You'd get to looking foolish pretty quickly in any attempt to construct an argument against Albert Pujols as the National League's leading MVP candidate just about now. Speaking as we are from the executive suite of the Fool For Life Megaplex, we don't actually need the help.

So let's instead focus on why this season may well mark the finest baseball work of Barry Bonds' recent life -- and what, by extension, that says about the MVP candidacy of a man who already has won the award five times, including in 2001 and '02.

	Barry Bonds is batting .443 with seven home runs in 22 games since the All-Star break.

The numbers themselves aren't necessarily mind-blowing. This is, after all, Bonds, who hit 73 home runs in a season just two years ago. You aren't likely to be driven to your knees by the thought of his 37 homers as of Aug. 19.

But consider all the numbers, not just some of them. By just about every standard except RBI, Bonds remains the most important offensive presence on a single team in the game. Those 37 home runs lead the National League. Bonds' .341 batting average ranks third. On-base percentage, slugging percentage, walks drawn, OPS -- Bonds leads the league in each category. He's fifth in runs scored, and his 77 RBI are more a reflection of the shockingly altered San Francisco lineup around him (and opponents' general preference to avoid him altogether) than anything connected to Bonds' own bat or way of swinging it.

The point is that Bonds, at age 39, is doing the impossible again. He is again a dominant player on a division leader despite being the utter and absolute target for neutralization of every team that faces him.

And it matters. It matters in every way you can imagine. This is a San Francisco team that went to the 2002 World Series, lost it, and then began breaking apart like a meteor entering Earth's stratosphere -- and yet is running away with its division again.

Dusty Baker, perhaps Bonds' most important source of support and tolerance since Bonds came to the Giants in 1992, packed up for Chicago. Jeff Kent, who only drove in 100 or more runs six straight seasons while mostly protecting Bonds in the batting order, signed with Houston. David Bell, Kenny Lofton, Reggie Sanders went away ... the Giants dished off arguably their best pitcher, Russ Ortiz, and oft-demonized righty Livan Hernandez, and those two are a combined 30-12 this season for Atlanta and Montreal, respectively.

Result? Well, sure: San Francisco, with Felipe Alou running the team and Bonds once again riding shotgun, sprinted off and hid from Arizona and everyone else in the NL West. The Giants padded their lead earlier this summer to such an extent that not even the team's just-completed 0-6 Power Outage road trip through New York and Montreal put it in serious jeopardy.

And that's because of Bonds, of course. The man is at the heart of his team's success -- and by now it is common knowledge that he doesn't accomplish that by warming up the clubhouse with his sunny presence.

The point is that (Barry) Bonds, at age 39, is doing the impossible again. He is again a dominant player on a division leader despite being the utter and absolute target for neutralization of every team that faces him.

Nope, this is all work. It is Bonds taking the lead on behalf of a team that doesn't particularly scare anybody offensively, that has dealt with disabling injuries to front-line veterans like Rich Aurilia, J.T. Snow, Benito Santiago, Kirk Rueter and Robb Nen without sacrificing its ability to compete. The Giants were winning games with Jason Schmidt and a bunch of pitchers named Jesse. It's almost incomprehensible.

This probably won't go down as the peak year of Bonds' career professionally; it almost certainly will go down as his most brutally difficult year personally. Beyond all the changes mentioned here stands the most profound turn of events for Bonds: The steady deterioration of his father's health.

Former baseball great Bobby Bonds was diagnosed months ago with lung cancer, and the news has been almost routinely horrible ever since. Earlier this summer, Bobby Bonds underwent open-heart surgery. Just last week, Barry Bonds left New York (hours ahead of the blackout) to return to San Francisco and be with his father. Officially placed on baseball's bereavement list, Bonds is expected to rejoin the Giants for their home series against Ortiz and the Atlanta Braves beginning Tuesday at Pac Bell Park.

San Francisco lost every game it played in Bonds' absence, which either suggests a team in a lousy slump or one that, even when at full strength, really does depend upon Bonds to an extent that is difficult to describe.

Bonds may take little solace in that, and it isn't as though his personal travails have mellowed him to the point of really embracing any sort of broad public love; witness his Babe Ruth comments at the All-Star break. But the truth is the truth: Barry Bonds is 39, and the Giants never have needed him more.

The way Bonds has answered that call, leading a wholly reconstructed team to the second-largest division lead in the majors, says more about what constitutes a Most Valuable Player than any set of numbers you'd care to string together. The man is good for it, straight down the line, in the most complicated year of his life.

Mark Kreidler is a columnist with the Sacramento Bee and a regular contributor to ESPN.com