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Batting Average: .334 (third—Hanley Ramirez leading at .347)

Home Runs: 34 (after two more bombs last night, he’s 10 clear of the rest of the league)

RBI: 89 (eight clear of Price Fielder and 21 clear of third place)

So, yeah. He’s got a legit shot. And then some. We have not seen a triple crown winner since 1967 and it feels like at least that long since there has been a legit run at one.

Earlier this week, Tim Kurkjian made the case on Mike & Mike that Pujols is on a trajectory that will make him the best 1b the game has ever seen, better even than Lou Gehrig. And to put that in context, do yourself a favor and remind yourself of just how truly great a hitter Gehrig was (favorite Gehrig fun fact 1508 career walks to just 790 strikeouts).

All of which is a long way to say, do yourself a favor and take a moment to appreciate just how good he is. Maybe catch a game live. Players like him do not come along often.

While I am handing at hardware from my blog of inconsequence, let’s go ahead and mail the 2009 NL MVP to Albert Pujols. His mid-year stats? Disgusting:

.336/.460/.744 for an OPS of 1.204. Good lord. 31 HR 82 RBI 10 SB 64 Runs 65 BBs to only 34 Ks

The perception mid-year from one StL writer is that the Cardinals are a one-hitter team. Per Bernie Miklasz in the Post Dispatch:

We’ve been watching this movie all season. When Pujols knocks in a run, the Cardinals are 29-10. When he doesn’t punch in an RBI, his team is 15-28. When Pujols homers, the record is 19-5. When he doesn’t, the Cardinals are 25-33. With Pujols having a career season and leading the team into first-place contention in the NL Central, the other Cardinals are perched on his bat. Without the preposterously productive Pujols, the Cardinals would be the Kansas City Royals.

Perhaps. In the triple crown race in the NL he is seven home runs clear of Adrian Gonzalez and seven rbi clear of Prince Fielder. That is a decent head start in those categories. His .336 BA is tied for second behind Florida’s Hanley Ramirez who is at .346. So, at mid-year, Pujols has a legit a shot at the triple crown as we have seen in about four decades.

Beyond all of that, there’s this. I was at the Reds/Cards game Friday night in Cincy. Sold-out crowd, Reds two games behind St. Louis, fireworks night, long-awaited prospect Homer Bailey on the bump for the Reds in his latest attempt to live up to out-sized expectations. There was a decided air of excitment and anticipation in the crowd, and Bailey met the moment. Seven innings of two hit, one walk shutout baseball as he ruined St. Louis with fastballs touching 97 and a curveball bottoming out at 74. Add in a nasty splitter he has picked up and he was in cotrol of St. Louis all evening. Until the 8th, when he tired, gave up a hit, got an out, and was still in the game to walk the next hitter putting two on with Cincinnati only up 3 and Pujols looming. Baker finally snaps out of his coma and fetches Bailey from a marvelous performance, bringing in Arthur Rhodes, who promptly walked just called up minor leaguer making his first major leage at-bat on four pitches. Loading the bases. For Albert Pujols. At that point, David Weathers was brought in, and everyone in that park knew the Reds were hosed. Six pitches later, it was 4-3. A pure stomach punch. You knew, you KNEW, that was going down like that. There were rational arguments to be made that the Reds should just have walked him to force in a run and take their chances afterwards. Pujols is at a level as a batter I have not seen since Barry Bonds’ roid days. He is beyond devastating in the middle of that line-up, and if teams have any sense whatsoever, if the game is remotely close late, he sees nothing near the plate. Ever. Ever.

He’s one of the best I have ever seen. He should, before long, be unquestionably be among the best ever.

—What does winning the World Series mean? A lot of things. But one of the benefits is it allows the Phils front office to admit when it has made a mistake. Like an Adam Eaton kind of mistake. He doesn’t have to go home, but he can’t stay in Clearwater anymore. The Phillies will eat approximately nine million dollars of a horrible contract in one of the all-time bad free agent signings. But, props to Eaton for some decent self-reflection:

“When I left last time, they got Andy Ashby,” Eaton said Friday. “When I leave now, they just get Andy Ashby’s contract, I guess. It’s sad, but I wish I could earn that money while I’m still in this uniform.“

The Phils probably do to. Whoever takes a chance on Eaton needs to play in a cavern. Perhaps back to San Diego?

—This piece goes there and proclaims Albert Pujols as the new face of clean baseball. Ooohhh, dangerous article. Countdown to revelation about Pujols and PEDs in 5, 4, 3, 2,… The piece even comes with a Pujols quote on being the face of non-steroid goodness:

“I care about this game too much,” he said. “I mean that. Whenever I feel like I have done something to disrespect this game, that’s when I’m going to walk out.”

Hope we are not re-visiting that quote at some point in the next year or two.

—The Reds claim that eternally injured SS Alex Gonzalez “passed a major test” when he successfully ran the bases in practice yesterday. Um, I’m no baseball exec, but if it is at the point with Gonzalez where good news is measured in him being able to run the bases in practice, how can the Reds count on him even a little for SS this year? They can’t.

—Good first spring outing for Seattle’s Erik Bedard. Two scoreless innings allowing two hits and throwing just 14 pitches. Adjust your fantasy draft list as you see fit.