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10/15/2004: Looks like congratulations are in order....
for Cardinals 1B Albert Pujols.
Looks like the folks at Baseball Refrence have posted the 2004 regular season statistics on the site, and we see a couple interesting things when we look at Phat Al's stat card. The thing that I find most impressive is that at age 24, and following his fourth full major league season, Pujols has posted a Hall of Fame Monitor score of 109.5 (the significance of this score? If a player makes a score over 100 in his career it becomes very likely that he will be elected to the Hall of Fame, and if a player makes a score over 130 his election to the Hall is virtually assured). Pujols age-adjusted batting similarity lists are equally interesting; looking at careers through age 24 here's Albert's similarity list (his similarity list for this season is identical):
1 Joe DiMaggio (928) *
2 Jimmie Foxx (912) *
3 Ted Williams (903) *
4 Vladimir Guerrero (888)
5 Frank Robinson (887) *
6 Hal Trosky (882)
7 Hank Aaron (876) *
8 Joe Medwick (868) *
9 Orlando Cepeda (867) *
10 Ken Griffey Jr. (862)
where * flags a player that is a member of the Hall of Fame. And for the fourth year in a row, the player Albert has been most similar to as a batter has been Joe "The Yankee Clipper" DiMaggio.
As long as I'm talking about DiMaggio, I find it an interesting coincidence that Albert's teammate Larry Walker is leading Joltin' Joe's career similarity list. Interesting how all these threads come together.....
Len on 10.15.04 @ 07:58 AM CST
