Tuesday was Julio Franco's 47th birthday and he celebrated it, appropriately, by playing baseball. Unfortunately, at least for Franco, he struck out in his only at bat, pinch-hitting for Chris Reitsma, in a 10-1 loss to the Cubs.

Franco is having arguably his best season since returning to the majors after a brief sojourn in the Mexican League in the earlier part of this decade. His OPS is the highest since 1996 (.840). He has recorded his highest home run total since 1996. His slugging average (.490) is his highest since 1994.

Given that Braves manager Bobby Cox loves his pet role players—Rafael Belliard anyone?—and Franco's incredible physical condition, it seems highly likely that he'll fulfill his prediction to be playing at age 50.

That makes me wonder who are the best players from the age of 45 on. Could it be Franco already?

There are only 27 men to record a plate appearance after turning 45 (actually, in a year in which he was 45 for the majority of the season), and most were pitchers. Only five had at least 100 plate appearances after turning 45.

Batters age 45 or older have recorded 20 home runs and 15 were hit by Franco. He has recorded the most plate appearances post-45, and is the only player on the list (with more than a handful of plate appearances) to hit over .300, slug over .400, or record an OPS over .800. Here are the 45+ leaders ordered by plate appearances:

For the age 40-to-44 group, Franco's just 38th in plate appearances. And he's just 16th in OPS for the age group (min. 500 plate appearances).

OPS Leaders, 40-44:

Plate Appearance Leaders, Age 40-44:

By the way, that's the second-best argument to keep Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame. Only manager Pete Rose could have penciled 40-plus-year-old first baseman Pete Rose in the lineup on a regular basis.

By the way, the fifty-plus group looks like this:

Franco might rewrite that list in a few years…and the damn Braves will still be winning the division.