Star squad or reap any awards despite hitting .273 with 23 home runs, 103 RBI and stole 54 bases in 158 games.

Carter decided that he wanted his former franchise face back and traded back for the then-26 year-old Winfield in a 'prodigal-son deal' during the 2027 off-season in exchange for outfielder Joe Buchanan who surprisingly won the SL MVP award two seasons earlier with a .244 batting average, Michael Blackwell, who currently is 34 years-old and is in a contract season with Westbury and was named to his 7th All-Star team this year and top prospect Michael Harper, who busted out after seven seasons as a part-time infielder with San Diego and Tampa Bay and is currently a 31 year-old free agent.

Winfield was back home with the team that drafted him as one of the top-rated prospects in the SIMBL New File Era Inaugural Draft and who was drafted two slots ahead of future SIMBL Hall Of Famer Alan Alexander Anderson who has spent the past 20 seasons with Las Vegas collecting 332 wins to become the SIMBL's all-time wins leader.  Back home in Rochester and after leading another team to a SIMBL championship much was expected from Winfield back with the Roosters after a championship with the Warewolves in the 2024 season in which he was pivotal and who was perennially rated as one of the SIMBL's top-five players and had the elite and rare ratings to boast it.

But the numbers never came that were expected of Winfield again in his second tenure with the Roosters.

Playing in a park perhaps not designed for his hitting strengths was debated by Roosters fans and SIMBL followers as they watched Winfield, yet to hit his prime, hit .256 with 27 home runs and 95 RBI in 158 games in 2027 and .249 with 27 HR and 102 RBI in 156 games in 2028.  Then in his worst season, Winfield hit .246 with 16 home runs and 66 RBI in 99 games in 2029 before being traded for the third time in his career to GM Carl Hannah and his Las Vegas Hustlers where he hit .309 with seven home runs and 29 RBI in 50 games to finish the 2029 season hitting .267 with 23 home runs and 92 RBI in 149 games combined with the Roosters and Hustlers.

Despite Hustlers GM Carl Hannah wanting to sign the then-30 year-old Winfield to a contract extension after spending a half a season in Las Vegas, Winfield jumped on a 7-year $147,000,000 contract with Tampa Bay GM Tim Melican and his Silverbacks.  The contract was one of the biggest in SIMBL history at the time and also a reason the franchise and Winfield turned around yet put Tampa Bay in debt for several seasons after their ascent and into eventual later descent after a glorious run and the subsequent rebuild due to the SIMBL's and SIMBL Financial Commission Bill Atteberry's effective checks and balances financial system that makes the SIMBL one of the toughest leagues online to create perennial winning teams and dynasties.

In a story taught to never give up on top-rated talent in the SIMBL no matter how frustrated a GM may get on a player, Winfield then pieced together a Hall Of Fame career and put up the best numbers of his career after the age of 31 years-old.

In his first season in Tampa Bay, Winfield had the best season of his career and was resurgent by hitting .298 with a then-career-high 47 home runs and career-high 116 RBI.  Winfield lead the league in scoring 110 runs, 185 hits, posting a .597 slugging percentage and a 70.8 VORP.  Not only being named an All-Star again, Winfield was reborn and reborn again and came back after many SIMBL pundits wrote him off and won his second SL Slugger Of The Year MVP award ten seasons after his first MVP in his second SIMBL season in 2022 with Rochester.  Winfield also led Tampa Bay to their best franchise record at the time with a 100-62 record and advanced the Silverbacks to the first of their three consecutive SLCS series and lost to Hawaii GM Troy Vogel's free agency-assembled historic offense and the 103-win Hawaii Pineapples in a dramatic seven game series in which the Pineapples went on to win the 2029 SIMBL championship. Winfield began to open eyes and join elite company by becoming the 25th player to hit 300 career SIMBL home runs.

Winfield continued his resurgence at the age of 32 in 2031 by again hitting over 40 home runs by hitting .259 with 40 blasts and leading the SIMBL with 127 RBI while Tampa Bay again advanced to the 2031 SLCS and lost again to Hawaii in seven games. Winfield did his part by being named 2031 SLDS MVP.

But Winfield's best was yet to come in the 2032 season at the age of 33 years-old.  Winfield posted one of the best offensive seasons in SIMBL history considered the third best offensively in league history by SIMBL followers behind Daryl Ryles' historic 69 home run-172 RBI 2008 season and Tony Aguilar's 62 home run-154 RBI-62 stolen base season of 2024.  Winfield became only the third player behind both Ryles and Aguilar to hit 60 home runs in a SIMBL season.

Winfield plowed his way to his second SL MVP Award in three seasons and third overall by hitting .304 with 61 home runs and 137 runs batted in.  He led the league and posted career-highs with a bombastic .647 slugging percentage and a 1.047 OPS, one of the highest in SIMBL history.  Again, for the third season in a row, he led the Silverbacks to their third straight SLCS where they lost in six games to Las Vegas and ironically were done in by Alan Alexander Anderson's historic 2030 postseason pitching performance which led the Hustlers to the 2030 SIMBL championship.  The 2029-2031 Tampa Bay Silverbacks put up some of the best team offensive numbers in league history (though at the time in which Hawaii was doing the same) with a pitching rotation that featured aces and All-Stars as well and are considered one of the best era of teams to never win a SIMBL championship let alone never make it to the SIMBL Coveted Cup Championship Series.

Facing massive financial repercussions and losing his prime players to free agency due to being in debt, Silverbacks GM Tim Melican had to clean house of finances and dealt the 33 year-old Winfield back to San Diego prior to the 2033 where he again enjoyed an All-Star season and hit .280 with 27 home runs and 114 home runs a season after his mammoth third MVP year.  He lead the Warewolves back into the postseason and was named the 2033 SLCS MVP and again was instrumental in returning to San Diego and helping them to their 11th overall SIMBL championship for the 2033 season and the second of his career to go with his 2024 title after a similar trade to the Warewolves from Rochester.

Two more All-Star seasons followed at ages 34 and 35 with the 'Wolves as Winfield hit .268 with 30 home runs 126 RBI in 2034 and .305 with 26 home runs and 95 RBI in 2035 in playoff seasons again with San Diego.

In 2032 SIM 18 while rejuvenating his career with the Tampa Bay Silverbacks and leading them to three consecutive SLCS appearances and two SL MVPs in three seasons, Winfield became elite by joining only six others by hitting his 400th career home run.

Winfield again made history in 2035 SIM by becoming the fifth player in SIMBL history to hit 500 career home runs at the age of 36. Previously at the end of the 2034 season while all eyes were on postseason berth races, Winfield became only the 9th player at time to collect 2500 SIMBL career hits as well.

In the 2035 season, Winfield joined SIMBL Hall Of Famers Colt McAlister and Carlos Molina, current SIMBL all-time home runs leader Dallas' Tony Aguilar and the SIMBL First File Era's all-time home run leader and SIMBL-record 8-time MVP Darl Ryles as the only players in SIMBL history with 500 career home runs.  Winfield currently sits fourth in league history with 570 career blasts.  The closest active player to threaten him in fourth place is his Hustlers teammate Carl Chaulk who at 36 years-old is over a 100 blasts back at 468.  Winfield sits in fourth place with 570 career blasts behind Colt McAlister's 626 third-place sitting and 82 dingers away from Tony Aguilar's current all-time mark of 652.

All said, Winfield is a ten-time All-Star and three-time MVP winning the awards in the SL for the 2020, 2030 and 2032 seasons. He is a two-time SLDS MVP in 2031 with Tampa Bay and 2034 with San Diego and a 2033 SLCS MVP who was instrumental in being acquired twice in leading San Diego to two SIMBL championships in 2024 and 2033 some nine seasons apart.  A clutch postseason performer, Winfield has hit .275 with 22 home runs, 69 RBI, 19 stolen bases and posted an above-solid .850 OPS in 90 playoff games.

Currently in his 19th SIMBL season after being signed to a modest one-year $4,930,000 contract by GM Carl Hannah for his Las Vegas Hustlers DH spot after a month of the season had already gone by, the 40 year-old Winfield still is posting solid 8/8/8/8/7 ratings and has hit .269 with 18 home runs with 62 RBI while being second on the team batting and third in RBI in helping the Hustlers battle for the SL wildcard only four games out in a tough SL Central currently on a five-season domination by GM Andy Hutchinson's Knoxville Lumberkings.

Nicknamed "The General", Winfield has done most of his SIMBL legacy after the age of 31 in his career and is now headed to the SIMBL Hall Of Fame after a flashy Rookie Of The Year and then UL MVP start to his career in his first two seasons then followed by seven seasons of vastly reported underperforming and frustrations by SIMBL followers and criticisms by SIMBL pundits.  By joining only two others in 34 seasons of league history to reach the coveted 3000 career hit achievement along with his 570 career home runs and being only 37 RBI behind Carlos Molina's 1963 as the most all-time, there's no denying that better late than never that Julian Winfield, also a two-time SIMBL champion, has nothing left to prove and is headed to a well-deserved place into the SIMBL Hall Of Fame shortly.

In his career Winfield has hit .275 with 3001 hits, 570 home runs, 1926 RBIs and scored 1789 runs.

Only three players have 3000 career hits with Dallas' 42 year-old Tony Aguilar 87 hits away from becoming the fourth. Bellingham's Michael Caldwell is the next active player currently with 2471 career hits currently sitting in a distant 9th-place at 38 years-old while all Las Vegas'-drafted Carl Chaulk (2372-12th place), Micah Irwin (2354-13th place) and Victor Cruz (2336 14th-place) are 36, 40 and 42 years-old respectively.

Only 10 players have 2500 career SIMBL hits.  37 players in 34 seasons have achieved 2000 career hits.  Of those 37 players only 8 did so in the 14-season SIMBL First File Era (2005-2018) and two, First File Era SIMBL Hall Of Famer Lucas Espitia (currently 8th all-time) and Manny Martinez (9th), had over 2500 hits and have sat in the top ten in being idle for the past 20 seasons in SIMBL history after the SIMBL First File ended after the 2018 season though the records were kept. The SIMBL New File Era (2019-Current) is currently in its 20th season.

Of any active player to have a chance to threaten current SIMBL all-time hit king Matthew Brown's active record reasonably, Asheville center fielder Akiro Hikaru sits in 27th place in the New File Era leaderboards with 1983 career hits at the age of 30 and will be 31 this off-season.  Every player in the current top 100 in all-time SIMBL hits is over 30 years-old with Hikaru the youngest. Brown, currently with 3403 career hits, took 15 seasons to break the First File Era's Lucas Espitia's long-standing record of 2557 career hits which stood for the First File Era's 14 seasons and then the 15 seasons it took Brown to break it for a combined 29 standing seasons.  Brown broke the record and became the SIMBL's new all-time hits king in 2033 SIM 18 while with Westbury.  Brown became the first player in SIMBL history with 3000 career hits during the 2036 season on May 9, 2036.

Of the 37 players to achieve the 2000 mark plateau, currently 15 have been inducted into the SIMBL Hall Of Fame.

Here's the current SIMBL all-time hits list leaders as of the 8/23/2038 league date:

*-Indicates Active Player
#-Indicates Inducted Into SIMBL Hall Of Fame

1. 3403 Matthew Brown Calgary/Westbury/Asheville/Knoxville 2019-2038 *
2. 3011 Carlos Molina Calgary/Hawaii/Las Vegas/Sacramento 2019-2037 #
3. 3003 Julian Winfield Rochester/San Diego/Las Vegas/Tampa Bay/Hawaii/Asheville/Las Vegas 2020-2038 *

4. 2913 Tony Aguilar Hartford/Boston/Dallas 2019-2038 *
5. 2733 Zachery Dye New York/Hollywood/Hawaii 2019-2035 #
6. 2728 Michael Lonewolf Calgary/Toronto 2020-2037 #
7. 2581 Colt McAlister Calgary 2019-2034 #
8. 2557 Lucas Espitia San Diego/New Orleans 2005-2018 #
9. 2519 Miguel Espinoza Tacoma-Cleveland 2019-2034 #
10. 2545 Manny Martinez Los Angeles 2005-2018

11. 2471 Michael Caldwell Colchester-Boston/Bend/Bristol/San Diego/Las Vegas/Cleveland/Bellingham2019-2038 *
12. 2372 Carl Chaulk Las Vegas 2022-2038 *
13. 2354 Micah Irwin Tacoma-Cleveland/Las Vegas/Whitby/San Diego/Knoxville 2020-2038 *
14. 2336 Victor Cruz Las Vegas 2019-2038 *
15. 2319 Robert Campbell Bristol/San Diego/Hartford/Calgary/New York 2005-2018
16. 2311 Lance Stanley III Dallas/Cleveland 2021-2038 *
17. 2306 Joe Hayes Knoxville/Bellingham 2023-2038 *
17. 2306 Jaime Gonzalez Carolina/Manhattan Beach-Dalton/Texas 2005-2018  
18. 2213 Logan Raynes Sacramento/Deer Lake-Bellingham 2022-2036 #
18. 2213 Richard Cummings Oregon 2213 2006-2018
19. 2204 Osvaldo Quijada Texas/Los Angeles/Lowell 2006-2018  
20. 2191 Taitarou Haranobu Oregon/Toronto/Calgary 2005-2017 #

21. 2187 Taki Taketo San Diego/Rochester/Knoxville/Hollywood/Boston/Bend 2019-2036 #
21. 2154 Dante Dawson Dallas/Hawaii/Cleveland/San Diego/Whitby/Sacramento 2020-2036 #
22. 2124 Eugene Pelzer Pocatello/Sacramento Bend/Chicago 2005-2018
23. 2119 Joe Gibbs Sacramento/Dallas 2023-2038 *
23. 2119 Joe Stephenson Hollywood/Las Vegas/Rochester/Sacramento 2022-2037
24. 2014 Kendrick Templeton Sacramento/Hawaii/Bristol 2022-2036 #
25. 2101 Ty Brown Oregon 2020-2034 #
25. 2101 Peter Turner Chicago/Westbury/Bellingham/Cleveland 2022-2037
26. 2100 Daryl Ryles San Diego 2005-2017 #
27. 2077 Kevin Cox Dallas/Whitby/Sacramento 2025-2038 *
28. 2075 Artie Bradley New York/Dallas/Rochester/Sacramento 2022-2035 #
29. 2068 Toby Gibson Sacramento/Hartford-Whitby/San Diego/Deer Lake 2019-2033 #
30. 2059 Albert Price Pocatello/Calgary/New Orleans 2005-2018
31. 2009 Eddie Gale Bend/Cleveland 2023-2038 *