The first time I saw Prince Albert was back in ‘02, a year after the Cubs flirted with the playoffs and in the middle of being just plain BAD. I really can’t remember why he didn’t stick with me that season, I thought he was overrated, and naturally I thought that there were other players better than he.

Back in the infancy of my critical baseball mind, I thought Ichiro was a better hitter, and a better pure hitter because he hit for a high average. Ichiro was fast, played great defense, and was fun to watch.

Pujols to me was a lumbering slugger who only hit longballs. Ichiro was seen as a professional hitter, someone who was to go down as the greatest batsmen of this generation. I agreed with them, pointing to superficial things like batting average and how smooth the swing looked. Man, I couldn’t have been much stupider then.

Now, not only is it clear who the better of the two is, it isn’t even really close. The mold that Pujols broke is that of the slugger, a flyball hitter with no line drive skills. Take into account that this year Pujols hits MORE line drives on average than Ichiro, Pujols at 16.2, and Ichiro at 16 even. For their careers Ichiro holds a slight edge, and the fact that they are the same is amazing.

While both players play to their advantage, Pujols hits flyballs which helps his power, Ichiro hits grounders which goes to his speed game, Pujols is so much better at his craft than Ichiro is at his. Ichiro is fast, no doubt, but Pujols is probably right now, one of the best power hitters ever.

People will say that Ichiro strikes out less, and that should count for something. It does, he k’s in about 9% of his AB’s while Pujols is at 12.4, but those stats don’t tell the whole story. You see, Pujols also walks in close to 20% of his Plate Apperances, while Ichiro is down there at 4.6%. Pujols walks more, hits for more power, hits for about the same number of line drives and plays to his strengths much better than Suzuki.

Look, Ichiro is a borderline great player, he plays great defense, and at times has proven to be a great hitter, but his value as a hitter is tied strictly into how well his legs are holding up. As we saw last year, when his legs hurt, he becomes a .310 hitter with zero plate discipline and no power.

Pujols is a multifaceted hitting machine that can hurt you in more ways than just fast legs. Pitchers really fear him, and it shows.