Greatest of All Time?

It may be a little premature to start talking about how the end of the season will shake out, but is it ever too early to start talking about MVPs? How about MVPs of a lifetime? How about ever? I don't think so.

We are just over a week into this beautiful thing we call baseball season and the world seems to be in order. The Cubs are still in the hunt, yet not contending. The Sox are struggling, yet showing they have a legit shot at winning their division. The Yankees and Red Sox are getting all the attention (they are in the top 10 in the ESPN.com Power Rankings) despite not even leading their own division. And of course, the Cardinals are atop the NL Central with Albert Pujols set to win another MVP.

In fact, he is on pace to hit .407 with 116 home runs and 324 RBI. I am guessing those numbers would get him an MVP Award, as well as a Triple Crown. Now, it's very early to really get into projections like this, but he is currently hitting a home run every 5.4 at-bats. I doubt that continues, but he is certainly getting off on the right foot.

If Pujols can come away with an MVP this season, that would be his third straight (much to the chagrin of Cub fans). If that happens, I think he HAS to be in the discussion of greatest player of all-time. Sure, I'm a little biased, but the guy has better numbers than ANYONE to this point in his career.

Here's a fun fact. Many baseball fans believe A-Rod will leave the game with the all-time home run record due to his longevity and staggering power, especially early-on. Wouldn't you know it, Albert, to the same point in his career, has hit more home runs than A-Rod. Uh-huh, the big guy has 371 career home runs through his 10th year while A-Rod only had 345 through 10. Oh, and by the way, THIS is Albert's tenth season. So he still has 155 games this year to add to that total.

Similarly, through 10 seasons, The Machine has 1126 career RBI (to A-Rod's 990 through 10 seasons) and is a career .334 hitter (to A-Rod's .305). Yeah, .334. Not once in his career has Albert hit below .300 and he hasn't hit below .325 since his second year in the bigs (.314).

Now, I understand that A-Rod isn't exactly considered to be the greatest of all-time, but we all know that he's a damn good player (with or without the roids) and he is a nice benchmark in the modern era. I would love to throw out some stats regarding the rest of the baseball greats, but I honestly don't have the time or energy. Bottom line is the guy is among the top 5 all-time and the rest of this season could go a long way to proving him to be the best EVER.

It's going to be a fun ride Cards fans (Cubs fans, your time will come.... or will it? hmmm). So here's to a great start to a great season, to that 402nd overall pick back in '99, and to the greatest of all-time. Look forward to seeing you for a long time to come.

OK Cub fans, go ahead and whine about why he's not the greatest, I'm all ears. No, seriously, I'd love to hear you try to bring the guy down. Comment away!

Note: All stats are courtesy of ESPN.com.