I guess we're all a little misleading.
The major jump, from my perspective was from that year in the mid-minors to the massive jump to being a rookie in MLB.
I do like your stat re: he longest stop that year.
He had 17 HRs in 395 at-bats.
As a rookie in the majors, he had 37 HRs in 590 at-bats (weird aside ... until this season, Pujols' minimum ABs in a season: 590. Maximum? 592).
Let's get him to the 34 HRs you mentioned in his second year in the majors, if you wish.
That would be 34 HRs in 790 ABs in AA.
He hit three more HRs as a rookie in the majors in 200 FEWER at-bats? Or, using the preference in your post, the same number of homers in those 200 fewer ABs (still... the rookie transition is the jaw-dropping one... so I think we should stick with that.)
I wasn't referring to the home runs, but more the slugging percentage, which was similar.
If you wanted to make a leap to the juice, I guess you could look at the doubles which he turned into homers, but I wasn't going there.
Don't know what he's taking, if anything. But I did see him regularly in Cards' training camp that spring when he made the team.
It was pretty clear he was ready. The Cardinals kept trying to find reasons why he wouldn't make the jump to the bigs, and he kept answering every question.
In another era, I guess we could posit that there are just some players who are just ready that young. Maybe he could have jumped straight to the bigs. It happens, although in those rare instances, the players usually went to college first.
Guerrero was 20 when be broke in, wasn't he? He did have some minor-league time. But he also had a lot of catching up to do when he arrived in the U.S. from the Dominican, while it was clear that Pujols had the best of the best as he was groomed for greatness.
All of which to say, I'm a little stumped on this one. But I do want to believe.
