Horns247 Board

He's a guy a lot of people take for granted how good he is. I remember when he was coming up and scouts being in awe of his potential.

He was a big part of a World Series title team at age 20 as well.

I agree top 3............for this year:

1-Hamilton

2-Cabrera

For this year (so far) Pujols can't be rated in the top 10

Last 10 years:

1-Pujols

2-Cabrera

3-Hamilton

Looking at Cabrera's stats one thing that really jumps out is his strike-outs to balls ratio the last 3 years:

2010 BOB's-89 - K's-95

2011 BOB's-108 - K's-89

2012 BOB's-24 - K's-39

For a hitter with his power numbers to have those ratios it reminds you Barry Bonds ratio.........

At some point we need to consider putting Ryan Braun's name in the top 5. His numbers for 6 years:

BA - .312
OBP% - .372
OPS - .939
HR's - 180
RBI - 579

That's where I'm at on Hamilton too. Special talent, tremendous player when healthy and a decent career that will not look good or great on paper without a good 5-6 years of 40+ and 110+ to come. He's already older than Cabrera.

A Special talent for sure.

Im very interested to see where Bryce Harper works his way to in the coming years.

Stanton at Miami too.

I wouldn't be too critical of Harper not being able to hit CC's slider. It's easily the best slider in baseball. He's already struck out 69 guys with it this year.

I watched that full game, and Pettite just got in one of those grooves and was dealing. Nobody was touching him after the first 2 innings. He's a rookie anyway, he's got a long career ahead of him to work on hitting one pitch.

Yep. Good call on Trout. Another potentially special offensive player.

You could make an argument for either Pujols, Cabrera, or RYAN BRAUN as the top offensive player that last few years.

Braun is hitting .321 with 20hrs this season...the PED issue the summer tainted some, but his numbers haven't dropped even with MLB watching him closely.

If I was starting a team this year it would be Braun/Cabrera/Pujols

Cabrera is a stud at the plate. Easily belongs in any top hitter discussion. If he can keep hitting into his 30s you're looking at a HOF career. Through age 28 he compares favorably to Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron and Ken Griffey Jr. That is awesome company.

To intimate that Harper can't handle breaking stuff because of one or two games is the height of stupidity. He's hit bombs off lefty breaking balls at age 19. He's legit. And Mike Trout is flat out tearing it up at age 20. Fun to watch those youngsters.

Here are the career numbers, while Braun is the youngest, he also did not make the big leagues as early as the other two, with over 2000 less at bates that Cabrera who is 7 months older.

Cabrera - 29 years old - career .316/.544/.948 with 291 HRs (5317 ABs)

Pujols - 32 years old - career .325/.609/1.026 with 456 HRs (6583 ABs)

Braun - 28 1/2 years old - career .313/.568/.941 with 181 HRs (3128 ABs)

* Braun actually hits HRs at a higher pace than Cabrera, and if you extrapolate Braun's numbers to 5317 at bats like MCab, Braun would have 307 HRs (compared to the 291 of MCab).

I think you need more time with Harper and Trout, to see if their production is sustainable...Heyward looked like a world beater his first year but the injury bug struck and he has struggled...but is starting to come back on.

That's the thing with Cabrera for me - he was awesome at a young age. He has a shot to be a 3,200-3,300 hit guy, career over .300, 450+ HR's and nearly 2,000 RBI's if he stays healthy and wants to get it done.