Prince Albert Pujols, he reigneth

he fell off so badly in the second half of '15 I wonder if he's actually done for real this time tho

.249/.324/.416, 101 wRC+, 0.1 fWAR

only 5 and a half left to go

ouch. i didn't realize it had gotten that bad or that there was still 5+ years on that contract

Depending upon how much stock you put in the 40 HR last year, he's in his eighth year of almost uniformly straight-line decline. WARs, starting in 2009 (his career high): 9.7, 7.5, 5.3, 4.8, 2.3 (injury year; pro-rated for 155 games), 3.9, 3.1, 0.4 (also pro-rated for 155 games).

His worst nightmare turns out to be...R.A. Dickey: including an 0-3 tonight, 13 AB, no hits, no walks, one sacrifice fly. (Kluber, too.)

so R.A. has that going for him.

not too difficult to get albert out these days

it was a good run

http://i.imgur.com/Zury8rd.png

his career arc at this point kinda reminds me of griffey jr's

pujols probably more consistently great at his peak, but yeah. doesn't have griffey's injury excuses, either

13 seasons with at least 25 homers and 100 RBI

it's a shame (you know, apart from the money) that he's signed to such an absurd contract that he's become a joke

because good lord he hit some baseballs

eh, he earned that contract, Angels were foolish if they thought they were getting more than 3 decent years out of him

This could be Cabrera's 12th such season if he picks up the pace a bit in RBI. Never thought any contemporary of Pujols' would surpass his basic slash stats, but Cabrera might.

Pujols: .309/.393/.573
Cabrera: .321/.398/.561

(And just so nobody complains)

Trout: .306/.402/.558

Cabrera still has to tack on three extra years of decline, though, so maybe not. And of course, that's two great fielders and one guy with no defensive value.

Pujols hasn't remained otherworldly, but he isn't aging too bad for such a big built guy. I can't see why any of these clubs sign anyone for a 10 year guaranteed contract, but if you are going to do such a deal a guy like Pujols or say Votto are probably the better type of players to invest that much cash and time. Hamilton's long deal was the one that was really stupid, as the guy was an injury risk beyond the off the field issues.

The big thing to me is that the Angels minor league system completely fell apart and they had a couple of tough injuries with their young pitchers. Their pitching has been their weakness the past few years even last year when they won a bunch of games.

This could be Cabrera's 12th such season if he picks up the pace a bit in RBI. Never thought any contemporary of Pujols' would surpass his basic slash stats, but Cabrera might.

Pujols: .309/.393/.573
Cabrera: .321/.398/.561

(And just so nobody complains)

Trout: .306/.402/.558

Cabrera still has to tack on three extra years of decline, though, so maybe not. And of course, that's two great fielders and one guy with no defensive value.

― clemenza, Friday, August 26, 2016 10:55 PM (yesterday)

wow, i just checked and the two have just about identical career wRC+. i figured even with pujols's disastrous last few years he would still have him beat

that said despite cabrera being arguably one of the best...5-7 RH hitters ever, pujols has already attained inner-circle status and cabrera will have to have a bonds-like finish to his career to sniff that

miggy has yet (i think) to single-handedly destroy a pitcher's career the way pujols did with brad lidge

or bartolo did with james shields

Albert this season kinda proving how empty the RBI can be, statistically speaking:

.238/.276/.363
5 HR
5 2B
12 runs
30 RBI (2nd in AL)
-0.3 WAR

it takes a lot to go from the best player in MLB to the worst but he's trending well...

only 4 more years left on his contract. after this year.

was he an actual "questionable birthday" guy or was that just good ol'-fashioned racism?

his ISO is .125, woof

looks like he's going to end up generating around +10 WAR over his 10 year contract

http://www.sbnation.com/2011/11/21/2577356/how-old-is-albert-pujols

ah, 2011:

Well, if you squint hard enough, you might catch a glimpse of early decline in his numbers. His OPS+ has decreased every year since 2008. But I wouldn't want to make too much of that, because he's still playing at a superstar level, and really, who needs statistics when you've got a lot of rumors and hearsay evidence?

proving how empty the RBI can be, statistically speaking

Phrased that way, absolutely agree: "can be," not "is." If you look at the rest of the combined-leagues RBI leaderboard, it's one guy, Travis Shaw, having a good year, and nine other guys having very good to great years, including Zimmerman, Harper, and Goldschmidt (a couple in Colorado, mind you). And there's no mystery to Pujols' bogus total.

Grand slam:

http://m.mlb.com/video/v1462152183

More productive than Thome when he hit his 600th, less productive than Sosa.

thome never sucked as bad as pjuols does now!

damn he's on pace to score 49 runs

$500K per run

Thome's last two seasons were split between four teams; I didn't look carefully enough--you're right, he was mostly pretty good except for his Orioles line.

Ben Carsley, BP:

"Thanks to his milestone 600th homer on Saturday, Albert Pujols has now spent more time trotting around the bases than Mike Trout has spent on this earth."

.230/.275/.382, 74 wRC+, 5.9 BB%, -1.2 fWAR

only a little over 4 seasons to go on his contract

his career fWAR is back down to exactly 90.0, so he's probably going to end down in the 80s unless he improves

gonna get real ugly

yr alltime GIDP leader

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/albert-pujols-grounded-into-history/

hey, he's in good company!

1 pujols
2 ripken
3 pudge
4 aaron
5 yaz

a lot fewer PA than most of them; he can get to 600 DP perhaps

353 GIDP means 706 outs, so 26 games worth of outs by himself.

609th HR ties Sosa

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/albert-pujols-is-the-worst-player-in-baseball/

TJ: Stanton chasing 60 is nice, but can we appreciate Albert getting close to the 100 RBI, < .400 SLG club?

Jeff Sullivan: He’s only seven RBI away!

Jeff Sullivan: Currently slugging .394

Jeff Sullivan:

Okay, 1990 Joe Carter wins out. His 115 RBI that year are the most ever by a player who slugged under .400.
There are just 11 seasons on record in which a player has reached triple digits.
Joe Carter has two of them!

i wonder how much better the angels would be with anyone else providing protection for trout

i don't really know the front office dynamics but if scioscia keeps his job after batting pujols in the middle of the order all season i'd be surprised

if scioscia goes it'll be arte moreno's decision, and i doubt that he's concerned with where pujols bats in the order. not winning a playoff game since 2009, however . . .

Pujols has scored 48 runs all season.

looking at Carter, his seasons appear to be a bit better; still terrible, but they came in *relative* deadball periods.

(xpost) Not disagreeing with you, KM, but I'll just say in passing that of the 10,000 things Bill James has said over the years, one that he's never budged an inch on (he often modifies or even completely upends his opinions) is that the idea of one batter providing protection for another is just a myth.

his bbref war is back below 100 thanks to this season

what a depressing career arc

sucks for the angels, too, if they end up missing the playoffs by a game or two. if they had a replacement-level player, they might have made it. but you never know, they might turn it around.

xpost clemenza

you (and bill james) are probably right! i guess the "protection" idea is kind of an old school piece of wisdom that i've always just assumed was correct because it seems intuitive.

If Pujols is the worst player in baseball this year, I'm guessing that Cabrera can't be too far behind.

cabrera's fall-off this year was so dramatic that i have to think he's got enough left to be a well-above average hitter