06-11-2003, 04:19 AM
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
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