Albert Pujols Compared to Lou Gehrig, Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds

Albert Pujols deserves as much money as he can get. He is easily the greatest player in the game today, and he is second only to Lou Gehrig when ranking the greatest first basemen of all time.

The following compares Pujols' first 10 seasons to those of Gehrig:

Player H     2B   3B  HR  RBI   BA   OBA SA
Pujols  1900 426 15   408 1230 .331 .426 .624
Gehrig 1996 400 130 357 1487 .346 .452 .645

Gehrig had 497 official at-bats in 1925, but since Pujols had 676 at-bats in his first season, 1926-35 was selected as Gehrig's 10 seasons.

The numbers are fairly close, but Gehrig has a tremendous edge in triples. Still, Pujols pretty much holds his own. The difference in RBIs is partially explained when one compares Pujols' St. Louis Cardinals from 2001-10 to Gehrig's New York Yankees from 1926-35.

Until recently, Alex Rodriguez was rated as the best player in baseball. Accepting the fact that his achievements might have been affected by substances that players are not allowed to use, we can still compare Alex' first 10 seasons, starting with 1996, to those of Pujols.

PLAYER    H     2B  3B HR  RBI   BA  OBA  SA
Pujols       1900 426 15 408 1230 .331 .426 .624
Rodriguez 1857 332 23 424 1205 .310 .389 .585

Pujols clearly has better numbers. He leads in hits, doubles, RBI, batting average, on-base average and slugging average.

In 2001, A-Rod signed a contract with the Texas Rangers for $252 million. He opted out of the deal and in 2008 signed a $275 million contract with the New York Yankees.

The St. Louis Cardinals are not the New York Yankees, but based on his achievements, it is understandable why Pujols believes he deserves at least as much compensation as A-Rod.

Of course, one can argue that the Yankees made a terrible mistake in signing Alex for so much money and that the Cardinals will not repeat the error with Pujols.

Finally, let's compare Pujols to one of the most controversial players of all time, the great Barry Bonds.

Bonds has never admitted being helped by using substances baseball doesn't allow, although some individuals, especially in the government, think he told less than the truth.

We will compare Barry's average numbers from 1993-2004, which encompasses 12 seasons to Albert's first 10 seasons, but this time, we will use averages for a 162-game season.

PLAYER H    2B 3B HR RBI  BA  OBA  SA
Pujols     198 44  2   42  128 .331 .426 .624
Bonds     166 33  4   51  123 .317 .479 .680

The most money Bonds received was $22 million in 2005. One can argue that Barry was underpaid compared to A-Rod, but that was Alex' annual salary with the Rangers.

No matter what comparisons are made, the fact remains that Albert Pujols is the best player in the game today, and by a fairly wide margin. He is irreplaceable, is a great draw at the gate and deserves to paid what he is worth, whatever that is.

Reference

Baseball Reference