http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BfFGBb7CMAAF3HL.jpg
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 16:22 (ten years ago) link
I'll put this here...Didn't know you could make up and download your own WAR graphs on Fangraphs. Here's one for cumulative WAR showing Pujols' downturn the last two seasons:
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/cumulativewar_zps562c47b6.png
― clemenza, Sunday, 9 February 2014 17:19 (ten years ago) link
i didn't know that either. good thing i got no plans this afternoon!
― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Sunday, 9 February 2014 18:20 (ten years ago) link
I'm kind of curious to see what Pujols and Hamilton do this year and see if they have some bounce back in them.
I still think both the Angels and Rangers look kind of thin in starting pitching. Joe Blanton is like LA's #4 and he was pretty bad last year. Both clubs got a couple of guys counted on that haven't really had a season putting up some innings.
― earlnash, Sunday, 9 February 2014 19:23 (ten years ago) link
Angels rotation last year was a dumpster fire. I blame arte for the fixation on declining sluggers..
― panettone for the painfully alone (mayor jingleberries), Monday, 10 February 2014 15:07 (ten years ago) link
pujols will presumably be at least a bit healthier this year. he was such a mess last season. i bet he'll be better but still off his second half pace from 2012
― le goon (J0rdan S.), Monday, 10 February 2014 15:41 (ten years ago) link
yeah, if he's truly 100% from his injuries, or even close, i think he's a great bounce-back candidate. after watching him play a ton of games in STL, he was really showing some wear and tear even in 2010 and 2011. noticeably limping, all the time. and he was still playing pretty well in those years! given that he's turning 39 this year, i think that his upside is a repeat of 2011 (4.4 fWAR, .299/.384/.541)
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 11 February 2014 17:12 (ten years ago) link
also he dropped his lawsuit against asshole jack clark, because clark issued an apology. the most sincere apologies are issued months after the fact, with a pending lawsuit
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 11 February 2014 17:13 (ten years ago) link
"given that he's turning 39 this year"
heh
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 11 February 2014 17:30 (ten years ago) link
The ghost of Steve Shasta lives!
― eeeLastica (Leee), Tuesday, 11 February 2014 17:34 (ten years ago) link
494, getting close. (If it still means anything--it should.)
― clemenza, Thursday, 10 April 2014 15:28 (nine years ago) link
Obviously too early to tell, but I get the feeling he's going to settle into a Frank Thomas-like second half of his career: the power will come and go, and he'll still have some big home-run years, but BA and OBP markedly down from his prime.
― clemenza, Saturday, 19 April 2014 14:25 (nine years ago) link
Will be even worse because most of Pujols OBP was driven by IBB. Without those and with the average plummeting he might never get an OPS higher than 900 again.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Saturday, 19 April 2014 15:14 (nine years ago) link
If he spends a few years hitting behind a decent leadoff hitter and Mike Trout then he'll see loads of pitches with men on base, which will boost his BA and a bunch of other counting stats.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Saturday, 19 April 2014 19:49 (nine years ago) link
Hasn't he spent the last two years hitting behind Trout though to little effect?
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Sunday, 20 April 2014 01:39 (nine years ago) link
He has been playing through an injury for the last 3 years. I'm expecting a very good year from in 2014, actually.
― Karl Malone, Sunday, 20 April 2014 03:04 (nine years ago) link
lol WARP3
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Sunday, 20 April 2014 04:32 (nine years ago) link
not sure how accurate it is to say his OBP has been "driven" by IBBs when the guy averaged 130 walks a season
― k3vin k., Monday, 21 April 2014 16:22 (nine years ago) link
Alex's statement sounded odd to me too, but I checked, and he's right--a high percentage of Pujols' walks have been intentional over his career. Here are the top 26 HR guys (everyone with 500+, plus Pujols) reordered according to their IBB/BB percentages:
Banks -- 0.275 (missing first two seasons)Bonds -- 0.269Pujols -- 0.258Aaron -- 0.213 (missing first season)McCovey -- 0.193Griffey -- 0.188Murray -- 0.167Sosa -- 0.166Manny -- 0.163Ted Williams -- 0.160 (last six seasons only)Frank Robinson -- 0.154Mays -- 0.145 (missing first three seasons)Schmidt -- 0.133Palmeiro -- 0.127Reggie Jackson -- 0.119McGwire -- 0.114Killebrew -- 0.103 (missing first season)Frank Thomas -- 0.101Thome -- 0.099Mathews -- 0.091Sheffield -- 0.088Mantle -- 0.087 (missing first four seasons)A-Rod -- 0.074Ruth -- n/aFoxx -- n/aOtt -- n/a
(My way of avoiding the drudgery of marking book reports.)
Obviously overall lineup strength plays a part in this (significant, I would guess), and also prevailing managerial strategies through the years, but holy cow, Banks--I would have bet my house on Bonds having the highest percentage. And lineup aside, Mantle's figure is weirdly low. Williams' figure is only for his age 36-41 seasons; bet he was up around 20% in his prime.
Pujols has only drawn 100 walks three times in his career, and never more than 115 in a season. Over a quarter of them have been intentional.
Trivia question I tripped over in a article about his impending 500th: who was slated to play left field for the Cardinals the year he broke in?
― clemenza, Monday, 21 April 2014 17:33 (nine years ago) link
Cabrera's 0.225 would place him fourth on that list.
― clemenza, Monday, 21 April 2014 17:36 (nine years ago) link
Lou Brock
― Andy K, Monday, 21 April 2014 17:37 (nine years ago) link
Oh, wait -- you said "broke in," not "born."
Brock was slated to play left field for the Jays this year, but no.
― clemenza, Monday, 21 April 2014 17:38 (nine years ago) link
oh i feel like we've had this conversation before -- on bbref, the BB columnn includes IBBs, right? that's confusing
― k3vin k., Monday, 21 April 2014 17:39 (nine years ago) link
Yes.
Mario Mendoza -- 0.077 (Mantle/A-Rod territory)...which may or may not say something about how meaningful a stat this is.
― clemenza, Monday, 21 April 2014 17:48 (nine years ago) link
xposts bobby bonilla, right?
― Karl Malone, Monday, 21 April 2014 18:12 (nine years ago) link
Well done. Found that a little disorienting.
― clemenza, Monday, 21 April 2014 18:24 (nine years ago) link
I was going to guess Andy Van Slyke.
― Call the Doctorb, the B is for Brownstein (Leee), Monday, 21 April 2014 18:29 (nine years ago) link
Banks IBB #s hugely inflated cuz Cubs both stunk and he didn't walk a huge amount otherwise. Unlike Bonds who did.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 00:57 (nine years ago) link
hit 499th in 1st in DC
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 23:27 (nine years ago) link
His 500th in the 5th. Congrats!
― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 00:44 (nine years ago) link
PUJOLS BACK
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 23 April 2014 00:51 (nine years ago) link
weird: looking at pujols' career defensive numbers, bbref has him as a huge plus (not including the positional adjustment), which is how i've always thought of him, while fangraphs has him as a huge minus
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 23 April 2014 00:53 (nine years ago) link
are you looking at the "DEF" line on fg? that includes position
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 01:06 (nine years ago) link
right, but on bbref he's +25 runs above average in the field (including position) where on FG he's -70
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 23 April 2014 01:09 (nine years ago) link
i mean i get that they use different methods but that's a huge difference
yeah BBRef uses DRS and FG uses UZR, i guess they have some different ideas
fwiw pujols has the highest UZR on record for a 1b. i think it only goes back to 2002 but still.
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 01:19 (nine years ago) link
http://espn.go.com/blog/jayson-stark/post/_/id/769/appreciating-albert-pujols
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 23 April 2014 01:32 (nine years ago) link
just read about this, congrats.
"Only 26 of the thousands of men who have played in the major leagues have ever reached that milestone. At 34, he is the third-youngest to do so."
― Bee OK, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 01:33 (nine years ago) link
not sure about that last part however. :-)
― Bee OK, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 01:34 (nine years ago) link
i feel like people deal a certain amount of schadenfreude or at least snarkiness about his past two years, or at least LAA's incompetence, but i'm always rooting for him and i still hope he ends up with 700 homers
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Wednesday, 23 April 2014 01:37 (nine years ago) link
he's a lot easier to root for now that he's out of the NL Central ;)
― frogbs, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 02:00 (nine years ago) link
I'd have to figure the HR friendly NL Central Parks probably never hurt Pujols. At least he got to take Minute Maid with him to LA so that every time the Angels go there they can show him hitting that moonshot against Brad Lidge.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 23 April 2014 02:21 (nine years ago) link
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmAkwHZCcAEzLUL.jpg
after hitting a walk-off homer to win the 2000 pcl championship
― mookieproof, Thursday, 24 April 2014 19:12 (nine years ago) link
I met Jered Weaver's father-in-law today.
― Immediate Follower (NA), Sunday, 27 April 2014 23:11 (nine years ago) link
father of tacos
― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 28 April 2014 00:53 (nine years ago) link
did you ask him if he really wanted his daughter to marry jeff
― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Monday, 28 April 2014 01:27 (nine years ago) link
i ate 10 tacos next to jeff weaver last night
― Andy K, Monday, 28 April 2014 01:37 (nine years ago) link
2,500th hit, 1,500th run, go-ahead double in the 9th.
― clemenza, Sunday, 7 September 2014 05:22 (nine years ago) link
35 today
seven years, $189m left on contract
― mookieproof, Friday, 16 January 2015 17:47 (nine years ago) link