Prince Albert Pujols, he reigneth

lol rbis

I got sidetracked by pizza time. It appears that Prince Albert Pujols er reigneth

wau espn just ran a stat...alb w/ bases loaded is 7-9, 5 HR, 2.444 slg this year

still hasn't been walked with the bases loaded...

rockin' his tongue sneer tonight too :P

Good lord, even off the bench he's unstoppable.

He wasn't far off. A few years ago, I tried to come up with a quick and easy method of ranking post-Yastrzemski Triple Crown bids. I'll just link to the piece rather than try to describe it here. By my estimation, Pujols edged ahead of Larry Walker's 1997 season for the seventh-closest run at a Triple Crown since Yaz. The top seven: 1. Dick Allen ('72), 2. George Foster ('77), 3. Jim Rice ('78), 4. Mike Schmidt ('81), 5. Dante Bichette ('95), 6. Willie McCovey ('69), 7. Pujols ('09). He came up 9 hits and 6 RBIs short.

185 assists, a record.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4531189

Oops--the link didn't work.

Okay, once more with feeling: http://phildellio.tripod.com/carlos.html. If that doesn't take, I give up.

http://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/St+Louis+Cardinals+Photo+Day+L4U5t3Ot9o0l.jpghttp://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/St+Louis+Cardinals+Photo+Day+L4U5t3Ot9o0l.jpghttp://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/St+Louis+Cardinals+Photo+Day+L4U5t3Ot9o0l.jpghttp://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/St+Louis+Cardinals+Photo+Day+L4U5t3Ot9o0l.jpghttp://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/St+Louis+Cardinals+Photo+Day+L4U5t3Ot9o0l.jpghttp://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/St+Louis+Cardinals+Photo+Day+L4U5t3Ot9o0l.jpghttp://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/St+Louis+Cardinals+Photo+Day+L4U5t3Ot9o0l.jpghttp://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/St+Louis+Cardinals+Photo+Day+L4U5t3Ot9o0l.jpghttp://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/St+Louis+Cardinals+Photo+Day+L4U5t3Ot9o0l.jpg

By my estimation, Pujols edged ahead of Larry Walker's 1997 season for the seventh-closest run at a Triple Crown since Yaz.

― clemenza, Sunday, October 4, 2009 7:59 PM (1 hour ago)

clemenza, let me aid with your research:

Bonds 2002: .370 (1st) / 46 HR (2nd) / 110 RBI (5th) but also SIXTY EIGHT (ie, 68) INTENTIONAL walks, shattering his previous record of 52. Had Bonds been pitched to, he would easily have won the triple crown this year, as well as a few other years.

pujols 185 assists for a first baseman broke a record held by bill buckner

Pujols fell short of the 2009 quadruple crown:

#2 in errors by a 1B
13 errors to Ryan Howard's 14.

Ranked dead last in Zone Rating of all qualified MLB 1B.

True enough, except that precisely because Bonds wasn't pitched to, he never had a realistic shot at the Triple Crown. In 2001, he finished 23 RBIs behinds Sosa; 18 behind Berkman in 2002 (probably his closest bid; he won the batting title and was only 3 home runs behind Sosa); and 30 behind Castilla in 2004. In my original piece, I established a cut-off that said you had to have a minimum of 90% of the league-leading total in any one category, and Bonds didn't reach the 90% bar for RBIs in any one of those years. I wasn't trying to figure out who might have won a Triple Crown under ideal conditions, it was just a cold calculation of who actually did come the closest.

And if you start throwing what-ifs into the mix, I'd say that absent the 68 intentional walks (and the other who-knows-how-many intentionally unintentional walks...), there's no way Bonds hits .370 that year.

Also, he's a drug cheat.

"Ranked dead last in Zone Rating of all qualified MLB 1B."

Where are you seeing that? Fangraphs has him at middle of the pack for UZR as does Hardball Times for RZR.

lol, Trollie loves batting average and errors.

bye bye bone spurs
cynical theory - cardinals hold off on new deal until surgery to fix what is causing spurs i.e. tommy john

Eric (Denver): I know he's not a free agent this offseason, but what do you see happening with Albert Pujols? Can the Cards sign him to an A-Rod-type deal and still have the money to field a perennial contender that can not only capture the NL Central title, but go deep into the playoffs?

Joe Sheehan: The Cardinals' problem isn't going to be money, but talent. They haven't done a real good job of integrating young players into their roster, and they've been drafting so low in the first round that they haven't had the shot at high-impact talent at the top of the draft. They can afford to pay Pujols $25-30MM/year, and still have $80-90 million for everyone else; the question is can they distribute that $80-90 million optimally, with a number of low-paid producers supporting a few other high-dollar players.

his reigneth, continueith!

unanimoso!

lol at pts for Tejada

i love derrek lee but it's strange that someone gave him a second place vote

one 3rd place vote for todd helton, one 4th place for holliday, one 5th place apiece for carpenter, wainwright (vote split ;_;), werth, and yunel escobar.

has he ever played healthy?

according to the mang, the only day he is 100% healthy is day 1 of spring training.

seriously, seems like he spends every off season in the hospital. i think alex in SF said (maybe on this thread?): "imagine if he played healthy"

just remember tony lolrussa didn't want to play him until 300 yr old bobby bonilla got hurt

He won the league Triple Crown for the decade -- first to do it since Ted Williams in the '40s.

I think he won the Triple Crown for today, too. Pujols and Halladay begin their MVP showdown on even footing.

I have this guy on my fantasy team

feel like a total geek saying that but it's true & I'm stoked

Tell the rest of your lineup to go have a fantasy vacation--Albert will take care of all.

shield your eyes

hoffman's got nuffin

nice poke

that was really predictable

from Hell's Bells to Tinkerbelle

lol

so much reigneth

<3 albert

~fin~

casey mcgehee, he reigneth

3 hr game for prince albert today

single handedly pwning my fantasy team

I got way ahead of myself last year, but geez:

HR -- 32 (first, leading by one)
RBI -- 88 (first, leading by seven)
BA -- .316 (second, trailing by four points)

The four points translates to two hits; he's two singles shy of a Triple Crown right now.

I know I should be rooting for Votto (not just from Toronto, but the exact part of Toronto--Etobicoke--where I am), but I've been waiting forever for someone to win the Triple Crown, and Albert seems like an infinitely better bet. I especially like that he's got a cushion in RBIs, the one category that you can't really control. If my own team didn't have the third baseman having the fluky year, Cabrera would have a real shot too.

Sorry--expect updates after a good night (i.e., a good night for Albert):

Pujols -- 33/92/.319
Votto -- 29/86/.323
Some other guy -- 31 HR

I know it's August 24, but I find this is getting almost no attention at all. Is that because 1) it is way too early, 2) a Triple Crown involves three categories at once, and people don't process three things at once, 3) people take Pujols for granted (especially in a year where, compared only to his own established levels, his numbers are down), 4) Joey Votto's still not well known enough, or 5) coming out of the PED era, people simply don't get excited anymore about anything involving a hitter (or, here, two hitters) chasing some benchmark?

in my case, it's cuz BA and RBI aren't too important

also, you know, there's PRESEASON FOOTBALL, the Ground Zero Mosque of sports.