Big Al and 400

Not that 400. The other 400.

With 9 games to go, Big Al Pujols is batting .330 and he leads the majors in homers with 47. He's leading the majors in slugging at .676. He's only missed 2 games.

Yet he's only got 361 total bases. He needs 39 more in the remaining 9 games, which is the equivalent of a homer per game plus a triple. He's going to fall just short of 50-50 (he has 42 doubles and 47 homers).

That's how hard it is to get 400 total bases.

Big Al falls into the Ted Williams - Mickey Mantle category. He walks too much, so although he has a lot of plate appearances, he doesn't have that many at bats. Barry had this problem in spades, and yet he was somehow able to do it once, though it did take 73 homers to make it happen.

As great an all-around hitter as Pujols is, hitting for average and power, I don't think he'll ever get to 400 TBs. Maybe with Matt Holliday hitting behind him, he'll have a better chance. Barry had Jeff Kent hitting behind him when he did it, though Barry walked a record breaking 177 times that season.

I hope he does it. He's the best hitter of the Post-Bonds generation, and he's got a shot at the big one, with 366 homers at age 29. We may be watching the best hitter ever. And just for nothing, he's even got 14 steals this season.

Meanwhile, please remember that Hal Trosky reached 400 (405) in 1936. At the age of 23, Trosky was Pujols. He drove in 162 that year.

But he didn't make the AL all-star team. Those were the days.