I think of the players that are playing right now,Evan Longoria or Ryan Zimmerman are the only players who appear to be able to really challenge Michael Jack Schmidt for supremacy at the position. Zimmerman also sort of reminds me of Schmidt because he’s playing for an NL East team that has had its fair share of struggles along the way, despite his extremely eye popping numbers.

Zimmerman isn’t just someone who is going to hit .280-.300 with 25-30 homers but he can also pick it at the hot corner. He also has some mobility on the base paths, and while he isn’t going to steal 30 bases he can cause problems for the other team.

Longoria has been around for an even shorter time than the fairly young Zimmerman, but he’s already looking like someone who could be a super star as long as he doesn’t get caught using PEDs or suffer injuries playing on that crappy dome turf at Tropicana. Other than those two, I don’t really see anyone in this generation you could compare Schmidt to.

It's extremely early in their careers but Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Bucs and if he had not been moved from third base to first base Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers would have challenged him. If Cabrera gets moved back, his offensive stats alone make him a dangerous challenger. I am not sure about his defense, but in his first full season there, not counting April, he has the best defensive stats of any National League third sacker. Offensively his career is on pace with Alex Rodriguez and Hank Aaron and is just coming into his prime. Like wise Longoria is an offensive dynamo, but not to the same stature as Cabrera. He though still mans third base and is very young with lots of years to play. Finally you have Alex Rodriguez. As a hitter he is superior to Mike Schmidt, but as a fielder he is lacking. In my opinion, no matter which player is talked about, there will always be dissenters.