Last night I went to the Houston Astros-Texas Rangers game at the horribly cramped and poorly air-conditioned Minute Maid Park, and witnessed Lance Berkman go 2-3 with a walk, double, home run, 2 runs and 2 RBI in the Astros 4-3 victory over their in-state rival. This impressive hitting performance got me to thinking: where does The Big Puma rank among MLB hitters? (By the way, isn't that the best nickname in sports right now, only slightly ahead of Jared "The Round Mound of Touchdown"/"The Hefty Lefty"/"J-Load" Lorenzen, now-former QB for the NY football Giants? But that's another list entirely.) Here we go, in classic drama-building reverse order:
Honorable Mention: Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves - On the strength of this year alone (still batting .395 as of this morning), Jones deserves to make this list. And he's not just a one-year wonder; Jones has been a great hitter virtually his entire career in the majors. He's a rare number 1 overall draft pick that truly lived up to his potential, hitting not just for average but for consistent power over the years. Unfortunately, the guys ahead of him are just too good for him to sneak in.
5. Lance Berkman, Houston Astros - Based on this year alone, The Puma probably deserves to be higher than this, but his career numbers don't quite stack up to the others on here. Berkman is having a career year in both average and power numbers and it doesn't look like he'll be slowing down any time soon. If his careers stats were only a little better, he'd be a spot or two higher.
4. Matt Holliday, Colorado Rockies - As a Rockies fan, I'd love to put Holliday higher on this list but I simply can't because of his home/road splits that imply there may still be something to the Coors Field magic (although, honestly, who doesn't hit better at home?). Holliday is one of the most potent hitters in baseball nonetheless, and he hits for average and power and has shown himself capable of hitting very well in the clutch as he helped lead the Rockies to the World Series last year. Amazing how this guy is on the trading block.
3. Manny Ramirez, Boston Red Sox - His power numbers are spectacular and have been his entire career. In the clutch, he and teammate David Ortiz may be the two most feared hitters in baseball. He can also hit for average, but as is often the case with the big swingers, his average isn't always consistently high and he's prone to slumps.
2. Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals - It is oh so tempting to put A-Pu at #1, not only because of his phenomenal regular season accomplishments but for his postseason resume as well. Unfortunately, the man who may be the best hitter of this era has been plagued by injuries, many of which seem like just pure bad luck, and these have prevented him from dominating enough to win more than one MVP award. That said, he is the MLB's active batting average leader and is second in home runs, RBI and runs since he entered the league in 2001. Of course, he's second to...
1. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees - A-Rod has been a model of consistency and dominance in the regular season since he broke in with the Seattle Mariners in 1995 at age 18. The knock on him of lacking that "clutch" ability or "killer instinct" aside, Rodriguez has been the best player in baseball for many years and has put up absolutely staggering numbers, even when playing for the woeful Texas Rangers (although their park is commonly considered among the best hitters parks in baseball). A-Rod is a 3-time AL MVP and is likely to surpass the career home run totals of Hank Aaron and He Who Shall Not Be Named as long as he is able to stay even moderately healthy. No hitters in the game have to ability to hit for power and average at such a consistent clip which gives him the top spot in this list.
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2 comments:
How can you mention Big Papi along with Manny, yet not have him on the list?
And while I think Holliday is a good hitter and has shown improvement over his four plus years in the bigs, I think his body of work is too small to warrant top 5 consideration. I think someone like Chipper or even Vlad Guerrero deserves a top spot more at this point. And what about Holliday's teammate, Todd Helton?
I don't know about you, but I think I might penalize A-Rod for his struggles in the postseason. On the strength of his postseason numbers, I might say Pujols deserves the number 1 spot.
Let me respond to these comments in order, so you can keep up. First and foremost, "Big Papi" is a career .288 hitter. I can't possibly put a sub-.300 hitter in my top five list. If I was doing top 5 "sluggers," then yeah, Ortiz would more than likely get the nod.
Second, Matt Holliday, a career .319 hitter, is one of the best all-around hitters in the game because he can hit for the combination of power and average. As much as I love Todd Helton, his power numbers have been steadily declining for the past three-plus years and now he's a singles hitter that looks more like a .280 guy than his career .330 mark (which I will grant you is still quite remarkable).
Chipper Jones has been a model of consistency over his career, and with a .310 average and 402 home runs he has certainly been a great hitter, but I have a hard time considering him the kind of guy you either: a. want at the plate with the game on the line, or b. build an offense around.
Now you can make a very good case for Vlad Guerrero, and I think my exclusion of him from this list says a lot about his biggest failing: he's tended to fly under the radar. The man is absolutely a great hitter, and quite possibly deserves to be on this list, but he's stuggling so far this year, and this list is of the best hitters TODAY.
On that same note, Pujols' injury makes it tough for me to put him ahead of A-Rod right now, despite the lack of that "clutch factor."
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