Prince Albert Pujols, he reigneth

widely suspected but samson is also an attention-getting radio guy so i don't put extra stock in his word

A James tweet today:

Albert Pujols with the Cardinals was 179 hits ABOVE .300. His career average is now .299. I would be surprised if there was any other player in history who ever went from 179 hits above .300 to finish under .300.

There's actually a perfect split there: first 10 years all over .300, next 10 all under .300 (first one .299, but still).

2001-10: .332
2011-20: .262

retiring at .299 would irritate the shit out of me

tell it to mickey mantle

Players who did:

Frank Demaree
Carl Furillo
Hardy Richardson
Dustin Pedroia
Bake McBride
Rico Carty
Jack Doyle
Matt Holliday
Kenny Lofton
Frank McCormick
Sam West
Harry Rice
Joe Start
Dante Bichette
Buck Jordan
Shane Mack

(.298 for Mantle.)

Anyway, I don't know how many AB it will take--probably no more than 50-100--but anything beyond that and it's probably safe to say Pujols won't be finishing up with a career .299 average.

I doubt Pujols has carried a .300 OBP across the past 6 seasons.

I peeked at his 2021 projections on Fangraphs, yikes.

THE BAT X has him with a .587 OPS. ZIPS has him at -1.1 WAR (not a career worst fwiw!)

I doubt Pujols has carried a .300 OBP across the past 6 seasons.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, March 11, 2021 12:26 AM (thirty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

close - he's at .301 over the past 6, .299 over the past 5

Because he's rounding up right now--he's at .29855--he'd actually have to get 30 hits in his next 100 AB to stay at .299; anything less, he's down to .298. So he'll probably be off .299 forever fairly quickly--his first few AB, probably.

I know it won’t happen, but I’d like to see him traded back to the cardinals for some of those last plate appearances (but please, not more than 30 or so, please)

Just read that LaRussa had him walked intentionally, tying his season totals for 2019 and 2020 (2015 was the last time he reached 10 IBB). I can only assume I was on deck at the time.

Will ground into his 400th double play this season, the first player to ever do so.

Was intrigued by the IBB, so I looked it up:

Bottom of the 8th, Angels down by a run; two out, Trout on first, José Iglesias on deck. Pujols had homered earlier in the game.

I don't know Iglesias at all (sorry Andy K), but in a small sample last year (142 AB), he hit .373. Seems like a terrible move situationally: Pujols has to homer again to put L.A. ahead, a double from Iglesias will do it. As someone on the MLB site put it, La Russa still has his head in 2011.

It worked, though.

someone said the walk was to get the 3rd batter in before pulling the pitcher.

xp pujols won't even score from first on a triple

more alarming is putting the tying run into scoring position, of course

Is the 3-batter rule for relievers still in effect this season?

It is

more alarming is putting the tying run into scoring position, of course

Yeah, should have led with that--especially with Trout on 2nd. Didn't think about the third-batter rule (because I've been so disengaged post-pandemic, I didn't even know it was in effect).

BASERUNNING
SB: Pujols (1, 3rd base off Cody/Trevino)

!!

A. Pujols homered (420 ft.) to deep left center

Lol

Nice bittersweet Pujols post by Posnanski today in The Athletic.

The Los Angeles Angels are releasing future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols today, per sources. Pujols is in the final year of his 10-year, $253 million contract.

— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) May 6, 2021

― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Thursday, May 6, 2021 12:52 PM (two minutes ago)

i guess i will take this to Prince Albert Pujols, he reigneth but i really hope/expect that he will in a cardinals uniform for a few home games at the end

― Zach_TBD (Karl Malone), Thursday, May 6, 2021 12:54 PM (0 seconds ago)

His reigneth hath ended.

pic.twitter.com/dBWkkFdkxV

— Old Hoss Radbourn(e) (@OldHossRadbourn) May 6, 2021

releasing him was a gift, i guess, because it allows another team to start a new contract with him, right? probably much less than the $24M/yr he was making before.

unless some other team really does want his services for the rest of the year (for PR value i guess), i think the cardinals wouldn't add him onto the team until either they're out of contention or they've made the playoffs. the NL Central is mediocre and he really would make the team worse. it's too bad the DH wasn't added to the NL in time, i think they would actually pick him earlier if it were possible

He's about 180 RBI behind Aaron--probably would have caught him if he'd split the difference between then and now the past few years. Released on Willie Mays's 90th birthday, the last guy he passed on the HR list.

yea Covid robbed him of his chance at 700

yikes, apparently he was voicing his displeasure after not being played yesterday (in some matchup that would hypothetically be good for him or whatever), then released today. sheesh. maybe he really does want to just join some other team for a few more shitty months. i still think that at the end of the season they will make the STL reunion happen for at least a night

kinda wonder what’s driving him now. more counting stats? he’s a guaranteed hall of farmer and he’s super rich. is he not embarrassed by hitting .198? does he think he’s a swing tweak away from returning to the production of ten years ago? does he just really really like playing baseball, even poorly?

more counting stats?

it seems so fucking dumb/petty, but yeah, i think he very much wants to hit 700 or something? that's 33 more *gulp*

I'm always interested in non-baseball-media attention to baseball--lead story on what remains of CNN's sports coverage.

While his career may end during a 2-game hitting streak, he was also 2 for his last 18.

I was actually surprised at low his slash this year was (.198/.250/.372), all career lows.
Bonds' age 41 slash was .270/.454/.545 in comparison.

I am kinda mad about this! it’s rude. drink the whole damn glass, halos

He’s lucky they didn’t do this a year or two ago.

Pujols' decade with the Angels:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/pujolal01.shtml#2012-2021-sum:batting_standard

I'd be interested in seeing the list of players who would turn up in a Similarity Score match: 222 HR, .256/.311/.447, 108 OPS+. Just based on OPS+, here are some of the names you get:

Sid Bream
Jay Bruce
Tommy Davis
Vince DiMaggio
Ralph Garr
Dave Henderson
Elston Howard
Harvey Kuenn
Mike Lowell
Rico Petrocelli
Miguel Tejada
Rondell White

One thing he will probably just miss is becoming the fourth player with 6,000 total bases (after Aaron, Musial, and Mays; Bonds fell 24 short). He's at 5,955.

Albert Pujols played 1,181 games with the Angels and had 1,180 hits.
Erick Aybar played 1,220 games with the Angels and had 1,223 hits

Interesting HOF argument for Aybar.

pujols: 12.9 bWAR, one all-star appearance, $240m
aybar: 23.0 bWAR, one all-star appearance, $37m

lol i hadn't known that aybar's nickname was 'admiral'

The Dodgers have agreed to a Major League deal with Albert Pujols, a source told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand on Saturday. Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times was the first to report the news.

The club has not confirmed the deal.

Pujols, 41, cleared waivers on Thursday after being designated for assignment by the Angels a week prior. He hit .198 with five homers and 12 RBIs over 86 at-bats for the Halos before being let go. The future Hall of Famer sits at 667 career homers, 33 shy of 700.

https://www.mlb.com/news/albert-pujols-deal-with-dodgers

ok

the dodgers need...publicity? the slowest player in the league who expects to play every day because he's due?

this makes sense, the dodgers are famous for both having a lot of playing time available for terrible players and being a stupid enough organization to give a lot of playing time to terrible players

but whoever got him, good: my ultimate desire is for the cardinals to get him on the last couple days of the season, and that wasn't going to work if another team didn't pick him up in the meantime, because i really didn't want to watch him play from now until mid-october

Not a move I understand.