Pujols proving he’s brightest All-Star of all
Cardinals star, having perhaps his best season, center of attention at game
 Jeff Roberson / AP Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols is cementing his status as the best in the game right now, writes NBCSports.com contributor Tony DeMarco. |
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Ask him a question about virtually any subject — from his recent conversation with Stan “The Man” Musial to the thrill of being the hometown hero in Tuesday’s All-Star Game — and he’s going to drop one on you.
Funny, because the word fits him perfectly, too. So it’s hard to imagine the baseball gods lining things up any better when it comes to getting the game’s best player on the perfect stage for its mid-season showcase — in this case, Busch Stadium and its sea of Cardinal red.
“It’s Albert-mania around here,” is how National League teammate Brad Hawpe described the attention directed Pujols’ way during Monday’s day-long festivities. “He deserves it.”
Believe that. Because here’s how the National League leader boards stand at the break:
Pujols’ 32 home runs are eight more than any other NL hitter — and represent a pace that would leave his season total at 57.
His 87 RBIs total are nine more than NL runner-up Prince Fielder.
And Pujols sits fourth in the league in batting average, only 14 points behind leader Hanley Ramirez.
Yet Pujols says 60 home runs, the Triple Crown — or any statistical accomplishment, for that matter — are the farthest things from his mind.
“I don’t think about those kinds of things,” he said. “You think about something like that, and it’s going to go to your head.”
Then Pujols turned it around on one of many crowded around his podium on interview day, posing a question of his own.
“What would you prefer to do: Hit .300, or hit 30 homers? When I was a rookie Tony (La Russa) posed that to me. He got me on it. I said 30 homers.
“But if you try to hit homers, you can’t. You should try to hit .300, and then the homers will just come.
“My job is to go out and produce and to help my team win. That’s the way I’ve done it every year. Why change? If something has been working for nine years, why change?”
He’s got a point there. Because we’re just getting started as far as finding “Pujols” and “league-leading” in the same sentence:
Runs scored? Pujols is first there, as his 73 are 10 more than second-place Shane Victorino.
Pujols’ league-leading 222 total bases are 33 more than second-place Fielder. That’s in part due to Pujols’ league-best total of four grand slams, one more than four other NL hitters.
And when you look at the two statistical measures widely regarded as the best evaluators of a player’s value — slugging percentage and OPS (the combination of on-base and slugging percentage) — you get a clear indicator of how much better Pujols is than everybody else:
Pujols is slugging at a .723 rate; second-place Raul Ibanez is at .649, and Fielder is the only other NL player over .600.
Pujols’ on-base percentage lead is much smaller — .456 to Fielder’s .442 — but the OPS lead jumps back to the stratosphere — 1.179 to Fielder’s 1.056.
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And he’s been Pujols’ teammate for three seasons.
“But he’s a little better this year,” Franklin said.
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So maybe it’s no wonder that the “perfect player” ideal has been tossed at Pujols lately. Of course, he rejects that notion, too.
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