I really think if Pujols retired at the end of this year.
He would get in.
His numbers have been that good.

is this haiku?

only the third line

Uh no..

only 8 seasons, but all dominant.

*haikufixed

good work

greg, take notes

Nice.

If I remember correctly when looking over the eligibility rules on that Wiki page a few days ago, you have to have at least 9 full seasons of major league service.

4th in slugging
5th in OPS

For MLB history.

Does he have 9 full seasons of MLB service?

No doubt he's incredible, but you have to have a certain number of years played before you're eligible. Same reason a guy that's hitting .410 but with only 250 AB's can't win the batting title.

Yes he can, but that's a shit ton of walks to get to the necessary 502 plate appearances .

Alllllright mister smartass With only 250 plate appearances, he couldn't

There ya go.

I'm sorry, I just enjoy being a smartass

So I bothered to send off this list to a guy here in Philly that I'm friends with that I email back and forth about baseball (mostly Phillies) all the time, to see what he thought. We seem to have a sticking point on Jim Thome. I'd forgotten myself in how much of his career that Thome was a DH, which, going by my own argument with David Ortiz, he'd have to then do something really special to warrant serious HOF consideration.

Thing is, I think it's still possible Thome reaches 600 HR. At 38 years old this year he's got 29 and that leaves him with just 64 to go, and especially if he remains with the White Sox, very much a hitter's park... My friend thinks he still doesn't get in. I don't know, when you consider he'd be only the 7th guy in the major league history to reach the 600 HR plateau, even if only played defense at most 20% of the time in his career, it's hard to find reasons to keep him out of the Hall (particularly when he's never even been brought up as a possible steroid user, to make the comparison to another 600 club member - Sammy Sosa).

Chipper Jones (retiring at the end of 2012)?

career stats going in to 2012: HR-454 H-2615 RBI-1561
1999 MVP, 7 time All-Star

I would agree with anyone that has already said Ichiro

roid free?

I was just now trying to find a player who had a comparable career (dominant player who started in his late 20s) and the first player I randomly looked up was Jackie Robinson. It's pretty interesting how similar they are, both in terms on on-field performance and impact on the game (I know Ichiro's impact on the game pales in comparison to Robinson's, but they both broke a barrier by coming into the league in their late 20s).

More than likely, can't say definitively of course I have no idea. He's been a great hitter his entire career one of the best in the game without question. I don't have any reason to believe he was on PED's other than maybe the 1999 season but everyone was hitting tons of HR's back then too.