Miguel Cabrera is, as they, say, good at baseball. You probably already knew this. I ran some lists to figure out how good. He's in his 11th major league season. Among right-handed hitters at a similar point in their career (since 1901, minimum 4500 plate appearances), Cabrera is:
- 7th in home runs
- 4th in RBI
- 13th in runs scored
- 4th in total bases
- 6th in hits
- 3rd in doubles
- 12th in batting average
- 16th in on-base percentage
- 15th in slugging percentage
- 11th in on base plus slugging
He's also top 10 in a bunch of advanced hitting metrics, like runs created, batting wins above replacement, batting runs, base-out runs added...OK, I'll stop.
The point here isn't that Cabrera's great. As I said, you probably knew this. What surprised me was the list of his peers, that is, the greatest right-handed hitters of all time. Here are some of them. Again, no surprises:
- Hank Aaron
- Dick Allen
- Jeff Bagwell
- Joe DiMaggio
- Jimmie Foxx
- Hank Greenberg
- Rogers Hornsby
- Willie Mays
- Manny Ramirez
- Frank Robinson
- Alex Rodriguez
- Frank Thomas
OK, here's the surprise. Look at that list. Again, these guys, plus Cabrera, are the greatest right-handed hitters of all time through 11 seasons. I left one guy off the list on purpose. It's a glaring omission. As good as Cabrera's been, this guy was better. In every single category I listed. Do you know who it is?
No, it's not an old-timer. In fact, he's still playing. Can you guess?
I'll put the answer in the comments. Don't feel bad if you can't get him. I probably wouldn't have either. Shows how fleeting our memories are.
Albert Pujols. You've heard of him, right?
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