August 17, 2008
Mr. Consistency
Albert Pujols hit two home runs in the Cardinals 9-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds. That gives Albert 308 home runs for his career. At age 28, he's nine home runs away from entering the top 100 of all time. (George Brett currently holds 100th place with 317.)
His consistent greatness impresses on most about Albert Pujols. In his eighth season in the majors, he's never hit below .300. Only once has his OBA dipped below .400, and only twice has his slugging percentage dipped below .600. During his sophomore slump in 2002, his average line came in at .314/.394/.561. He scored 118 runs and drove in 127 that season. He's never failed to drive in 100 runs, and 2007 was the only year he missed 100 runs scored. He scored 99. With 328 doubles (more than 40 per season) he's well on his way to 600 for his career. How many great all-around hitters go through their careers without a major down years? Ted Williams comes to mind. I always thought Frank Thomas would be the right-handed Teddy Ballgame, but it looks like Albert will take that title.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:58 AM
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Is he 28? How old is Andrew Jones? Taking a foreign born individual's birth certificate serious is foolish, see the Olympics.
Is this your way of saying Pujols is the best overall player in the game right now without actually having to say it? Haha.
Even Ted had a down year in his next to last season 1959 where a serious neck injury held him to.259. He came back for a great final season at age 42 with a HR in his last at bat at Fenway and an earlier last at bat HR in Yankee Stadium in 1960.
re: pujols v. frank thomas
actually, frank thomas' stats through age 29 are BETTER than albert pujols stats;
(from baseball-reference.com);
1990 22 CHW AL 60 191 39 63 11 3 7 31 0 1 44 54 .330 .454 .529 177 101 0 3 0 2 5
1991 23 CHW AL 158 559 104 178 31 2 32 109 1 2 138 112 .318 .453 .553 180 309 0 2 13 1 20 SS,MVP-3
1992 24 CHW AL 160 573 108 185 46 2 24 115 6 3 122 88 .323 .439 .536 174 307 0 11 6 5 19 MVP-8
1993 25 CHW AL 153 549 106 174 36 0 41 128 4 2 112 54 .317 .426 .607 177 333 0 13 23 2 10 SS,MVP-1,AS
1994 26 CHW AL 113 399 106 141 34 1 38 101 2 3 109 61 .353 .487 .729 211 291 0 7 12 2 15 SS,MVP-1,AS
1995 27 CHW AL 145 493 102 152 27 0 40 111 3 2 136 74 .308 .454 .606 179 299 0 12 29 6 14 MVP-8,AS
1996 28 CHW AL 141 527 110 184 26 0 40 134 1 1 109 70 .349 .459 .626 178 330 0 8 26 5 25 MVP-8,AS
1997 29 CHW AL 146 530 110 184 35 0 35 125 1 1 109 69 .347 .456 .611 181 324 0 7 9 3 15 MVP-3,AS
you can see from the above that Frank Thomas was averaging an OBA of more than .450 up through age 29, and a slugging average of more than .600 up through age 29.
Frank Thomas, through age 29, was somewhat better than teddy ballgame, and his stats looked more like those of harry heilmann, hank greenberg or some other players who played back in the days of mega-offense of the 20s and 30s.
of course, he had decline years after age 29, but through age 29, his career was as great as could possibly be.
let us see how pujols does through age 29, and then how he does in his 30s.
stan musial, another cardinal great, was much greater in the latter half of his career, as was teddy ballgame. they had exceptionally productive decline phases of their career.
we'll see how pujols handles age and injury.
but yes, right now, he's headed for the HOF.
--art kyriazis, philly