Wow, I have coached and played at nearly every level of Baseball. Most recently I have been coaching a Fastpitch Girl's Travel team and working with the pitching staff of a high School baseball team. Most of the girls from our team have drawn scholarships to college; some of them to major colleges such as Roya St. Clair, the catcher at the University of Michigan. Throughout my years of coaching, we have always rated the value of each position. Pitching is always important, but in Baseball unlike Softball (where a dominant girl can throw 500 innings a year and start every game), just one is not enough. For that reason alone, knowing that a starting pitcher will probably appear in only 30 to 35 games in a season, I have to eliminate the position. In Fastpitch Softball we rate importance in this order; pitcher, catcher, shortstop, 2nd base and center field. Baseball is the same, but pitcher is replaced by pitching staff. Even though that is how positions are ranked, you must remember that they are based on defense only. Your question involves picking one player so I have two that come to mind and both are 1st basemen. The first being Albert Pujols and the second being Miguel Cabrera. Both are capable of putting a team on their shoulders and carrying it for weeks at a time.

Pujols at the age of 30 is playing in his 10th season and has knocked out 374 home runs and driven in 1,141. He also carries a lifetime .333 batting average and has made himself into an outstanding defensive 1st baseman. His walks to strikeout ratio are unheard of for a power hitter, as he keeps his whiffs below 100 every year.

Cabrera at the age of 27 is already playing in his 8th season to date already has 217 home runs and 789 RBIs in just over 4,000 at bats. He is also carrying a lifetime .313 batting average. Being saddled in a ballpark less than friendly to right-handed power hitters is sure to negatively affect his home run production and batting average as fewer balls will be reaching the seats. He is still learning the 1st base position, but is improving rapidly.

In my opinion a good first baseman will also save a lot of errors for the other infielders, pitcher and catcher during the course of a season. Taking all the above into account, I would be remiss in not selecting Pujols as my player to build a team around, but would give consideration to the Cabrera for being 3 years younger. If I am asked this same question in 3 or 4 years, then my answer may be Cabrera, or even Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins.