Comments on: Equally Elusive http://jessicachapel.com/2009/05/15/equally-elusive/ Thoroughbred racing news and notes Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:49:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: o_crunk http://jessicachapel.com/2009/05/15/equally-elusive/comment-page-1/#comment-219 o_crunk Fri, 15 May 2009 23:31:15 +0000 http://www.jessicachapel.com/?p=1537#comment-219 I have no idea what the average field size in the classics has been but I would imagine that it has been trending upwards, couple that with the different approaches to training now and even some who did win the triple crown then might have a more difficult time today. The obvious answer is horses. There's probably only two players at this point in time capable of putting together a triple crown in baseball - Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez. Of those two, Pujols is easily more likely - he doesn't strike out much, thus enabling him to hit for average which is an achilles heal of A-Rod's game. Both have the power to take care of the other two categories. A-rod is certainly entering the wane of his career but Pujols is at the plateau now. It would not surprise me, if he stays healthy, that he took down a triple crown. Every other power hitter in baseball capable of leading the league in RBI's and HR's strikes out way too much to even contend for a batting title. The game, even in Yaz's day, had thousands of more balls in play per year than now. If you can't put the ball in play, you can't win a triple crown. Pujols is your only hope for the upset. I have no idea what the average field size in the classics has been but I would imagine that it has been trending upwards, couple that with the different approaches to training now and even some who did win the triple crown then might have a more difficult time today.

The obvious answer is horses.

There’s probably only two players at this point in time capable of putting together a triple crown in baseball – Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez. Of those two, Pujols is easily more likely – he doesn’t strike out much, thus enabling him to hit for average which is an achilles heal of A-Rod’s game. Both have the power to take care of the other two categories.

A-rod is certainly entering the wane of his career but Pujols is at the plateau now. It would not surprise me, if he stays healthy, that he took down a triple crown.

Every other power hitter in baseball capable of leading the league in RBI’s and HR’s strikes out way too much to even contend for a batting title. The game, even in Yaz’s day, had thousands of more balls in play per year than now. If you can’t put the ball in play, you can’t win a triple crown.

Pujols is your only hope for the upset.

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