Albert Pujols Forum

Great player. Hopefully he can enjoy the next phase of his life.

It is a straight up joke to see these athletes making more than a cop, teacher, construction worker, customer service, doctor and etc combined!  jobs that also require talent. I do not feel sorry for any athlete complaining about life and to my recollection Pujols never did. His character, from what I know, will have him retire on a high road. That's all you're going to get out of me is a good luck the rest of the way. Money doesn't buy happiness and these athletes have to know that. What's 20 million when you have 200+?

FACT: Luc Longley made more money in his career than Charley Barkley.

I guess Miggy can't be far behind - Miguel Cabrera has at least been a league average hitter the last 4 years . Pujols has been well below league average the last 5

At least Mantle led his teams to the Series each of his three MVP seasons - Much different era . Mantle had no playoff rounds at all during his career it was finish first in your league and go straight to the WS . Trout OTOH has WC / DIV / LCS before the WS 

I don't believe he will retire when he needs only 30 HR to pass A-Rod. Someone will pick him up. 

I've read all the comments, here and elsewhere, and the big issue seems to be the $10 million / 10 year personal services contract that kicks in next year, which apparently would be voided if he signs elsewhere.

Having said that, I've seen the suggestions he should sign with KC or St. Louis, and the reasons why neither makes sense.

I'm going to throw out 4-5 observations

1.   if he wants to play, as many have written, and the Angels are trying to win, and the Machine is chasing personal stats and glory such as 700 HR, with 33 to go, he is going to need a minimum of 2 years.  

2.  he needs to do it on a bad team, and the worst team in baseball, which is a team in full rebuild mode, is the Detroit Tigers.  It might be fun to see him in the same lineup as Miggy Cabrera [just as Angel fans have had fun seeing him in the lineup with Mike Trout the past 9 years, though without much success]

3. he can't play the field any more, he has very limited mobility / range, he is clearly in pain running the bases, hits into more double plays than any other player, when he isn't striking out, others have said he must be in the AL and play DH [see Tigers above] but another spot for him can be a home run ball park.  Maybe the Colorado Rockies, though it's not an AL team.

4.  there are a couple of red state small market teams that are more covid reopened than others, and perhaps could use an attendance draw.  Maybe Pujols in Tampa Bay or Texas?

He's #1 all-time for cards printed. As of 5/7/21 he has 23,225 cards produced which is ~1,000 cards more than A-Rod. I like that his name sounds like Poo-Holes.

https://www.tcdb.com/Stats.cfm?MODE=Names&Report=2

Pinkpony - Cabrera has been no where near average since 2016. He's hit 41 total HRs between 2017-2020, and his slugging has been almost 100 points lower than his career average. His highest BA in that stretch was in a year he played just 38 games.

As for Mantle, yes a different time - a time when you won the MVP because you had numbers AND helped your team win. Value. What's the purpose in Anaheim dropping tons of money on Trout (big numbers and all) for them to continually finish in 4th or 5th place? Would he / could he help a different franchise win? We might never know if he's a happy Angel.