Could Miguel Cabrera be the greatest hitter of our generation? (Credits: Leon Halip/Getty Images North America) |
Pujols' career stats compared to Miguel Cabrera's (.321/35/123) are almost identical (except for homers). Cabrera is three years younger than Pujols, and is coming into his own (I mean coming into the "greatest hitter ever" argument) just around the same age as the Angels slugger did. However, Cabrera's road to history has taken a different path than Pujols.
Unlike the 33-year-old, Cabrera hasn't been baseball's pretty boy. No one is lauding his off-field contributions to the community and he certainly doesn't have a flawless legal record like Pujols. See, the beautiful thing about that is that it makes Cabrera's accomplishments that more impressive. Even in the years when Cabrera was dealing with legal issues ('09-'10) he still hit .320+/30+/100+. And yes, he's a big dude, but not in Pujols' sense. There's no veins popping out of his forearms; he's not going to impress any in the gym. He's a free swinging natural that brings us back years and years and years. I'm talking the Babe Ruth days. The days when players went out after games and instead of injecting themselves with needles, they crushed brews, chased women and pounded hot dogs. That was all a part of Ruth's aura. The guy was such a natural that it didn't matter what he did off the field, you knew he was going to come to the ballpark and mash. That's what Cabrera does. Absolutely mash.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissing Pujols' stats because he's more interested in toning his forearms in the gym than Cabrera is. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm just raising this question as Cabrera is finishing up arguably the greatest first half of a regular season ever. Scratch that, this is the greatest first half of a regular season ever. He's batting .366 with 30 homers and 94 ribbies, the first player ever to do that before the All-Star break and he's got 3 games left. Theoretically and realistically, Cabrera could end up with 100 RBIs before the Midsummer Classic. Just think about that. We laud people for driving in 100 runs in a season, this guy's could do it before mid-July.
Hey, maybe this is associated with the fact that Cabrera has abandoned alcohol or maybe he's juicing (you seriously cannot rule that out these days), but you need naught to immediately crown Pujols the greatest hitter of our generation. Cabrera could break Hack Wilson's RBIs record this season. 192 RBIs. Wow. Pujols never had more than 137 RBIs in a season.
This second half of the season could tell us a lot about the Cabrera/Pujols debate. I'm tuned in, you should be too.
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