The Greatness of Albert Pujols

Those of you who have only been watching baseball for the past ten years or so think of Albert Pujols as a double play machine who occasionally hits homeruns. That is because he has not batted above .250 since 2016 and holds the MLB record for grounding into double plays (GDPs). But this is not the Albert Pujols that will be remembered when he retires.

Having seen him play since his incredible 2001 rookie season, I remember the St. Louis Cardinal version of Albert Pujols. In his 11 years with the Redbirds, Pujols batted .328, hit 445 home runs and had 1,329 RBIs, averaging .328, with 40 HRs, 121 RBIs and .418/.617/1.035 per season. Albert was already a first round HoF, having collected three NL MVPs (and probably would have had one or two more if it was not for Barry Bonds). Albert had 975 walks and only 704 strikeouts over this 11-year period and he still has more walks than strikeouts over his career. Very few power hitters over the last 40 years walk more than they strikeout.

Albert amassed 76.6 WAR through his 11 seasons in St. Louis, including seven seasons of 8.0 WAR or more. Just for comparison, Mike Trout, who widely considered the greatest player of his generation and will likely be considered one of the top 10 players of all-time, currently has 76.0 WAR in the middle of his 11th season. You can argue that Trout would have had four or five more WAR but for the shortened 2020 season and even more if not for injuries, however injuries are part of the game. This is crucial to understanding Pujols’ career. He averaged 155 games while in St. Louis and never missed significant playing time, while playing through various injuries. The injuries caught up with him with the Angels, as his elbow injuries and plantar fasciitis significantly impacted his game. After struggling over the past few years, it looks like Pujols is having fun again as a Dodger and is contributing to an extremely talented team.

Albert's current all-time rankings are:

This will be the Albert Pujols I remember when he finally hangs up his cleats.