In a word? I’d say godly. Maybe superhuman? Think any word that is an exaggeration of unbelievable and that will be the perfect adjective for Pujols. Anyway, you might be wondering why I’m writing about Pujols, this being a Yankee blog and all. Well, as most of you know, Albert Pujols locked up his 3rd NL MVP award today, and as a baseball fan I just wanted to appreciate and talk about his greatness. Check this out…
Before I get to statistics, lets look at how recognized Pujols has been in the NL. Quick background: he was drafted by the Cardinals in the 13th round of the 1999 draft (The Yankees picked Lou Witte 24 people before Pujols. Who is Lou Witte? They picked David Walling in the first round. Again, who? Imagine if the Yankees had picked Pujols anywhere from round 1 to 12?). Since he broke into the league in 2001, Pujols has been elected to the NL All-Star team for every season except 1 (2001- where he oddly came in 2nd in the MVP voting? How do you come in 2nd in the MVP and not make the All-star team?) He has won 3 MVP awards. He now has 2 in a row. He has been awarded the Silver Slugger 5 times in his career. He’s gotten 1 gold glove. He won Rookie of the Year in 2001. He has been in the top 3 of the MVP voting 7 TIMES OUT OF 9 SEASONS! He’s been in the top four 8 out of 9, and the top 10 in every season of his career. Wow…
Take a look at his career line- .334/.427/.628. He has never had a season where he hit below .314. His lowest single season OPB was .394 in his sophomore season. His lowest OPS was .955, also in his 2nd year. His .334 career average is #1 among active players. At some point, he’s led the league in AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, Runs, Hits, Total Bases, Doubles, and HR. In his last 2 MVP seasons, he hit .357/.462/.653 and .327/.443/.658 respectively. Like, you must be kidding me with this guy. To boot, he’s hit .322/.431/.578 with an OPS of 1.009 in the post season. This season, his WPA was an obscene 8.24. Fangraphs valued Pujols at 38 million for this season, which is a far cry from his 16 million dollar salary this year.
Pujols’s last contract was for 100 million dollars over 7 years. He signed that in 2004. After 2011, he will hit the open market. You have to think that he’ll get 300+… He’s that good. Anyway, congrats to Albert.