Prince Albert Pujols, he reigneth

(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

my BBR search engine isn't cooperating but it appears as though Pujols scored the second-fewest runs in MLB history for a player who had 100+ RBIs. He scored 53 runs.

i know one has little to do with the other but it says something about his inability to get on base or run despite having enough ABs to back his way into 100 ribbies. .

i think fangraphs has him as the worst everyday player in MLB (via EWPod)

there haven't been any rumors or news or anything, but just thinking: is there a chance pujols might retire early? he seems like one of those guys who would feel kind of bad about absolutely crawling to the finish line while being one of the highest paid players on the team. is there precedent for that, for leaving a contract early? i feel like there is, but i can't remember the specific players.

steamer is projecting him to be a 99 wRC+ DH next year

which would be a big improvement

there was an EW podcast recently where they concluded he will make a graceful exit in mid-2019.

even if he continues to be awful, though, i can see him sticking around in an attempt to reach 700 HRs or some other round number counting stat.

hey, he had an 100 RBI year

happy 38th

only four years and $114m to go

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/albert-pujols-and-the-crawl-to-3000-hits/

if he finishes this season with the same number of ABs and BA as last season, his career BA will go from .304 to .301

that HOF plaque won't look as good with a .290/.361/.520 slash.

double in the 2nd puts him at 2999

On the chart in Kevin's link, Beltre probably would've ranked second if not for the injury last year.

Just realised Joey Votto is only 3 years younger than Pujols.

well, i guess he finally did it.

Just realised Joey Votto is only 3 years younger than Pujols.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, May 4, 2018 10:08 PM (yesterday)

5 years*

Seems apropos that 3,000 was a broken-bat single.

on the road, in SEA, who then immediately started booing ohtani

the whole thing was kind of sad

Breaking fantasy news: Albert Pujols finally drives in a run.

tbh it seems like a very good time for him to hang it up, if the Angels make the postseason he’ll be an albatross. His WAR continues to creep down.

he could suck ass for the rest of the season...or pick up the rest of his $24 million for the year. he'll get to make the same decision every year through 2021

he has some stiff competition for worst player this year, though. He's at -0.4 fWAR, but chris davis is somehow already at -1.4 fWAR! ian desmond and dexter fowler have both been godawful, too, and seem likely to continue getting lots of playing time

wonder if mike scioscia will be able to sit pujols more often, in general, now that he's reached 3000 (unless we're all supposed to care about reaching 700 or 714 home runs, too)

how about not batting him 4th

Prince Albert Pujols, He Has Obtained positive WAR so far this season!!

0.2 fWAR, 1.0 bWAR.

.257/.293/.437, 17 HRs, 99 wRC+

he is hovering just above replacement level, at least

he has the slowest sprint speed of any player this year at 22.3 ft/s, which is faster than he was in 2017 when he was also the slowest player, at 21.8 ft/s. he tied for last with victor martinez in 2016.

Was Pujols' 2017 the worst season ever for a player with 100 RBI's?

Dante Bichette had some bad WAR seasons with Coors-inflated numbers, but according to bWAR his defense was the worst part of his game.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24270231/mlb-how-shift-ruined-albert-pujols

More hard hit outs than anyone in baseball the past four years, blames the shift, thinks RBIs aren't overrated.

Pujols is one of only eight players who have been active over the past 18 seasons

pujols, beltre, utley, bartolo, ...?

sabathia

fernando rodney? he pitched a few games in 2002

ichiro

joaquin benoit

that's 8!

From 2015 to 2018, Pujols has accumulated a whopping 403 hard-hit outs, putting balls in play that travel at least 95 mph. Nobody has more. His average exit velocity is 90.3 mph, ranked fourth among those with at least 1,700 batted balls during that stretch, according to Statcast. His batting average on balls in play is .245, tied for the lowest in the majors among qualified hitters during that time.

Pujols shrugs.

"What can you do, bro?"

wwjvd

yeah that's a pretty pathetic attitude from someone who is too rich to care lol

i like how they paired the article with a sam miller piece explaining how shifts are bullshit

espn, something for everyone

Thinking about that makes Pujols think about all the line drives he has lost up the middle -- guaranteed hits in the baseball game he once knew. He is asked what his batting average would look like if second basemen played their position traditionally and didn't shade toward center field.

"Between .290 and .300, for sure," Pujols says, who instead sports a .254/.290/.428 slash line "Look at the balls that I'm hitting up the middle, especially this year. Out of those 30 or 40 or 50 balls, give me 25 hits. Add those 25 hits to my .250 batting average, I'd be hitting like .290."

(narrator voice): "he'd be hitting like. 316."

...

(narrator voice): "if you assume he's actually right about losing 25 hits up the middle this year against the shift"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwZJR3x9xwI

right after i posted that, he got injured and then underwent season-ending surgery on his left knee. sorry albert.

his line for 2018:

117 G, .245/.289/.411, wRC+ 90, 19 HR, 5.6 BB%, 13.1 K%, -0.2 fWAR, 0.1 bWAR (positive!!)

only 3 years left on his contract, after this season

he actually injured his left knee in the hardware store

happy 39th

sigh... thread:

He’s listed at 38, but I’m pretty sure Albert Pujols is 40. Today @baseballpro, I lay out new evidence (from Pujols’s own mouth), and then dig into why this happens, and why it matters, and what parts of it *don’t* matter much (Free): https://t.co/HGub38otZd

— Matthew Trueblood (@MATrueblood) April 24, 2018