Hummel: Pujols has punched his Hall of Fame ticket - STLtoday.com
With five years still remaining on his contract after that, Pujols, who would be coming up on age 37 in 2017, would have to average just 20 homers a year for the remainder of that contract to join Barry Bonds, Henry Aaron, Babe Ruth and,... Reminiscent of some of his greatest months as a Cardinal, Pujols, before the weekend, had slugged 12 homers and driven in 24 runs while batting. In his Cardinals career, the month that most rivaled this June was also a June performance. In 2009, when Pujols won his third National League Most Valuable Player award, Pujols had 14 homers and 35 runs batted in while hitting. He had only eight homers in June of 2003 but he drove in 29 runs and he batted an astounding. 370 with eight homers and 22 runs batted in. But if Pujols never had another home run, or hit, or run batted in, he would be an automatic Baseball Hall of Famer. Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera, 32, probably is in the Hall already with two American League Most Valuable Player awards, a. 322 lifetime average, 405 homers and 2,275 hits. Longtime Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, now with Miami, had 2,886 hits before the weekend and more than 4,000 hits overall, counting the 41-year-old’s time in Japan. Source: www.stltoday.com
