When Lebron James said he was taking his talents to south beach, he not only created one of the great euphemisms for a popular solo teen activity, he also brought about a sonic boom throughout the sports world. When Albert Pujols took his talents to Santa Monica beach, he did not quite get the same reaction. Sure, it was big news that the 32 year old slugger left the Cardinals after 11 seasons to sign with the Angels. But a guy who is just as good at baseball as Lebron James is at basketball, if not better, did not receive the same attention as him when he switched teams. But he deserved it.
Despite the type of production Albert Pujols has had over his career and the two world championships he’s won, people still don’t really understand how good he is. For one, most people don’t care about baseball, as evidence by the alarming number of erectile dysfunction commercials that are played on loop during commercial breaks of MLB telecast. I’m a little concerned with how many ED brands I can name after watching all of them, which can’t be a good omen. Still, it’s a game that people love to romanticize about, yet Albert hasn’t seemed to get the respect he deserves.
Nerds like to use a stat called Win Above Replacement (WAR) which measures how many wins a player brings to a team in relation to the average player. This stat is the best way to judge the overall amount of value a player has. The creation of the stat probably cost many statisticians hours of World of Warcraft and conversation with women. That’s not true, however somebody might be able to use that joke on me in the future. A better analogy, for those that watched Moneyball, is 5,000 Jonah Hills all combining to make one donut- I mean super stat that allows people to know how good a player is. It’s the baseball stat version of a slut, that one stat that every baseball geek has hooked up with it multiple times. Yeah it’s that good. Like all stats, looking at it alone won’t tell you the whole story, but it’s a great indicator of prior performance. Here’s why I’m telling you this:
For his career, Albert Pujols has the second best WAR for a player all time in his first 11 seasons in the league, 2nd only to Ted Williams. Read that one more time. Now another time because it was a poorly written sentence. He’s not only one of the best baseball players of the last decade. He’s one of the best baseball players in the 150 year history of the sport. Not just top 50 or top 30; right now he sets up to be a top 5 hitter in MLB history. That type of hitter is changing cities to a team he will most likely spend the majority of career with.
Remember, Pujols just won his 2nd World Series and became just the 2nd man to hit 3 homeruns in the Series. He was at the top of his power. Imagine Barry Bonds at the height of his power abandoning the Giants. Babe Ruth leaving the Yankees the day after he calls his shot. Ted Williams bailing on the Red Sox the season after his 56 game hitting streak. That’s what Pujols did. That’s how monumental this signing is.
So what? What does this mean for this season? The Angels signed a player comparable to the greatest of great Hall of Famers. He’s starting a new phase of his career this season, and don’t expect anything less from what he did in St. Louis, at least for the near future. He signed a 10 year contract. Those 10 years are the years all the records are going to be broken, possibly more World Series rings will be won, and a great player is going to attempt to become the best baseball player of all time. This season is the beginning. Let’s all sit back and watch.
Every generation has that player that grandparents tell their kids about. For some it was Ruth, others it was Mays, and for some it was Gehrig. For me, I’m going to tell my grandkids, I watched Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols play baseball.
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