Albert Pujols' career stats: 10 seasons, .331 average, 1230 rbi's, 408 hr's, 1900 hits, 1186 runs. 2 Gold Gloves. Has led the league in: doubles, runs, hr's, rbi's, average, on-base, slugging, etc. 1 World Series ring. Good post-season stats.He has 3 MVP's. But consider this: Pujols came in second in MVP voting four times (two of them were when Bonds won). One year he came in third (when Bonds and Beltre were ahead of him). So, if you discredit the steroid freaks, Pujols should have 6 MVP's in 10 years of baseball.
By my estimation (and it's really just a guess), Pujols will retire with statistics that make him one of the top 3 or 4 players of all-time.
One question needs to be raised: how do we know Pujols wasn't cheating? Dominican players have been connected with steroids throughout the steroid era. Also, Pujols is a huge-ass dude who never seems to get hurt. The least amount of games hes played in one season is 143, with somewhere around 150+ being his average.
My guess is that Pujols has been juicing it for years. No one that big stays healthy for 10+ years playing at the level he has. Either he is an extreme anamoly or he is a stupid cheater like the rest of our heros.
His body will begin to give out on him. He deserves a huge contract, but not quite 300 million.
Average season per 162 games:
ReplyDelete.331 average/42 homers/128 rbi.
I think we'd all be silly to not at least give the idea that he's used steroids some consideration. However, I think he has a few things going for him that dont't exactly scream steroids and falls more in the real of "the dude is a great player".
ReplyDeleteThe first case is the test. Everyone gets tested. Tests are of course reactionary, so anything the man may be using will not be detected for 3-5 years from now.
The second case is consistency through the season and career. Most steroid users saw a huge spike in power production and became single dimensional players. Barry Bonds and Palmeiro are two guys who could beat you with more than a HR but you saw big spikes in their HR production. Currently we see guys like Papi and Beltre who look like two different players from the beginning of the season to after a little trip to mother land. Pujols has slums throughout the season like anyone would, but he doesn't like like a completely different player.
Lastly...50 Home Runs. He's never done it. In a world of smaller ballparks and dilluted pitching...the best hitter in the game doesn't have a 50 homer season to his credit? It seems odd. Sammy Sosa had like 3 60 HR seasons...Phats is a bit better than Slammin Sammy isn't he?