King Albert: Sultan of Swat, Master of the Universe

People talk about “the best” a lot. Most of the time those conversations are pointless, nonsensical, completely subjective, immaterial or, most likely, all of the above. Usually, the question itself, as in “who is the best fill-in-the-blank,” is impossible to answer. On very rare occasions, it’s not.

So, on the heels of that Ramirez guy going out to LA, I got to thinking about “the best” hitters in baseball. I wrote back in April that one could argue Manny was the best slugger of my era. I actually did try to make that argument. I was wrong. Dead wrong. In that same post, I mentioned another potential candidate who is more worthy of such a lofty title: Albert Pujols.

For me, it’s really the two of them alone in this discussion. Hitters can be judged, compared and scrutinized 1,000 different ways. I choose to think about the best hitters in the simplest of terms. Who scares me the most? Who comes to the plate against my favorite team and, no matter who is on the mound, succeeds in absolutely petrifying me? Manny and Albert have elicited that kind of fear from this fan on a consistent basis for many years.

Judging in this way isn’t about stats. Not at all. Seriously. But my goodness have you taken a look at King Albert’s resume of late? First of all, in the recent Mets/Cards series the booth couldn’t stop talking about how he was in a slump. Who else can be “mired” in a drought and still look up at the scoreboard in July to see their average sitting at .340? Regardless, Pujols promptly started drilling home runs again on cue and, oh yes, he’s now hitting a nice and healthy .355 again.

Forget about best of his era, if you want to play the numbers game, Pujols might one day make a bid for the best hitter of all-time — at least at his position. Take a look at the stats for the current first baseman in the Hall. Now, look at Albert’s career to date. Want scary? Pujols is 28 years old. For the sake of argument, let’s say he plays another five full seasons and puts up similar numbers (with five years being quite a conservative stake in the ground). Play that out. How about eight or 10 seasons? Wow.

What are we saying? Something profound, unique and utterly new. Albert Pujols is the best hitter in baseball, and the best of an era. A ridiculous assertion, huh? We still find him pretty dislikeable albeit completely terrifying at the plate.

Until next time.