Oakland Park Baseball

"Pujols ties HR record in loss
First baseman's 13th homer equals mark for opening month"

one day people are gonna talk about pujols as possibly being the greatest hitter ever. he has a chance to finish with career stats that are unheard of, in any era.

hasn't happened yet, but... wow.

Isn't Pujols also alone in starting his MLB career with 4 straight 30 HR 100 RBI seasons? No one else has ever done this. Do I have the numbers and history correct?

Well, here are his worst stats from various years:

AVG .314 (2002)
HR 34 (2002)
RBI 117 (2005)
R 112 (2001- rookie)
H 185 (2002)

Yep. Those are his worst numbers. His worst stats all put together are still an MVP-caliber year. What's his best?

AVG .359 (2003)
HR 46 (2004)
RBI 130 (2001- rookie)
R 133 (2004)
H 212 (2003)

Oh yeah, plus he is hitting .336 with 10 HR and 29 RBIs in 37 post-season games!

1940: Teddie Ballgame hits only 23 HR's
1936: Dimaggio's rookie year, he hits 29 homers
1940: Dimaggio only scores 93 runs

For those 3 reasons Pujols is the only player in history to start his career with 5 straight seasons of .300, 100, 30, 100 and he's shattered those marks.

It is still astonishing to look at Williams' career numbers as a whole. It's almost unfathomable when you look at the screen and all these numbers are smashed together on this altar of statistics, in praise of this baseball deity. It would have been an honor to watch him play.

That being said Pujols is hardly a consolation prize at age 25 (WHAT THE F%^K?!?!) though he is getting rather arrogant with the bat tossing. Anyone else noticing that?

Yeah, I noticed that about Pujols lately. I can't wait to see how he reacts once the intentional walks really start flowin'.

But those bat flips from pujie lately are nothing compared to David Oritz' bat flip during the WBC, hahaha.

I see no reason for teams not giving him the Bonds treatment already. Edmonds is done, Encarnacion is far from a threat and Rolen can't stay healthy.

He just hit another one to give them a lead. I mean seriously....walk the guy.

Blancito21 wrote:I see no reason for teams not giving him the Bonds treatment already.

Because he's not Barry Bonds. I don't mean to sound flippant, but it's true. For some reason, Barry's the only person to ever get that treatment.

But I hope they don't do that to Albert: it's so un-baseball.

Barry's also the only person to hit like Barry with no protection...until now.

Something overlooked is that pujols can also run the bases, something bonds hasn't been able to do in a long time. You could walk bonds and he'd only move up 90 feet on a hit, whereas pujols can easily go 1st-3rd or 2nd-home (pujols had 16SBs last year).

can pujols really run? i don't get to see him that often (NL), but i never woulda guessed he had legs.

as much as i hate it, he should be walked. you're right, the SL lineup has faded fast. as long as rolen's behind him, he's ok, but that's about it.

btw, bill james once did a study about intentional walks. he took two guys, plugged 'em same guy into the same average lineup. the first hits 90 HR's over a season. the second is gets an IBB every time up. which is more valuable? the second guy, by a longshot. the moral is that it doesn't actually make sense to IBB a guy every time (or thereabouts). only as a situational thing should it be done. no one bats a thousand. chances are you'll get any single guy out. i mean, i can see why people want to walk bonds (and why they will walk pujols), but i'm not sure that it makes strategic sense. and it is very much 'un-baseball.'

and yeah, first guy to go four seasons with those stat mins. i love lookin' at ted's stats, but this guy really has a chance to make 'em look mundane. course, different eras, different parks, different amounts of pitchers, different drugs... we'll see what it's like when all's said and done, but there could be a new lifetime leader in any number of catagories. just gotta stay healthy and keep producing.

one last thing. my heart fell when he signed that long term deal w/ SL. i just don't care about the modern day cardinals. i was hopin' he'd go to a more interesting team (and not the yankees). sigh. what, seven more years? it's a steal too. i think the average anual value is like eight mil. you could make a hell of a team right now out of guys for less than ten mil (IF=mora, tejada, soriano, pujols. pretty damn good)

ok. ramble ramble. bad news is, yet again, i don't get to play baseball anymore. good news is, maybe by the time i do, i'll be able to at least make a good imitation of running.

well the treatment has started today pujols went 1 for 1 with 4bb's only one was "intentional." but edmonds picked it up in the win and getting 3 ribs in the process.

ah pujols is so carrying my fantasy baseball team.

the one time i did fantasy baseball, puj was the only money pick i had. i got so lucky that it's not even funny. who knew brian roberts and melvin mora were gonna take off? i sure didn't, but i reaped the benefits (that was the year mora had the best numbers among AL 3B. take that, A-rod.)

looks like i missed a lousy game. shoulda been there. i mean, i can go 1-6 too.

onion wrote: looks like i missed a lousy game. shoulda been there. i mean, i can go 1-6 too.

You're lucky this isn't in the shit-talking forum, or I'd let ya have it! haha

that wont stop me

seth really you CAN go 1 for 6???

:shrug: who knew:

hey, i've gone 1-6 or 1-7 three out of four times (or somethin' like that). i think i've demonstrated my ability to get a single hit.