Albert Pujols

Currently Albert Pujols and Joey Votto are locked in a battle for the coveted "Triple Crown" of hitters in the National League, while Miguel Cabrerra is chasing it in the American League. The hitters Triple Crown, for those that don't know, refers to leading the league in home runs, RBI, and average in the same season. It has been 42 years since anyone has won it at all, (Carl Yastremski for Boston) and it's been 73 years since anyone has done it in the National League (Joe Medwick for the Cardinals).

During Monday night's St. Louis Cardinals loss to the last-place (and worst record in baseball) Pittsburgh Pirates, Albert Pujols was 3-for-5 with a double, raising his batting average to .322.

I know this stat is not important to saber heads (please bear with us), but for this argument it is imperative.

This year's National League MVP is quickly becoming a race between two players, Albert Pujols and Joey Votto, who are not only in a race for the MVP, but also for the Triple Crown. Looking at these two players, it's not so much an issue of which one deserves the MVP—they both do. The question is, which player deserves it more? While the sexy pick is the underdog Votto, a closer look at the numbers reveals a different story. Here are five reasons why Pujols deserves it more.

Who is the best hitter in Major League Baseball?

Well, that depends on several factors:

Are you asking for the most skilled hitter, or the most valuable?

Do you want a guy who can winning batting titles, or home runs titles?

Should hitting be judged by ability, or by production?

All good questions, and depending on your answers, you might conclude that the best hitter in baseball is Albert Pujols, Ichiro Suzuki, Ryan Howard, Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez, or Joey Votto.

It happened to Chuck Klein in 1933. It happened to Ted Williams twice, in 1942 and 1947. Could it happen again in 2010?

Could Albert Pujols win the Triple Crown without winning his league's Most Valuable Player Award?

If this article seems like it is coming out of nowhere, that is understandable.

Winning a Triple Crown is one of the rarest feats in all of baseball. Very rarely do we even see one player contending for the average, home run, and RBI titles.

And you're telling me that there are three contenders in the National League this year?

Colorado's Carlos Gonzalez, Cincinnati's Joey Votto, and St. Louis's Albert Pujols are all in the hunt for the Triple Crown. And if none of them wins the honor, it will be one of them that keeps another from winning.

All season long, these three have been hitting absurdly for average and power.

No major leaguer has won a triple crown since Boston's Carl Yastrzemski in his World Series season of 1967 with 44 homers, 121 RBI, and .326 batting average.

The last National Leaguer to win the triple crown was another St. Louis Cardinal,  Joe "Ducky" Medwick, who batted .374 with 31 home runs and 154 RBI.

Both are Hall of Famers.

I'd like you to think back about seven years ago, remember when everyone was hailing Alex Rodriguez as the modern hero of baseball.

Having finished the 2003 season with the Texas Rangers, everything was perfect in Rodriguez's world; he was 28, had just collected his first of seemingly many MVPs and had become the youngest player in history to hit 300 home runs.

Oh, Roger.

Love him or hate him, the news that Roger Clemens is being (it is hard to even type it out) indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of making false statements to Congress about his use of performance-enhancing drugs is down-right depressing.

There was a time when the baseball viewing public was being forced to ask themselves:

"Could Roger Clemens be ready to surpass Walter Johnson as the greatest pitcher of all time?"

The Reds and Cards are in one of the longest running one and two pennant races in history. Neither team can really put substantial distance between themselves and the other.

Both squads have strong talent and deep rosters.

Let's take a look at the way the teams stack up against each other, position by position.

CATCHER