Best hitter in baseball - Not Bonds, Vlad, Soriano, Manny, or Arod

[Galt]

It's Albert Pujols.

His swing is flawless and he's 23

[GonzoStyle]

Ken Griffey junior still has the most beautiful swing ever, even if it doesn't connects with the actual ball anymore.

[Gooch]

yes.

[Galt]

19 strike outs; 17 home runs.

Thank you.

[GonzoStyle]

Actually in all seriousness, I said when Pujols hit 29 homers in his rookie season that he was gonna get robbed. He did when they gave ichiro the Rookie of the year award even though he wasnt a true rookie. But in the end look where Pujols is and look where Ichiro is, playing wise.

Pujols already is a beast and he will only continue to get better, flirting around the .400 mark. He probably won't hit .400 but I can see him hitting .380 40-45 homers and 140-150 rbis plus a bunch of other great stats.

But Griffey still has the prettiest swing, thome has the best throw back old school swing though.

[Galt]

I'll give you a mulligan on that last post Gonzo.

Pujols hit 37 homers his rookie year, and unanimously won Rookie of the Year (as did Ichiro since they were in different leagues) over Roy Oswalt, and Jimmy Rollins in an altogether great year for rookies.

Comparing Griffey's swing to Pujols isn't fair. Lefty swings always look better than righty swings

[Arpikarhu]

i am still a big berkman fan

[Galt]

Yeah. He's good. He does that cool thing were he starts swinging at every pitch. Instead of just taking a pitch, he check swings at everything he doesn't swing at.

But he strikes out a lot.

[Arpikarhu]

true. pujols is better at this time. i am also liking catalanotto(sp?) in toronto and baldelli in tampa

[Galt]

Now we're scraping the bottom of the barrel here. Yes. Both very good hitters (Catolonatto's been doing this for years), but Pujols is the best hitter. Sure Bonds is going to have better power and did hit .370 last year and his stats make it look like he's better.

But:
Bonds is a pure pull hitter. Teams put the Ted Williams/Delgado shift on him and load everyone up on the right side. All he does is just sit and wait for that one pitch. Pujols can take the ball to any part of the park and hit it from anywhere in the zone.

Bonds either hits a homer or a single. Rarely does he have extrabase hits besides homers. He either gets a hold of it or not. Pujols just ropes the ball all over the field. He just crushes it to both gaps and all fields.

Bonds walks a ton, and that helps his batting average because he's so selective he just sits on his pitch and waits for the pitcher to put it there. Pitchers can't pitch around Pujols. He doesn't walk that much. He walks enough so that he's not swinging at balls in the dirt like Nomar, Vlad, and Soriano, but he still swings and challenges pitchers.

Plus, he's friggin 23. At 23, Bonds was nothing special. He didn't really start being a start until his late 20s. If Pujols just keeps up what he's doing, doesn't improve at all, doesn't regress (which is highly possible), doesn't get injured (which is a stretch), and is atually 23 (there is some debate there), he should be reaching his 600th homer and 300th hit around his 35th birthday

[GonzoStyle]

Pujols hit 37 homers his rookie year, and unanimously won Rookie of the Year (as did Ichiro since they were in different leagues) over Roy Oswalt, and Jimmy Rollins in an altogether great year for rookies.

I'm on such a bad roll tonight, I apologize, i'm gonna walk away from the computer period right now. I was thinking of something else completely, my minds a flutter.

[Galt]

I still love you though.


OMG that's the first time I've said that out loud!!!!

[GonzoStyle]

I dunno how I got those stats. I remember during pujols rookie season arguing with someone about the most homers by a rookie which I said was Mac, I thought he had 39 and pujols had 27. But I messed up then too cause Mac had 49 and pujols had 37, the 9 on the end mixed me up I guess.

The robbing was of Soriano not Pujols that year, I just totally blanked.

[DGW]

Catalanatto has been with 3 teams in 4 years, having a good year but isn't even near a Pujols or Arod.. Plus he's nevr really been a every day player

Baldelli is a good hitter but he doesn't know how to take a walk his OBS is only 10 points higher then his BA....and no power numbers

Delgado is having a monster year...leads the league in HR's and RBi's at 70....last year was a down year no question but when yah bring up age i'm thinking he's 27 or 28

Pujols is a phenom no question, don't really need to say much more then that

One guy not mentioned was Sheffield..he is always over 400 on his OBS...and he gives yah 10 -15 steals too..definatley one of the most feared hitters in the national league...but he is 34

[x-file]

are we talking about the best player in baseball so far this season? if so then you'd most definatley have to nominate players like delgado, sheffield and others.

But if we're talking about the best HITTER then you have to go with Pujols. Guy just hits, either HR's, Doubles or just going to the opposite field, he's very good.

As much as I hate to admit this(Being a die hard Yankee's fan) Nomar is a great hitter also. He can go with any pitch and either drive it hard or just get enough to make a hit.

[GonzoStyle]

You definetly can't sleep on Sheffield this year.

[Galt]

Sheffield will get hurt.

Nomar hits everything on the barrel. You never se him breaking a bat, or squibbing one off the end of the bat.

[HollywoodJewMoses]

what about Melvin Mora?

[The Sleeper]

what about jeromy burnitz?

[DGW]

Mora's batting around .350 but he's yet oput up consecutive years of it

delgado hit his 21st last night