What ever happened to Albert Pujols as one of the MLB's best?

[BadnewzNiners]

First off, happy 33 birthday Albert Pujols. What happened to Albert Pujols? 1859 games and 6919 AB's happened, not including amateur, preseason and postseason games and AB's.

[ciaban]

in fairness to pujols he had a really good season last year after he broke his slump

[Pinstripe power]

he's losing the battle with father time

[Iansnightout]

IABF was entirely serious until he was called out.

Now he's backing the truck up.

Beep beep beeeeeeeeeep

[iam brett favre]

IABF was entirely serious until he was called out.

Now he's backing the truck up.

Beep beep beeeeeeeeeep

I fully believe he did PED's.
But the first post was a joke, because I think this thread is absurd. He is still great.

[metswon69]

IABF was entirely serious until he was called out.

Now he's backing the truck up.

Beep beep beeeeeeeeeep

[Iansnightout]

IABF:

I wouldn't say I BELIEVE he did or does PEDs. But, I can definitively say I wouldn't be surprised if ANY player were outed as a user in any generation.

Hell, I'm not naive enough to say Griffey was clean and he was my favorite player.

So, I guess for once, we kind of agree.

[rkelly7]

I bet Pujols actually turned 36 or 37 today Danny Almonte style. No worries, only 9 years and a good chunk of America's deficit is still owed to him.

[otatop]

Hell, I'm not naive enough to say Griffey was clean and he was my favorite player.

If Jr. was juicing and still missed so much time to injuries, he was doing it wrong.

[todu82]

I think it has to do with age. As to the possibility he took steroids I hope he never but you never know these days in the MLB.

[adab]

It's natural for NL hitters to struggle a bit the first year in the AL. Mark my words, Albert Pujols will regain his form and continue to be the most dominant player in all of baseball. That's almost as sure as Brent Musberger commenting on the beauty of another woman.

[valade16]

Or he is just a really great player..

I would love to see your evidence like Dreams that he is juicing.

I don't really have an opinion on the subject either way but I would like to point out this is the exact same thing people said about A-Rod and steroids as well.

[sep11ie]

I think WAR is a bit overrated of statistic. Some of the time it properly correlates a player's value to the team. I mean last year Jeff Franceours WAR was -2.7, mearly because Wil Myers was in their farm system.That more or less depends on who is underneath you on the team. If Pujol's back up a AAA who hit's .234 with 12 homers, it might inflate his WAR a bit.

WAR, what is it good for, absolutely nothing.

[metswon69]

I don't really have an opinion on the subject either way but I would like to point out this is the exact same thing people said about A-Rod and steroids as well.

Of course it's possible he used PEDS but what player in baseball can we not make that same accusation against.

I mean i know it's easy to be cynical about every great player over the last 25 years or so but i don't think it's fair to persecute a guy with zero evidence against him.

[Jeffy25]

He turned 30.


He is still heading toward being a top 10 player of all time, top 7 hitter fairly easily.

He has just been slowly declining as he gets older, and for whatever reason has become less patient which makes no sense. Players usually become more patient as they age.

He should continue at this level until around the age of 35, and then a steady 10% decline each year after that is expected. He is still one of the greats.


Here are his all time ranks

His 88.5 rWAR is 28th of all time between Roberto Clemente and Wade Boggs
His 91.6 fWAR is tied with Pete Rose for 28th best of all time, just behind Joe DiMaggio
His .425 wOBA is 20th of all time (the greatest since Bonds at .435, and greatest since Musial prior to that)
His 164 wRC+ is 9th all time behind Cobb and Joe Jackson
He has already created 1639 runs, which is the 49th most of all time. Everyone ahead of him is basically already a hall of famer or is likely heading that way except for Dwight Evans who he is 1 behind. Considering his age this is amazing.

In order to be the best of all time, he will need to very literally double his entire career. That is beyond unlikely. But he could settle in nicely in the top 10 of all time fairly easily.