Albert Pujols Watch

Kliq

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It also seems like all his homers lately have been super clutch.
 

E5 Yaz

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The Cardinals schedule here on out is very weird. It includes five straight vs Cincinnati and ends with six straight against the Pirates ... three at home and three away
 

Madmartigan

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He should just play another year, seems like he’s rediscovered something with the Cards and he’s got a bit left in the tank.
 

snowmanny

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I'm struggling to think of other instances where a great player returned to his original team at the very end of his career for a last hurrah, and had this sort of success. In any sport. I feel like it has happened but I can't think of anyone.
 

worm0082

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Pete Rose going back to Cincinnati? He put up pretty decent numbers in 84 & 85 and the whole fanfare of him becoming player/manager and chasing the hits record.
 

Pitt the Elder

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I'm struggling to think of other instances where a great player returned to his original team at the very end of his career for a last hurrah, and had this sort of success. In any sport. I feel like it has happened but I can't think of anyone.
Ken Griffey Jr hit 19hr in 454 PAs in his age 39season (2nd to last) with Seattle in 2009 with a OPS of .735 and OPS+ of 97. Probably not exactly meeting your standard, but it is somewhere in the universe of "decent-ish." Actually pretty similar to his age-19 season in 1989 (16hr in 506 PA with OPS of .748 and OPS+ of 108).
 

Yelling At Clouds

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I'm struggling to think of other instances where a great player returned to his original team at the very end of his career for a last hurrah, and had this sort of success. In any sport. I feel like it has happened but I can't think of anyone.
Matt Holliday was really good for Colorado in 2018 … in 25 games at the end of the year (they made the playoffs, though!)
 

streeter88

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In one of the other threads, there's been a fair bit of chatter about Pujols lying about his age - and that he is really 3 years older, which would make him 45. Therefore, not really surprised how adamant he is about retiring at the end of this year.

Pujols almost 46!
 

InstaFace

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On the BRef Offensive WAR Leaderboard, the following players (With ranks and oWAR, and for a few, their max vote %) in the Top 100 are not, yet, in the Hall of Fame:

3. Barry Bonds 143.6
13. Alex Rodriguez 115.3
26. Albert Pujols 86.8
29. Pete Rose 89.3
33. Manny Ramirez 81.8
34. Mike Trout 81.4
37. Gary Sheffield 80.7
43. Miguel Cabrera 78.2
57. Adrian Beltre 71.6
62. Dick Allen 70.2 (1996: 18.9%)
68. Robinson Cano 67.8
69. Lou Whitaker 67.7
70. Rafael Palmeiro 67.5
73. Carlos Beltran 66.6
79. Mark McGwire 65.4
82. Bernie Williams 63.2 (2012: 9.6%)
85. Bobby Grich 62.6 (1992: 2.6%)
86. Toby Harrah 62.5 (1992: 0.2%)
93. Bobby Abreu 61.6
95. Shoeless Joe Jackson 61.2
96. Dwight Evans 60.5
98. Jeff Kent 60.2

Bold = active, Italics = PED-related reasons commonly cited for omission, Underline = Permanently Ineligible

78% of the top 100 are in the HOF, 83% if you exclude active players not yet eligible. Of the top 50, every single one is either in the HOF, still active, excluded for PEDs or for being Pete Rose.

I mostly just wanted to make this to see where Pujols and a few others are ranking.
 

Sandwich Pick

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Ken Griffey Jr hit 19hr in 454 PAs in his age 39season (2nd to last) with Seattle in 2009 with a OPS of .735 and OPS+ of 97. Probably not exactly meeting your standard, but it is somewhere in the universe of "decent-ish." Actually pretty similar to his age-19 season in 1989 (16hr in 506 PA with OPS of .748 and OPS+ of 108).
Eddie Murray also had a decent-ish return to the Orioles after being traded to them during the 1996 season (10 HR, .766 OPS in 64 games. Also his 2nd-to-last season.)
 
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jon abbey

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Alfonso Soriano is not an alltime great, but he did have 412 career HRs. He came up with NY and was traded to TEX in the A-Rod deal after 2003, then he came back in 2013 at 37 and had a monster halfseason, 17 HRs in just 219 ABs and a .850 OPS.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Barring catastrophe, it seems that 700 is inevitable. So how many does he actually finish with? I'm saying 703.
I dunno. HRs are hard to hit and he may start to press some. I think he ends right on the number.

Thinking about Pujols has me thinking a bit about Mays and Aaron. How fucking incredible were those guys? Maybe the platoon advantage is actually not a big deal when you are talking about counting achievements for guys with 12 k PAs, but Pujols has only had it in about 28 percent of all plate appearances in his career. Aaron and Mays even less. (Bonds and Ruth close to 70 percent.)
 

PC Drunken Friar

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I am not sure I buy the age conspiracy. It wasn't like he was signed out of the Dominican. He was in high school by his Sophomore year and wasn't a huge recruit (went to community college. So his dad and grandmother were able to fake paperwork enough to trick a HS in Missouri for what was then a non-propsect? When did they decide to do this? Wouldn't there be records or Pujols in HS in the Dominican?
 

Kliq

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Sammy Sosa, after bombing with Baltimore in 2006, took a year off and had one last season with Texas, hitting 21 homers and an OPS+ of 101 to get him over the 600 homer mark.
 

reggiecleveland

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I dunno. HRs are hard to hit and he may start to press some. I think he ends right on the number.

Thinking about Pujols has me thinking a bit about Mays and Aaron. How fucking incredible were those guys? Maybe the platoon advantage is actually not a big deal when you are talking about counting achievements for guys with 12 k PAs, but Pujols has only had it in about 28 percent of all plate appearances in his career. Aaron and Mays even less. (Bonds and Ruth close to 70 percent.)
Mays went to a tough homerun park the last half of his career, while Aaron went to the "Launching Pad."

I read a Bill James article where he was quite certain of GOATs and parks

If Joe Dimaggio and Ted Williams traded home parks Ted would have hit 50 multiple times, 60 probably with Yankee Stadium as his home park, maybe stays around to take a run at 714 (assuming he doesn't go to Korea since he would be on a winning Yankk team). Joe D hitsmany more homers since he wasn't and maybe sets doubles record, and maybe hits .400 at some point.
Mays hits 700 but probably falls short of Ruth if he went to Atlanta when Aaron did.
 
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DJnVa

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I can't remember the stat they were talking about, but this year Pujols number was the LOWEST of any year he played in St. Louis, but HIGHER than any year spent elsewhere.
 

DJnVa

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My girlfriend is a huge Pujols fan. She's going to the game on 9/16--she's even buying a shirt that says "My heart belongs to Pujols" for it. I just got her an authenticated Pujols autographed card.

Anyway, he has 10 games before that one. She has a chance to see something special.
Updating this. She's at the game tonight, and thanks to a SoSHer that saw this post her and her mom and stepdad got some sweet ticket upgrades and instead of sitting way up top behind the plate, are in infield box seats, just past the visitor's dugout.

She also got 10 straight seconds of airtime while stuck behind the Blues mascot while there was a pitching change. I got video and she's mortified.

EDIT: And it turns out her getting stuck there caused Jim Edmonds on the broadcast to mention that you never wanna be near those guys at the stadium.
 
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snowmanny

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I can't remember the stat they were talking about, but this year Pujols number was the LOWEST of any year he played in St. Louis, but HIGHER than any year spent elsewhere.
That's true of OPS+

He's at 142. Highest in LAA (or anywhere but STL) was 138 in his first year there, 2012. Lowest in STL was 148 in 2011.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Pujols has 499 home runs against righties and 199 vs. lefties, so now he needs one each for all the perfectionists out there.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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He gets a lefty tonight, finally. 9 of Snell's 10 HRs have been against righties this year.
 

canderson

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Reminder: 10 more games for STL - Kershaw tomorrow, LAD Sunday, a 2 game set at Milwaukee then 6 straight vs Pittsburgh (3 home, 3 away).
 

Jason Bae

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It's not like he's been hitting a bunch of cheap home runs either, they've been no doubters.