Two former members of the St. Louis Cardinals got some high praise this week.
The Athletic’s Jayson Stark shared a column highlighting the best of the best across Major League Baseball from the year 2000. They picked one player for each position in the field, one designated hitter, five starting pitchers, and one closer for the “MLB All-Quarter Century Team.” St. Louis was well-represented with Albert Pujols at first base and Yadier Molina at catcher.
“Let’s kick this off with an easy one,” Stark shared. “I think we’ve had six Hall of Fame (or Hall-destined) first basemen working their magic in the 2000s: Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Joey Votto, Todd Helton, Freddie Freeman and Paul Goldschmidt. It would be more than six if we included Joe Mauer, Jim Thome and Bryce Harper. So why did I pick Albert? Oh, no particular reason … other than that he ranks first among this group in pretty much everything. We’re talking over 700 homers and 3,300 hits, 101.3 WAR (according to Baseball Reference) and the most total bases in history (6,211) by anyone not named Henry Aaron.
“Want to argue that any of those other first basemen were greater? Sure. Go for it. But Pujols was the easiest pick, for me, on this whole ballot. #Legend.”
He continued with Molina.
“Did I really just overlook Joe Mauer’s whole first-ballot Hall of Fame career? I did,” Stark said. “Did I seriously then bypass Buster Posey, the face of a three-time World Series champion? I did that, too. I overlooked those men because I watched the impact Yadier Molina had on the Cardinals for nearly two decades. It was real. And it was spectacular. I ran this by a scout who once played in the big leagues. He didn’t even hesitate.
“‘It’s Yadi,’ he said. ‘It’s got to be Yadi. End of story. I don’t care about the numbers. Yadi has all the nuanced stuff you can’t measure. Go look at all those Cardinals pitching staffs that got better when he was behind the plate. And the second he left, they have not been the same. So it’s Yadi. It’s got to be Yadi.’ There are no numbers that would tell us that. But you know what? I agree!”
You can check out the complete team and column here.
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