Who agrees that Rick Ankiel is the best player on the cardinals?

Question

I think he is more important to the team than Pujols. I think he is a much better player too. 1st of all Ankiel is a better hitter. He has more homers than Pujols. 2nd he is a much better defenseivly he has gold glove capablity. Hes better than Tori hunter in CF.

I think Ankiel is the best player in the NL Central after Ryan Braun.

Answer 1

I love Ankiel, hes an amazing athlete.  But Pujols, Ludwick, and Molina all have a much bigger impact on the cardinals.  Pujols is hitting amazing this year and is probably the best defensive first basemen in the league.  Ludwick is leading the majors in slugging percentage which is absolutely shocking, and hitting over 300.  Molina is like, 6th in the league for batting average, 1st as a catcher and the best defensive catcher in the majors.  Ankiel makes some great plays in the outfield, but is proned to errors and injury.  Pujols and ludwick both have more rbi's, and i think pujols is tied in the homer department.  And consider the fact that pujols is walked way more than ankiel, and recieves under 40% of his pitches out of the strike zone, ankiel gets over half.

Answer 2

Who agrees?

1. People who magically have to go to the bathroom every time Pujols comes to the plate.

2. People who haven't seen a Cardinals game over the last few years.

3. People who buy into the comparison of Ankiel to Babe Ruth.

4. People who judge a player on one statistic that is probably about the 4th or 5th most important one.

5. People who buy into hype from the media about the tremendous 'Rick Ankiel Story"

Other then those folks, and perhaps the Ankiel family, nobody agrees.

Answer 3

I'm more shocked that I saw someone call Soriano a good player in one of the answers.  Really, yes he can hit and has speed, but he can't catch which would seem like a major flaw for an outfielder.  

Now back to the real question.  There is only one way that Ankiel could be more important to the team than Pujols and that would be if they could get him to pitch again and be a dominating left handed arm to come into the game in relief possibly as the closer.  Then if he played in CF until the ninth and came in and picked up the save, I would say he was the best player on the Cardinals.  

Pujols is arguably the best player in the major leagues and certainly in the top 10.  He is awesome defensively and should have multiple gold gloves at first. He's got the second best average in the NL and is the first player EVER to start his career with 7 seasons of 30+ home runs and 100 RBI.  He also used to have runs scored in the 100+ stat but due to a stint on the DL the end of last season only scored 99 runs. So 6 seasons of HR, RBI and R to start his career.

Ankiel is a great story and has come through in the clutch a couple times this year, but strikes out too often and needs to get a little more disciplined at the plate.  I do love him as a player, but he's not Pujols.

Answer 4

No way in h**l Ankiel is better than Albert Pujols.

Answer 5

That's funny. Talk about uninformed.

Ankiel has 1 whole HR more than Pujols. Pujols has 2 less errors than Ankiel. And don't think CF naturally gets more errors than first base, you'll be proven wrong very quickly. Hunter is ERRORLESS in Center.

Pujols is twice the player Ankiel is.

P.S. If you're a fool for his HGH thing, listen to this. Ankiel took HGH to "heal an injury". How convenient that a sudden power surge comes after that, enough for him to be "a better hitter than Pujols".

EDIT: If I were 6 right now, I would. Because then I was stupid and thought Homeruns meant everything for the team.

Answer 6

Ankiel is good but not Pujols good

Answer 7

You just proved yourself as one of the dumbest people here. He isnt even 2nd best on his team. Pujols and Ludwick are way better.

Answer 8

wow. There is no way Ankiel is better than Pujols. And the amount of HRs does not determine who is the better hitter. Pujols would have much more HRs anyways is he actually got pitched too. Plus, Pujols is batting .344 while Ankiel is batting .283. BA is much more important than HRs

Answer 9

Puljuls is one of the best hitters in the MLB and by far the best on the cards. The guy bats over .300 every year with 30 plus homers.

Answer 10

He has 1 more home run, not like he is killing Puljos there, and Puljos' OBP is a full 100 points higher than Ankiel's, which explains why he scores more runs.  I like Ankiel just fine, but he is not in the same league as Puljos as a hitter or a base runner.  He is a very good defensive player, but Puljos is no slouch.

Bottom line is Puljos is an all time great level hitter.

Your pimping of Ryan Braun as the best player in the NL Central shows that you think HR are all that matters.  You are way off.

Answer 11

No way, PUJOLS is the best.

Answer 12

This coming from the guy who's named George W. Bush for 2008.

OK, Pujols is the better hitter and have already won a gold glove before.  And he has no HGH scandals hanging over his head.

And for the NL Central did u forget Lee, Soriano, Berkman?

Answer 13

I think you're wrong.

He may have more HRs this year than Pujols, but he's not even in the same sentence when it comes to hitting.  Pujols is far above this guy, and is one of the best players in the game.  

As for defense, he's really good.  Torii Hunter may not be exactly what he was 5 years ago for the Twins, but he's still the defender everyone wants to be.  I get to see him play nightly in Anaheim, and I must say...he's almost flawless out there.  I'd take Hunters defense over Ankiels still...Hunter's just flawless out there.

Answer 14

No you silly boy, Ankiel ISN'T nearly as good as Pujols.  Also, you can't POSSIBLY compare him to Torii Hunter in CF.  They're not even on the same level.

Answer 15

Just because you hit more HRs doesnt make you a better player. Ever hear of a guy named Dave Kingman? Ankiel does have a great arm, arguably the best in the NL BUT Pujols knows the zone much better and has way more plate discipline. By far Pujols is the player I would take.

Answer 16

I do not agree one bit with that statement.

Pujols is by far the superior player.

Ankiel is a solid player. He's having a good year. But more important to the Cardinals than Pujols? No way!

Pujols is a gold glove defensive first baseman, and much more feared in general and in the clutch. Teams have been pitching around Pujols this year because he's so dangerous. If you want to cite a player as being important, how about Ryan Ludwick? He's having a better year than any of them and has been healthy and carried them while Pujols was out, and he provides Pujols with some decent protection for a change.  

Answer 17

h**l NO! Pujols is WAY better than Ankiel! And Your Y!A names suck I hate it