Pujols On The Newstands Again

Sweet new cover of the Sporting News issue for the best players in MLB. Albert Pujols, my favorite player in history, is Sporting News’ No.1 Player in Baseball, according to a panel of experts polled by the magazine.


He was the “runaway winner”, according to editor Jeff D’Alessio. Pujols received 55 first-place votes from the panel of about 100 former players, writers and baseball folk.

The panel included included Hall of Famers like Frank Robinson, Stan Musial, Tony Gwynn, Willie McCovey, Tom Seaver and Brooks Robinson.

The top 10 players in baseball according to the panel:

1. Albert Pujols
2. Alex Rodriguez
3. Johan Santana
4. Manny Ramirez
5. Hanley Ramirez
6. Chase Utley
7. Roy Halladay
8. Derek Jeter
9. Mariano Rivera
10. Chipper Jones

Hard to argue with any of the guys on that list, but I'd drop Jeter and Rivera and replace them with Ryan Howard and David Wright on my list.

As for the top 50... no other Cards made the list (needless to say) and 2 Cubbies did... Alfonso Soriano (#27) and Carlos Zambrano (#48). That's 2 more than they've had World Series wins in the last century.

2 Arkansans, Cliff Lee (#43) and Torii Hunter (#44), are in the top 50.

Sporting New Top 50 MLB Players