Albert Pujols - Triple Crown winner this year?

Batting average will probably trip him up. There will always be some guy who is a .290 hitter who happens to have a lot of bloopers and get a lot of good pitches to hit who flukes into a .340 or better.

 

Very true. A lot of stuff would have to happen, though, for it to be good enough this year!

 

Oh, he won't do it this year. i was throwing out names of players who have the talent to do it.

 

Miguel Dilone has no idea what you are talking about.

 

HOLY SHIT!!! What an awesome pull! Hahahaha....I haven't heard/seen that name in forever - but you're absolutely right!!

If you subtract his .341 season with the Tribe in 1980, he was a career .238 hitter. As it was, he was a career .265 hitter.

I tip my hat to you, BYH. Very well done!

 

And to think Pujols has been doing it with almost zero protection in the lineup his whole career (he batted cleanup in his early years with McGwire batting third).

No pitcher in the NL is quaking over the prospect of pitching to Ryan Ludwick. Or any of the assortment that La Russa has stuck in the 5-hole in the past — Mark DeRosa, Rick Ankiel, Juan Freaking Encarnacion, Scott Rolen or Jim Edmonds, for that matter.

 

Nobody protects Albert Pujols. There isn't a hitter in the league good enough.

 

Pujols had Edmonds and Rolen in their primes for the first few years of his career. Both of those guys, particularly Edmonds, were elite hitters at that point. Pujols only played with McGwire one season, when McGwire was hitting under .200 and headed toward retirement.

 

You figure if St. Louis does actually pull the trigger and trade for Matt Holliday, that should keep the amount of intentional walks stay the same, if not lower, on Pujols. You figure Holliday is having an off season, but the guy is still a dangerous hitter. With a one, two punch of Pujols and Holliday, it's just a matter of picking your poison.

 

I mentioned this during the same discussion on the Baseball thread, but I just don't see anyone winning a Triple Crown any time soon. You've got four more teams in the AL since Yaz won it in 1967, and twice as many teams in the NL since Medwick won it in 1937. There are just too many people to have to beat out in each category.

 

Though I'd root for both of them, Pujols will never have the lineup protection to win the RBI/HR crown and Mauer won't be able to hit .400 while catching every day.

Just too tough down the stretch. But I hope they both give it a run.

 

Ludwick has two home runs, a double and four RBIs tonight. For the day, he went five for eight. Pujols, conversely, went oh for four tonight and had one hit all day.