Part One: Prince Albert’s Hitting Domination
This is the company that Albert Pujols keeps atop the career OPS+ stat for a career. The comparisons at this point aren’t with his peers. They are with the greatest players spanning 4 different epochs of baseball history. The debate isn’t whether there is another active player better than Pujols.
It’s whether anyone was better.
We are talking about a man who can hit .360, mash 50 HRs, walk 100+ times, and strike out less than 50 times a season. Through his age-27 season, Baseball-reference.com says that he compares to Joe DiMaggio, and his age-28 season looked just like Jimmie Foxx’s. Perhaps Pujols is the culmination of baseball evolution, the combination of the best players rolled into one. The only things he is missing are Willie Mays’ legs, but he is among the best base runners in the game today. More on that tomorrow.
For now, let us focus on the swing.
Here is an excellent break down of his swing. Pujols has an extremely well-balanced swing, he doesn’t move his head, and his weight is always evenly distributed. He doesn’t waste any movement; every single muscle twitch is with the intent of crushing that little white spherical object that is coming at him.
The swing is marvelous, but even more marvelous are the results. We’ve all no doubt seen the slobberfest going on for the man right now, and while it’s done in a way that only the ever annoying ESPN can do it, it’s all well-deserved praise. The question does deserve to be raised about his place in baseball history.
Afterall, his career line of .334/.427/.630 would be good for 23rd/12th/4th all-time in baseball history. His career OPS of 1.057 is also good for 4th all-time, and he is well on his way to making some serious dents in the counting statistics career standings as well.
We may have reached the midpoint of his career, one where he can combine raw ability with veteran savvy. He has, to this point, suceeded in that regard. There is no player alive today that is better than Albert Pujols. Not Hank Aaron, not Barry Bonds, and certainly not Ichiro.
Things can still go wrong, I remember Frank Thomas in these talks before a strange drop in production—during what should have been his peak years—stopped all that, but given the comps for Pujols, I doubt he will suddenly drop off the face of the earth and fail to hit.
No, I fully expect Pujols to carry on being the best hitter in the world, and while I won’t do anything silly like try to extrapolate his career line, given that he has good legs, is a smart runner and has a genuine gold glove, I doubt that anything short of an injury will stop his meteoric rise to the forefront of baseball’s Mt. Rushmore.
In a sport full of stars, Pujols’ has the potential to be the brightest of them all.
© 2009 The Flying Mexican | Mauricio Rubio Jr.
