ST. LOUIS | With the All-Star Game coming here on Tuesday, everyone is trying to find something new to say about the best player in baseball, Cardinals star Albert Pujols. It isn&rsquo;t easy. The reason it isn&rsquo;t easy is because Pujols&rsquo; hallmark has been his consistency &mdash; he has been so ridiculously consistent &mdash; and the truth is that consistency doesn&rsquo;t make for great storytelling.</p><p>Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess and handsome prince, and they lived in a beautiful kingdom, and they loved each other a lot, and they raised their children, and nothing bad really ever happened to them. The end.</p><p>How consistent has Albert Pujols been? Well, this is his ninth season &mdash; and if you cobbled together a season made up of his <em>worst</em> numbers &mdash; that is, take his worst batting average, his lowest home run total, his lowest run total and so on &mdash; the season would look like so: .314 batting average, .394 on-base percentage, 32 home runs, 99 runs, 103 RBIs. Again, those are his <em>worst </em>numbers.</p><p>Not to bring the Royals into it &mdash; they obviously have enough of their own problems &mdash; but if you take the <em>best</em> Royals numbers the last five full years (minimum 500 plate appearances), they look like so: .307 average (David DeJesus), .366 on-base percentage (DeJesus), 21 home runs (Mike Sweeney), 101 runs (DeJesus), 97 RBIs (Jos&eacute; Guillen). Well, at least they beat Pujols&rsquo; lowest run-scoring year.</p><p>But really, beyond that overwhelming consistency &mdash; beyond saying that Pujols is great every single season &mdash; what more can you say? Sure, you can talk about the remarkable season he&rsquo;s having right now: He really does have a chance to become the first player since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 to win the Triple Crown. Going into Saturday he led the National League in home runs (32 &mdash; leads by eight), RBIs (85 &mdash; leads by eight) and after getting two more hits on Saturday his .338 batting average is second in the league, nine points behind Florida&rsquo;s Hanley Ramirez.</p><p>But that just takes you back to his consistency. Is this his best year? Probably. But he has had numerous best years. Last season, for instance, he hit .357 with 44 doubles, 37 home runs and 116 RBIs, one of the greatest seasons ever. In 2006, he hit .331 with 49 homers and 137 RBIs, one of the greatest seasons ever. In 2003, he led the league with a .359 batting average and he hit 43 homers and drove in 124, and, yes, that was one of the greatest seasons ever too. See, it can get numbing after a while.</p><p>So what else is there to talk about? Well, you can talk about his fiery work ethic &mdash; nobody works harder at the game. All spring training, he&rsquo;s the first one to arrive &mdash; he does most of his best work at 6:30 in the morning &mdash; and all season he blocks out all distractions and sticks to the same routine. </p><p>&ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t just that Albert works harder than anyone else,&rdquo; Cardinals manager Tony La Russa says. &ldquo;He works smarter too. He does everything for a purpose.&rdquo;</p><p>But you know what? Work ethic &mdash; like consistency &mdash; doesn&rsquo;t make for great storytelling either.</p><p>Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess who worked really hard. Yes, every day she would get up and work. And she worked all day. And then she would go to bed and wake up the next morning and work hard again. The end.</p><p>So what&rsquo;s there to say? Well, baseball writer and Boston Red Sox advisor Bill James may have come up with the best way to say something new about Pujols. In this week&rsquo;s Sports Illustrated, Bill and I wrote about how Pujols might be the most perfect player in baseball history &mdash; perfect referring to a player that: