Albert Pujols vs Miguel Cabrera

For Alex Sommer...

As Miguel Cabrera puts together another amazing season at the plate, it is interesting to see where he stands when ranked against another great contemporary.  Albert Pujols presents a very fair comparison to Miguel Cabrera, as they have played the same positions over the course of their careers:

1B: 1,486 G for Pujols vs. 598 G for Cabrera
LF: 269 G for Pujols vs. 248 G for Cabrera
3B: 106 G for Pujols vs. 614 G for Cabrera
RF: 40 G for Pujols vs. 100 G for Cabrera

Fact: Since 2010, Miguel Cabrera is one of the best, if not the best hitter in Major League Baseball.

Fact: To say Miguel Cabrera is the "greatest hitter to this point in his career that we've seen in our lifetime" is not correct.  The correct answer to that statement would be to insert Albert Pujols where Miguel Cabrera's name is, and have the sentence end at "lifetime".

Parameters for comparison:

Albert Pujols' career started in 2001, while Miguel Cabrera's started in 2003, a season in which he played 87 games.  Looking at Pujols to the point in his career that puts him on a level playing field with Cabrera can be done simply by looking at his first 10 seasons in the Majors: 2001-2010.  Because Cabrera didn't really have a full season in 2003, we can look at his entire career through yesterday, which would essentially give us 10 full seasons.

Pujols vs. Cabrera (first 10 full seasons with parameters mentioned above considered):

G: 1,558 Pujols vs. 1,585 Cabrera (only a 27 G difference, with Cabrera getting the edge)
PA: 6,782 Pujols vs. 6,813 Cabrera (only a 31 PA differential)
AB: 5,733 Pujols vs. 5,951 Cabrera (simple: Pujols walked more over his first 10 seasons)
R: 1,186 Pujols vs. 1,018 Cabrera (168 Runs scored advantage to Pujols)
H: 1,900 Pujols vs 1,908 Cabrera (Cabrera barely wins this)
2B: 426 Pujols vs. 403 Cabrera (category to Pujols)
HR: 408 Pujols vs. 341 Cabrera (67 more homers hit by Pujols)
RBI: 1,230 Pujols vs. 1,197 Cabrera (category to Pujols)
BB: 914 Pujols vs. 755 Cabrera (Pujols walked 159 more times)
SO: 646 Pujols vs. 1,159 Cabrera (Pujols struck out 513 less times)
BA: .331 Pujols vs. .321 Cabrera (category to Pujols)
OBP: .426 Pujols vs. .398 Cabrera (category to Pujols)
SLG: .624 Pujols vs. .565 Cabrera (category to Pujols)
OPS: 1.050 Pujols vs. .963 Cabrera (category to Pujols)
TB: 3,580 Pujols vs. 3,362 Cabrera (218 more total bases for Pujols)

Based simply on totals through their first 10 full seasons in the Majors, Pujols was clearly better at that point in his career.

Pujols vs. Cabrera (in comparison to the rest of the league over the span of their first 10 full seasons)

2001-2010 MLB
R: 1,186 Runs scored by Pujols ranks 1st
H: 1,900 Hits by Pujols ranks 3rd (Only Ichiro Suzuki and Derek Jeter had more)
2B: 426 2B by Pujols ranks 1st
HR: 408 Home Runs hit by Pujols ranks 2nd (Alex Rodriguez hit 424 from 2001 to 2010)
RBI: 1,230 RBI by Pujols ranks 2nd (Alex Rodriguez batted in 6 more runners over that stretch)
BA (min. 5,000 PA): .331 BA by Pujols from 2001 to 2010 tied with Ichiro Suzuki for 1st
OBP (min. 5,000 PA): .426 OBP ranks 2nd behind Todd Helton's .428
SLG (min. 5,000 PA): .624 SLG easily 1st.  2nd was Manny Ramirez at .583
OPS (min. 5,000 PA): Again, 1.050 easily 1st.  2nd was Manny Ramirez at .997
TB: 3,580 TB by Pujols easily 1st.  2nd was Alex Rodriguez at 3,290 TB

2003-2013 MLB
R: Cabrera ranks 4th (Pujols still 1st over that span as well)
H: Cabrera ranks 5th (Pujols 3rd)
2B: Cabrera 2nd (Pujols 1st)
HR: Cabrera T-5 with 341 (Pujols 1st with 417)
RBI: Cabrera 2nd (Pujols 1st)
BA (min. 5,000 PA): Cabrera's .321 2nd (Pujols' .322 1st)
OBP (min. 5,000 PA): Cabrera's .398 4th (Pujols 2nd with a .413 OBP from 2003 to 2013)
SLG (min 5,000 PA): Cabrera's .565 3rd (Pujols 1st with a .605 SLG from 2003 to 2013)
OPS (min 5,000 PA): Cabrera's .963 3rd (Pujols 1st with a 1.018 OPS from 2003 to 2013)
TB: Cabrera's 3,362 2nd (Pujols 1st with 3,645 TB)

It will be fun to compare careers when both players are done, but in terms of their respective first 10 full seasons, Pujols has the clear edge.

Source: baseball-reference.com