Not sure what you are talking about really... raw totals are meaningless without context. If you take the last full year-- with both of them being the MVPs of their respective leagues -- they are virtually identical at the plate. They're both right handed hitters in strong lineups, and they both had exactly the same league adjusted OPS last year: 167 (both were second in each league in OPS).jondiehl wrote:"Obviously" still the best player in MLB? You can argue that he's among the best, but he's not a clear cut best (not even on his own team, this year so far). Pujols has the best numbers of anyone, hands down, and his first 5yrs of numbers are in the rare company of noone in all of MLB history. If you look at career averages btw the 2 players (per 162 games played), they have similar HR and RBI averages per year, but the batting average, OBP, slugging are all clearly in favor of Pujols (who also K's about half as much as Arod). Not saying that Arod isn't a stud, that's no question, but to say he's "obviously still the best" I don't think you'll get many to agree with you there that have been watching NL baseball the last 5yrs.Kazuya wrote:Rodriguez is pretty obviously still the best player in baseball.
However once you get away from the plate, they are nowhere close. A-Rod is infinitely better at defense at a far more valuable position, winning 2 gold gloves. And yes, I think he can still play shortstop after playing his whole life there except for two seasons. A-Rod also is better on the basepaths, though Pujols is pretty good for his size and being so slow; he's not strictly a station to station runner.
Not sure what you're watching, but Pujols is very ordinary at first and easily replaceable by an average player... and good defense is *not* as important at first base as anywhere else. It's not a knock on him, at least you can play him in the field with no problems unlike an Ortiz or Frank Thomas. He's got good hands, but 14 errors doesn't exactly put him in the class of Darrin Erstad. Mentioning him in the same breath with Alex Rodriguez as a defensive player is silly. First base is easily the most replaceable position on the infield.jondiehl wrote:As for the 1B/defense comment, you're probably talking about Ortiz?? and surely not Pujols (who plays defense at 1B quite well... don't forget he started as a 3B until Rolen came along). Not to mention, A-Rod isn't a SS anymore and hasn't played the position in a significant amount since he was in Dallas in '03. Good defense at 1B is just as important as anywhere else... they can take away hits just like a great SS can, by getting an extra stretch for the ball, stopping doubles that would get to the corner, and preventing errors from errant throws from 3B/SS.
I could probably put together a pretty solid argument that Pujols is the best *hitter* in the game, at least as long as Bonds stays de-powered. But unless tomorrow he can play centerfield like Andruw Jones, he's not the best player. I would also rank Jones and Derrek Lee ahead of Pujols. Having said all this, I realize it's very difficult to measure how important defense is to the winning baseball games so everyone is going to come to different conclusions.
