The Triple Crown

The Triple Crown is something many of us thought we would never see again. How many players can measure up to Carl Yastrzemski? If hte past, we’ve had Josh Hamilton, Alex Rodriguez, Adrian Gonzalez all striving for it and having great seasons, but falling well short in one category, The Triple Crown will be whispers in people’s minds, a back burner on SportsCenter, but no one has really had a chance. Until Miguel Cabrera. What he did is so rare, that I will be proud to say in 50 years, “I saw that happen.” Cabrera has always been able to hit, ever since he broke into the league with the Marlins in 2003. There have been complains about his speed, or his weight, or his attitude. But hte fact is, MIguel Cabrera can swing the bat with the best of them. If you can beat out someone who’s being called “The next Mickey Mantle” in an MVP race, you’re pretty darn good. I remember watching a Giants-Tigers interleague game a couple years ago, and the announcers said he had the best swing in baseball, with all respect to Albert Pujols. I remember thinking nahh, you’ve got Jeter, Hamilton, Braun…But the fact of the matter is, he really is the best in baseball. What makes him that? His consistency. Pujols became a forgotten name this year. Jeter came roaring back once again, showing he has plenty left in the 38 year old gas tank. But Cabrera didn’t come roaring back because he was already on top. He has one the batting title, led the league in RBI’s, and won the home run title in seperate years before, so the only two player who could manage winning the Triple Crown right now are Migule Cabrera and Pujols. But if you look at the numbers, Cabrera has always had a higher batting average than by Pujols by about 10 points. What makes Miggy so dangerous is his ablility to cover the whole plate. You want to pitch him inside? That’s too bad, he’s a deadly pull hitter. You’re going to go paint the black on the outside corner of the dish? Well he’ll just let the ball get deep and drive it into the right center field gap or even over the fence. There are no holes in his swing, no flaws in Miguel Cabrera when he is inside the batter’s box. He is the most complete hitter since, well, Carl Yaztzemski.