Assume that you have an expansion team and can select any player in professional baseball and have them on your team for the remainder of their career. Who do you want?
Here's my top 5:
Player (age as of 7/1/06)
Felix Hernandez (20)
Albert Pujols (26)
David Wright (23)
Miguel Cabrera (23)
Delmon Young (21)
Obviously I'm sold on Hernandez. He strikes out a lot with a ton of groundballs, the scouts love him, the statheads love him, he has no real injury concerns, and he's only 20. You could potentially have 20 years of Hall of Fame level pitching if he's on your team.
Pujols is the old man of the group. Despite 5 dominant years in the majors he's still only 26. The difference to me between he and Hernandez is that Pujols is 6 years older and plays a non-premium defensive position.
Cabrera and Wright are essentially interchangable in my mind. I put Wright ahead of Cabrera because he has a better defensive reputation and seems more likely to stick at 3B for a majority of his career.
The fifth spot for me was tough. I decided on Young, but also could have gone with Santana or Peavy. Again, age is the difference.
Who do you like?
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