Divine Hitting
I didn't mean to sound blasphemous. If Jesus were to actually wield a bat, I am certain he would prove to be a better hitter than Albert Pujols. Ditto for other beloved Biblical figures. In the book of baseball, however, there is no holier presence at the plate aside from a certain left-hander who plays on the west coast. Sadly, many people do not realize this, and would probably answer differently if they were asked who the best right-handed hitter in the game currently was. I've heard all the comparisons of Pujols and various historical players, and, as good as they may or may not have been, that isn't going to factor into my arguments here. I could compare Albert to a bunch of dead and/or retired baseball players, but what I'd rather do is compare him to active ones that are stealing his thunder, and reveal them for the inferiors they are. If the Yankees had this man in their lineup, the media would never shut up about him, and the fans in the Bronx would watch the baseball games hand in hand while they sang various songs with themes of togetherness. He is that good. In Game 7 of the NLCS Roger Clemens tried to bust him inside with hard stuff, and Pujols somehow turned on it and pulled it in the far left field corner, tying the game in the sixth, and the Cardinals would of course go on to win the game and then not win anymore. Roger Clemens is a bit of a holy figure himself (albeit a fat one), so that's saying something. If you don't realize how good Albert is, I scoff at your ignorance. But hopefully you will after leaving this page.
In honor of Sir Albert's number (5), I will be presenting (arguably) the top five right-handed hitters in the game right now, and comparing them ruthlessly to Pujols. In the end, all will be humbled. None will be spared. First is a simple table, the names of the players I have chosen in mere alphabetical order. Soon I will get to putting them in a different kind of order, but for now, alphabetical will do rather nicely.
Player |
Age | 2001-2004 |
Career |
| Guerrero, Vladimir | 29 |
.327 - 137 - 424 | .325 - .390 - .589 |
| Pujols, Albert | 25 |
.333 - 160 - 504 | .333 - .413 - .624 |
| Ramirez, Manny | 33 |
.321 - 154 - 466 | .316 - .411 - .599 |
| Rodriguez, Alex | 29 |
.301 - 192 - 501 | .305 - .381 - .574 |
| Sheffield, Gary | 36 |
.309 - 136 - 437 | .298 - .400 - .528 |
As you can see, since Albert's career began in 2001, not even the most accomplished of hitters have outslugged him. He has a slight edge over Vladimir in batting average, and a slight edge over A-Rod in runs batted in. He comes out second behind A-Rod in home runs, but that's because Alex played in the hitter's cove that is AmeriQuest Field with the Texas Rangers in 2001-2003 after he signed a 10 year, $250 million contract with them. He hit 52, 57, and 47 home runs respectively in those three seasons before dropping to 36 as a Yankee last season. His previous career high with the Mariners was 42 (which he did both in 1998 and 1999). As for the career stats, none of these future Hall of Famers can match Albert's numbers percentage-wise. I could very well quit writing now, but to drive home the point soundly, let us go through the players one by one to address why it is they aren't as good as Pujols, now in order of hitting talent (starting with number two, since the whole purpose of this page was to declare that Albert is number one).
2. Manny Ramirez
Manny established himself firmly as an elite middle-of-the-order hitter in 1995 with Cleveland at the age of 23, hitting .308 with 31 home runs and 107 runs batted in. Aside from his '97 season (.328-26-88), he has put up campaigns of at least 30 home runs and 100 runs batted in ever since (he currently has seven such campaigns in a row). Quite frankly, there isn't much that separates Albert from Manny. We're not talking about defense, or else I would bring up how abominable he is in left field (purely awful; perhaps worse than Jose Canseco and Kevin Mitchell even). He fits right in on the Red Sox, seeing as no one can field on that team. To point out the area I think stands out most prominently in the stats in regards to proving Albert is a superior hitter, I focus on strike outs. Ramirez annually whiffs about 100 times (usually more; in 2001 he struck out 147 times), whereas Pujols struck out only 52 times last season. Who would you rather have at bat against a nasty strike out seeking closer (such as Eric Gagne) in the ninth inning with the game on the line?
3. Vladimir Guerrero
Hidden in Montreal up until 2004, Vladimir didn't get the attention he deserved, despite having a breakout season (.324-38-109) in 1998 at the age of 22. He has always been incredibly talented, blessed with good speed (77 stolen bases in 2001-2002), an incredible outfield arm, and the ability to hit pitches in any location with amazing power. His stats from 2001-2004 are also slightly misleading, seeing as he only played in 112 games in 2003 (which, according to certain members in the media, kept him from making a name for himself in time for getting attention from other teams when he was a free-agent-to-be). His drawbacks at the plate are small; he pounds the ball all over the field effortlessly, and seems to hit pitches most batters wouldn't bother swinging at. He certainly could not be classified as a patient hitter, however, seeing as he's never drawn more than 63 walks in a season (aside from 2002, when he drew 84). If he showed more patience, I think he'd probably be my choice for the second best right-handed hitter in the game.
4. Alex Rodriguez
The only one of these players who showed as much early maturity as Albert, A-Rod was a star by the age of 20 with the Mariners. He is one of only three players in the history of baseball to post a 40-40 season (the other two are both mentioned on this page and use/used steroids, but only one of them is good), and doing it again isn't out of the question after stealing 28 in 2004. He doesn't turn 30 until around the trade deadline in 2005, and by then he'll almost certainly have 400 career home runs (381 going into the season). He never gets hurt, and he's a very steady offensive force. I would expect him to be among the top three all-time home run leaders by the time he retires. However, his OPS was down significantly last year, and his batting average has gone down in each of the last three seasons.
5. Gary Sheffield
Gary Sheffield is not that good. He has played on six different teams in his career, and is not always healthy. Whereas the other four are basically neck-in-neck, putting Gary fifth on this list was the easiest thing I think I've ever done. Don't get me wrong; he's had his moments. And his career stats of 1,202 walks against only 879 strike outs shows a mastery of the strike zone even Pujols can't be given credit for just yet. In terms of everything else, the table at the top doesn't lie; there is no way to compare him against the others. He is also the oldest of the five. That said, he does have 415 career home runs, and his 2004 season (.290-36-121) was better than A-Rod's, although it certainly wasn't good enough to generate as much MVP talk as it did.
