Adrian Gonzalez or Albert Pujols: Who Would You Rather Have?

To me, asking the question "Adrian Gonzalez or Albert Pujols: Who Would You Rather Have" is like asking who would win in a face off of Batman and Superman.  Sure, Superman has the powers and the super speed, etc., but Batman has had the better movies and marketability, especially as of late.

Superman in this case is Albert Pujols.  Prince Albert, Phat Albert or The Machine, whatever you want to call him, he is a pure beast.  The man has been the face of the Cardinals franchise since taking over for potential Hall of Famer Mark McGwire at first base in 2001.  In his 11 years playing in the majors, Albert has amassed nine All-Star selections, three MVP awards, six Silver Slugger awards, two Gold Glove awards and won the 2001 NL Rookie of the Year award.  In short, he's been super.  He's now made the leap to Anaheim and switched over to the American League.

Batman, for this argument, is Adrian Gonzalez. In his eight seasons playing in the majors, Gonzo has actually only played in six full seasons while spending two call-up seasons in Texas in 2004 and 2005.  Since that time, he has compiled four All-Star selections, three Gold Glove Awards and one Silver Slugger award.  Fine accolades, but obviously they pale in comparison to Pujols'.

Superman, erm, I mean Pujols is 31 years old going into the 2012 season and will get to experience the full breadth of the American League for the first time in his career.  There is no reason to believe we will see any significant drop off in his production during the first several years in the AL.  Looking at his splits, Albert has faced American League teams 143 times in his career and was still able to put up a .348 BA, .438 OBP, .623 SLG and a 1.071 OPS with 39 home runs and 121 RBI.  In other words, MVP-caliber numbers.

Batman, uh, Gonzalez, has had the fortune of playing in the American League for one full season and two partial seasons, or 218 games.  He also played in 77 inter-league games for the Padres.  During that time, Gonzalez has played in 295 total games against the American League with a .301 BA, .371 OBP, .541 SLG and a .881 OPS with 49 home runs and 177 RBI.

Clearly the raw numbers give the advantage to Pujols, but looking forward we have to look at the cast of characters that will be surrounding each slugger on their respective teams.

Pujols will be protected by an aging Vernon Wells and/or an aging Torii Hunter.  While both players may be invigorated by the signing of Pujols, I think the Halos will still be a bat short of being able to let Pujols fully dominate in the American League West.

In Boston, Gonzalez is protected by a younger staff that is still in their prime.  Depending on how new manager Bobby Valentine wants to make the batting order, Gonzalez could be protected by a consistent hitter like Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis or David Ortiz.  While the age factor is similar in Ortiz and Youkilis to Wells and Hunter, the OBP is the deciding factor.

Vernon Wells has a career .323 OBP while Torii Hunter has a career .332 OBP.

David Ortiz has a career .378 OBP, Kevin Youkilis has a career .391 OBP and Dustin Pedroia has a career .373 OBP.

In this case of super powers colliding, though, it numerically would make sense to take Pujols in a battle, I am prone to be happy with Adrian Gonzalez, the player I think will have much better career numbers in the American League when all is said and done.