Albert Pujols

[Edgy MD]

DFA'd. Expected to be released.



Last year of his deal.

[TransMonk]

He has as many HRs as Alonso this season, which is more than double any other Met player.

[TransMonk]

[smg58]

I have to think he'll retire a Cardinal, even if the reunion is of the one-day variety.



Given how he was the best player in the game for a substantial length of time, it's stunning how he became so irrelevant so quickly, and then stayed that way for years, that you almost forgot he was still playing. I guess you can make a similar statement about Miguel Cabrera. Both would have retired a long time ago if not for the length of their deals.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the same thing happens with Bryce Harper.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

My first thought was the MFYs

[Edgy MD]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I wouldn't be at all surprised if the same thing happens with Bryce Harper.

He's still playing?

[kcmets]

A short stint with the MFY's would be amusing. Then they'll retire his number.

[G-Fafif]

Before the word existed Pujols was an influencer. His hitting mechanics were so efficient and his strike of the baseball was so pure and consistent that coaches and players used him as a template. But like Koufax's curveball and Ruth's swing, few came even close to duplicating Pujols's results. Pujols and Hank Aaron are the only players with 600 homers, 600 doubles and 3,000 hits.

Tom Verducci pays tribute:



https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/05/07/albert-pujols-greatness-cardinals-angelshttps://www.si.com/mlb/2021/05/07/albert-pujols-greatness-cardinals-angels

[Ceetar]

pretty sure the word existed Tom.

[bmfc1]

Given how he was the best player in the game for a substantial length of time, it's stunning how he became so irrelevant so quickly, and then stayed that way for years, that you almost forgot he was still playing. I guess you can make a similar statement about Miguel Cabrera. Both would have retired a long time ago if not for the length of their deals.

Great point. Anaheim is like the Middle Place from the show "The Good Place".

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Pujols is obviously a slam-dunk Hall of Famer but I've had deep suspicions of him from the moment he arrived on the scene as a fully-formed musclebound superstar.



Even his background smells funny to me, he was like, quietly whisked off the island into a St. Louis area high school and nobody seemed aware of him. I imagine he was actually reporting to a gym/lab that resembled Ivan Drago's

[Ceetar]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Pujols is obviously a slam-dunk Hall of Famer but I've had deep suspicions of him from the moment he arrived on the scene as a fully-formed musclebound superstar. Even his background smells funny to me, he was like, quietly whisked off the island into a St. Louis area high school and nobody seemed aware of him. I imagine he was actually reporting to a gym/lab that resembled Ivan Drago's

I mean, if there's something you can take that turns 2011+ Albert Pujols into 2001-2010 Albert Pujols you'd think more people would be taking it. Also it'd be weird not to be taking it in 2011 in your walk year.



BB%



2009: 16.4

2010: 14.7

2011: 9.4

2012: 7.8

2013: 9

Lower



Like the only enhancement that would do that is one that make your body appear 10% smaller than it was, so that your strikezone was tinier.



You could ponder eyesight but his contact numbers were pretty stable but he started swinging at more balls out of the zone.



I wonder if there was a concussion or something in 2010 that just went unnoticed, or some other sort of neuro thing.

[Willets Point]

=TransMonk post_id=63346 time=1620336668 user_id=71]
He has as many HRs as Alonso this season, which is more than double any other Met player.

[seawolf17]

Willets Point wrote: =TransMonk post_id=63346 time=1620336668 user_id=71] He has as many HRs as Alonso this season, which is more than double any other Met player.

Maybe the Mets should sign him then. He could play the mid-80s Rusty Staub role.

[Ceetar]

he did play an inning (one of 783 in his career) at third the other night.

[dinosaur jesus]

Somehow it annoys me that that he's continued to play every day for the past five or six lousy years. He's in denial, and the Angels are afraid to offend him. It crosses the line from pride--which you understand from one of the best hitters any of us will ever see--to massive stupid ego. It makes me not like the guy and wish he would just go away. Willie Mays gets grief sometimes for hanging on too long. But it was one year too long--he was still a good player when he came to the Mets--and it ended in a World Series.



But my god could Pujols hit. He was in that Willie Mays Ted Williams Mike Trout position where everybody knew he was the real MVP but they had to give it to someone else once in a while just to make it look like a competition.

[Frayed Knot]

We batted the topic of the decline and fall of Prince Albert around nearly four years ago -- http://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/archives/26000/f1_t26006.shtmlhttp://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/archives/26000/f1_t26006.shtml

[LWFS]

It's just... with five months to go on the deal, it's REAL weird timing.

[seawolf17]

It's just... with five months to go on the deal, it's REAL weird timing.

Not necessarily. He's paid this year either way, so they've got nothing left to lose. There was always the hope that "well, maybe next year..." but they don't need that cushion any more.

[Ceetar]

Jared Walsh appears to be the real deal, so when he continued to hit this year I think it forced the issue a little bit, plus Ohtani playing regularly too.

[Frayed Knot]

Pujols had 59.5% of his PA with the Cardinals and the difference is stunning.

StL: 1037 OPS, 170 OPS+, 86.6 accumulated WAR

LAA: 758 OPS, 108 OPS+, 12.8 WAR



His worst OPS season as a Cardinal was 955 in his second season.

As an Angel he only once came within 50 points of that, his first on the west coast, 906

His first five seasons in Anaheim he averaged more than 150 OPS points behind his StL years, 799

By his final five seasons (including the partials of 2020 & 2021) he clocked in at 694 OPS / 85 OPS+



On his career as a whole (assuming it's over) he finishes 13th in all time PA (as mentioned, he rarely missed any time), 15th in Runs Scored,

5th in HRs, 3rd in RBI, and 14th in Hits

Of the 32 players with 3,000+ hits, Albert has the highest percentage of XBHs (41.6%) just ahead of ARod, despite amassing a career total

of just 16 triples.

[G-Fafif]

Albert Pujols is joining the Dodgers.

[LWFS]

I don't get it.



From the Dodger side, I mean. Major-league deal, too. Even with the injuries, they've got, like, 3-4 1B options on any given day.



Tres Wilponian.

[Edgy MD]

Holy shit, right?

[Frayed Knot]

PH-Extraodinaire perhaps?





Lineups from Albert Pujols' first game at Dodger Stadium, 8/31/01, the 133rd game of his career



StL

Fernando Vina - 2B

Placido Polanco - 3B

Miguel Cairo - LF

Pujols - 1B

Jim Edmonds - CF

Craig Paquette - RF

Edgar Renteria - SS

Eli Marrero - C

Woody Williams - P





LAD

Adrian Beltre - 3B

Mark Grudzielanek - 2B

Shawn Green - RF

Gary Sheffield - LF

Paul Lo Duca - C

Eric Karros - 1B

Marquis Grissom - CF

Alex Cora - SS

Eric Gagne - P

[Edgy MD]

So the last time the Mets hosted him was 2011 in one three-game series since leaving the National League following the 2011 season.



Has only appeared since way back in 2014, in Anaheim.



If he lasts until August (and that feels like a 50/50 proposition), he gets the Mets both at home and at Citi Field. We'll have to ask Dillon Gee and Scott Rice what to throw to him.

[Willets Point]

I hope this bites the Dodgers in the butt.

[Frayed Knot]

Unless they made some sort of promise to play him everyday -- reportedly things got testy in Anaheim when the Angels asked him to take a reduced role but you can't imagine he'd have any power to demand anything like that on the other side of town -- it really can't bite the Dodgers too hard since they're paying him the ML minimum (he cleared waivers) and so could easily cut him if they don't like what they see.

[Fman99]

So Gagne was starting at this point, and not closing? I don't even remember that.