Quote:
Originally Posted by the 'stache
Home runs tonight aside, Pujols should have hung it up long ago. He’s embarrassing himself now.
The last five years, he’s been paid $110 million, and has been worth 1.0 WAR.
I don’t have his profile in front of me, but from memory, the last half decade, Pujols has been a 93 OPS+ offensive player. 7% below league average.
He was a Hall of Famer when he left St. Louis, and still is, obviously. He was on his way to being an all-time great. But he has damaged his legacy. He’s been a dumpster fire for almost the entirety of his time as an Angel. Granted, it was stupid of Los Angeles to give him the money they did. Between 2008 and 2010, he had a 184 OPS+. In 2012, at age 31, he had a noticeably decline in his last year as a Cardinal.
His first year as an Angel was still pretty good. But his decline was steady after that. His last 8 years, he’s been worth 9.4 WAR, while being paid $198 million.
He still hits home runs. That’s all he does. I understand that he’s had a lot of injuries, but sometimes, an athlete needs to know it’s time to walk away. I really like Albert, and hate seeing him like this.
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The Cardinals organization was pretty smart. They saw the deterioration in his skills and let him walk. It wasn't a popular move in St. Louis but the right move by an organization that understands the game. He posted his lowest OPS in his last year with the Cards and it was his only year without 100 RBIs (ok 99 aint bad). He still managed 4 x 100 RBI seasons with the Halos and had one 40HR season for them, but yeah, the last few seasons he's been a shell of the player he was for the Cards. Can't blame him for sticking it out. That's quite a lot of cash to walk away from and to earn it by playing baseball (even though the skills are not what they were) is just a bonus. About the only thing he's killing is his rookie card value...
Dang it, the hobbyist gets screwed again...
