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Bonds or Cabrera?

Former acknowledges the latter’s game, but says he’s not him, ‘not yet’

It’s probably foolish, if not absurd, to draw comparisons to Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera.

Cabrera, after all, is the greatest player in the game of baseball.

The last time we’ve seen greatness like this is from one of the greatest three players ever to step on a baseball field and certainly the finest of his generation: Barry Bonds.

“He’s definitely the best,’” Bonds told USA TODAY Sports in a telephone interview Monday. “It’s not rocket science here.

“He’s the best. By far. Without a doubt. The absolute best.”

Bonds, as you might imagine, was aware of Cabrera’s performance a night earlier, when he slugged three home runs against the Texas Rangers to announce on national television that his Triple Crown performance in 2012 might have been a mere prelude.

Now, it’s certainly premature, Bonds said, to dare imply Cabrera is as good as him. You can’t make that argument, not with a record 762 homers, seven MVP awards, 14 All-Star appearances and eight Gold Gloves on Bonds’ résumé.

“I don’t try to compare me to anybody,” Bonds said. “I was the best on the field. I did more things than he did. My game was different than his game. So comparing him, to me, there’s no comparison.

“He doesn’t have my MVPs. He doesn’t have my numbers. Well, not yet, anyways.

“But does he have that ability? Yes, he does. Does he have that gift? Yes, he does.”

Cabrera broke into the big leagues in 2003 when Bonds was winning his sixth MVP award. He’s still just 30 years old. He leads Bonds in every Triple Crown category at the same age, hitting .320 with 332 homers and 1,170 runs batte in. Bonds had a career .286 batting average with 317 homers and 941 RBI at the same age.

Time will tell if Cabrera will play this game at this same level for another decade, while Bonds simply got better.

He hit a record 73 homers in 2001 at the age of 37, amid allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs at the time, which he has denied. A federal jury acquitted Bonds on three counts he committed perjury in a 2003 grand jury testimony regarding steroid use; Bonds’ appeal of a felony conviction of obstruction of justice still is pending.

Weeks before Bonds’ testimony, Cabrera, then 20, helped the Marlins win the 2003 World Series, the first season baseball tested players for performance-enhancing drugs.

That policy has been strengthened considerably in subsequent years, with penalties instituted in 2004, and Cabrera never has run afoul of it. As a result, his body of work should withstand scrutiny far better than players of Bonds’ era, who have been penalized by Hall of Fame voters.

“Miguel will be in that 500-home run category,” Bonds said. “He will have those 3,000 hits. I’ve never seen a young player love the game like he does. You see that passion.

“Unless this guy has some fluke accident, just put it in the book, he’ll be in the Hall of Fame.

“It’s like watching Denzel (Washington) in a movie. Sit down. Watch the show. And enjoy.”

Cabrera is hitting a major-league leading .384, to go along with his 12 homers, major-league leading 49 RBI, 35 runs, 68 hits, 118 total bases, .455 on-base percentage, and .509 batting average with runners in scoring position. That’s just for starters.

Yes, just when Tigers teammate Prince Fielder called Cabrera’s Triple Crown season of a year ago the greatest feat he’ll ever witness, Cabrera just might pull off something even rarer.

Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby are the only players in baseball history to achieve two Triple Crowns.

Neither did it back-to-back years.

“Winning a Triple Crown is amazing to me,” Bonds said. “I tried to win a Triple Crown and couldn’t do it. I tried to do it, I really did, but I had guys like Tony Gwynn in the way.

“So it’s amazing to see him do it once. But to see him do it again, wow, that would really throw me off the charts.

“I couldn’t do it once, and then to see him to do it twice, now that would be shocking. Absolutely shocking.”

The closest Bonds came to winning the Triple Crown was in 1993 when he led the National League with 46 homers and 123 RBI. Yet, Bonds’ .336 batting average ranked fourth, behind league leader Andres Galarraga of the Colorado Rockies, who hit .370 at Mile High Stadium.

H H H

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who managed Bonds his seven years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, refused to compare the two greats. It’s not fair, he said – to either one of them.

Yet, he said Bonds is absolutely right, that they each share a gift that few possess: that baseball IQ, which is impossible to quantify.

“There’s no question about it,” Leyland said. “Miggy has it all together, just like Barry. Totally relaxed at the plate. You can see it. He knows he can hit. That opposite-field power he has, that just boggles the mind.”

Bonds, who still hopes to be a major-league hitting coach, doesn’t want to divulge any trade secrets. If Cabrera wants to divulge his secrets, it’s his right, but why reveal any details to ruin that edge?

“He has got, what you call, the gift,” Bonds said. “I had it. Cabrera knows he has it, too. You don’t try to analyze it. You can’t teach it. You’re born with it. And he’s got it.

“That’s why I enjoy watching him so much, and I couldn’t be happier for him, knowing that he’s taking advantage of that gift.”

It’s not simply the raw talent, eye-hand coordination, or power, Bonds said, but that mental toughness and intellect.

“You guys can analyze it all you want, but his hands aren’t quicker than anybody else or anything else like that,” Bonds said. “He’s just smarter than anybody else. He knows what he has to do and can recognize pitches better than anyone.

“People don’t realize he’s the same person he was last year and the year before that, but he’s got that experience now. It’s hard to explain, but what he does is minimize what a lot of people pile up on themselves. He puts it in a compartment and utilizes it to the best of ability.

“Without giving you too much information about hitting, that’s what he does.

“It’s no different than Tiger (Woods) on the golf course. Or Michael Jordan on the basketball court. Or Muhammad Ali in the ring. They have that gift too. Ken Griffey Jr. had it better than anybody, but injuries got to him – same with Alex Rodriguez.

“There are other athletes that have it, too, but where they go with it, that’s up to them. I wasn’t the best at that part, but I was the best on the field.

“Cabrera is doing it all, as well as anybody I’ve ever seen,” Bonds said.

H H H

The proof lies in the statistics, with Cabrera rarely fooled by a pitch, according to data provided by Inside Edge.

Before Tuesday, Cabrera is hitting .416 against fastballs, with a league average of .278, and .347 on offspeed pitches, with a league average of .221. He’s hitting .299 with two strikes, compared to the league average of .183. He has swung and missed at fastballs away just 17 percent of the time, compared to 27 percent a year ago. He’s also more aggressive this year, swinging 57 percent of the time on the first pitch, punishing pitchers with a .448 average with three homers.

Tigers assistant general manager Alex Avila said he thought he was “signing a perennial All-Star” when he convinced the Marlins to spend $1.8 million on Cabrera, who was 15 the first time Avila saw him play.

“We didn’t think a future Hall of Famer, a Triple Crown winner and an MVP,” said Avila, who moved to the Tigers by the time they acquired Cabrera from the Marlins after the ’07 season.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is the baseball intelligence of this guy. You saw it at a young age. You could see him try to set up pitchers, break down pitches, and what would make him a better hitter. This guy is very, very smart. He knows where guys should be playing on a field, when a manager makes a good or bad decision and, obviously, how to hit.

“When you put that intelligence together, with the physical ability, and figure it all out mentally, it’s pretty freakin’ special.”

Yep, just like that certain All-Star left fielder, who dominated the game from 1990 to 2007, and even Hall of Famer Hank Aaron. Cabrera’s numbers eerily are similar to Aaron’s at the same age. Cabrera, playing in 102 less games, has the identical career batting average as Aaron, with just 34 fewer homers and 46 RBI.

“I love that young kid; I really do,” Bonds said. “If he can stay healthy and keep accomplishing what he has already, he’s got a chance to have everything I did.

“If he gets there and has the kind of career I did, hey, I’ll be the first to say: ‘Now, you got it all, brother, you got it all.’”

© USA TODAY. All rights reserved.

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