Albert Pujols: The GOAT?

Here's something everyone knows: Albert Pujols is good at baseball. He's so good at baseball that he has obliterated the need for discussion on who the best hitter on the planet is. Sure you could argue that Chase Utley, Hanley Ramirez, Joe Mauer, or Zack Greinke are better all around players because they play tougher positions, but there is no one close on the hitting end of things. His career is unbelievable, because he pretty much showed up and 21 and dominated from day one. In all my searching, I have found one guy in history who did that. Some guy by the name of Ted Williams who I hear was pretty good himself.

For shits and giggles hear is a sample season from Albert's career:

118 R, 40 2B, 34 HR, 127 RBI, 72 BB, 69 SO, .314 BA, .394 OBP, .561 SLG, 331 TB, 151 OPS+

Pretty good, huh? Yeah, that's his WORST year. The only year he failed to record an OBP of at least .400, his lowest slugging and his lowest OPS+. If he keeps going like he has for another 8-10 years (and I see no reason why he wouldn't), even allowing for a decline phase, he has a very good chance to do something no one in history has ever done. Albert can be the first player to hit the two major HOF milestones (3000 hits and 500 HRs) with a lifetime OBP of over 400.

Think about that for a second. That's the two HOF clubs, each with 20-30 members, and my personal OBP standard for a superstar of .400. No one is in all 3 clubs. Not Ruth, Williams, Mays, Aaron, Ott, Musial, Bonds, or Mantle. The closest are Musial who missed it by 25 HRs, Bonds who missed it by 65 hits, and Mays who missed it by 16 basis points of OBP.

There are only four players in both clubs: Hank Arron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, and Rafael Palmeiro. The first two are considered to be among the top 5-10 players ever. The third is well respected as a solid Hall of Famer, but nothing more, the fourth is tainted by his meteoric rise and subsequent failed drug test.

Albert is also the first player in history to finish in the top 10 in the MVP voting in each of his first eight seasons, and number certain to grow by one with his inevitable 3rd MVP trophy coming in November. He is a few steroid Bonds years and a horrible oversight in 2006 short of looking at his 6th award in 9 seasons.

So, I ask the question: at what point do we start talking about Albert as the greatest player of all time? The Bonds talk started right around the time he turned into superman at the ripe old age of 36, but even Bonds did not have a career that started off as good as Albert's. Some still feel that no one will ever exceed Ruth, Williams or Mantle, but I think if Albert does his thing for 7 more years, he needs to be in that same breath. That would give him 16 straight top 10 MVP seasons and put him somewhere in the neighborhood of 650 homers and 3000 hits with an OBP in the .430 range. Adding further to that he could conceivably end up with 800 homers and 3600 or so hits which is absolutely mind blowing. Granted a lot needs to go right for this to happen, but watch the man hit. If anyone can do it, its him.

The one knock I put on him is that while he has been and absolute model of excellence, he does not have a truly earth shattering season such as Williams in '41 and '57, Mantle in '56 and '57, and Ruth in '20 and '21. He has no 50 homer seasons, no season where he flirted with .400 and no less than half out seasons (.500+ OBP).

In short, Albert is like Federer, Woods, Manning, and Bolt in that he is in all likelihood the best any of us will ever see, and possibly the best ever.