Pujols has been terrible

[Dtwncbad]

Looks like IheartLA should just go by IhateAL.

 

[Blarg]

4 hours ago, IheartLA said:

I honestly think if the Angels got into a brawl Pujols would think of the hispanics over the team.

 

[arch stanton]

Once you’re a Jet you’re a Jet all the way 

[Blarg]

The All Pujols Team. 

[eligrba]

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

The All Pujols Team. 

Yep....that's what Hispanics look like.

[Angel Oracle]

MAGA (Make Albert Great Again) 

[ten ocho recon scout]

3 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

MAGA (Make Albert Great Again) 

Damn. I thought it was make albert go away.

[Angel Oracle]

3 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Damn. I thought it was make albert go away.

That's in another couple of years, when it's easier to Bonilla his remaining salary over several years.  

[makepeac]

Bonilla as a verb. 

Tustin Tiller English dept. must be proud! 

[IheartLA]

I know you guys are going to say water is wet, we know Pujols sucks, etc. But every playoff team midway through the season fixed all their holes to ensure they had 2-3 WAR players at every position. Carter/Holliday weren't doing it so the Yankees got Frazier, put Hicks full time. Brantley/Zimmer got hurt so the Indians got Bruce, moved Kipnis. Red Sox got Nunez when Lin/Sandoval continued sucking. Dodgers put Barnes full time, dropped Agone for Bellinger. Astros got rid of Aoki to put Gonzalez full time, acquired Maybin who played a key role for them.

Teams can no longer carry any average players as starters, let alone guys who are negative WAR. They would instantly be replaced like Carter, Aoki, Sandoval. Especially if they also offered no defensive versatility. Pujols didn't cost us just -2WAR, b/c a +2WAR player is just "an ok starter" and easy to find like Adams/Duda (teams are just giving them away) so it's actualy more like a 4 WAR swing. The Rays would have probably given Morrison away at the deadline too like Bruce/Frazier.

I know WAR isn't exactly added to the wins total but it's amazing, we finished behind the Twins and Pujols was still hitting 4th. Currently we ARE a top 5 AL team, I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect a resolution to this at latest midseason if he continues putting up even a 0/1 WAR DH. No other team would even carry that type of player, let alone treat him the way we did.

[arch stanton]

Thanks for the fresh take. It had been at least 3 hours since the last “Pujols sucks” post

[IheartLA]

35 minutes ago, arch stanton said:

Thanks for the fresh take. It had been at least 3 hours since the last “Pujols sucks” post

LOL, some lurker is probably laughing at them though, you can literally read the entire thread from page 1 and be laughing your butt off... pujols still sucks.

[Warfarin]

7 hours ago, IheartLA said:

I know you guys are going to say water is wet, we know Pujols sucks, etc. But every playoff team midway through the season fixed all their holes to ensure they had 2-3 WAR players at every position. Carter/Holliday weren't doing it so the Yankees got Frazier, put Hicks full time. Brantley/Zimmer got hurt so the Indians got Bruce, moved Kipnis. Red Sox got Nunez when Lin/Sandoval continued sucking. Dodgers put Barnes full time, dropped Agone for Bellinger. Astros got rid of Aoki to put Gonzalez full time, acquired Maybin who played a key role for them.

Teams can no longer carry any average players as starters, let alone guys who are negative WAR. They would instantly be replaced like Carter, Aoki, Sandoval. Especially if they also offered no defensive versatility. Pujols didn't cost us just -2WAR, b/c a +2WAR player is just "an ok starter" and easy to find like Adams/Duda (teams are just giving them away) so it's actualy more like a 4 WAR swing. The Rays would have probably given Morrison away at the deadline too like Bruce/Frazier.

I know WAR isn't exactly added to the wins total but it's amazing, we finished behind the Twins and Pujols was still hitting 4th. Currently we ARE a top 5 AL team, I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect a resolution to this at latest midseason if he continues putting up even a 0/1 WAR DH. No other team would even carry that type of player, let alone treat him the way we did.

While I agree with what you are saying, the "bright side" to the situation is at DH, Pujols' negative value is a bit more mitigated.  A DH has the least impact on the team, so if there's a spot to get less value from as compared to all the other positions, it would be DH.

That said, flexing Pujols out to 1B is somewhat concerning to me, especially if he ends up resembling a statue out there.  That's why though I am expecting him to be out there no more than 25-30 games, not the 50 games that others are guessing.  I also think you see Pujols on the bench more to "rest" as compared to previous seasons.  We are a deep team now, so giving Pujols 2 days off per week seems like a reasonable thing to do.

[CanadianHalo]

Would love to see what Eppler could’ve done this offseason if Pujols had retired. 

He’s holding this team back imo. Either I never read the article or had forgotten about it but the one posted on page 2 or 3 leads me to believe he’s for sure playing this thing out

[JarsOfClay]

9 hours ago, IheartLA said:

I know WAR isn't exactly added to the wins total but it's amazing, we finished behind the Twins and Pujols was still hitting 4th. Currently we ARE a top 5 AL team, I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect a resolution to this at latest midseason if he continues putting up even a 0/1 WAR DH. No other team would even carry that type of player, let alone treat him the way we did.

Yep, last year the angels put milestones above winning.  No other team in baseball that is so close to making the playoffs would have started Pujols despite being the worst player in the league.   If Pujols sucks again they better bench his ass sooner rather than later.  I've said it before but the angels don't owe him anything.  Most of those milestones were with the cardinals and he hasn't earned a dollar of his contract with the angels.

If Pujols comes into spring training looking like he's 9 months pregnant again, the angels should just bench him.  There's no reason to keep pandering to this guy.  It's time to put winning above Pujols.  This shit would never happen in NY or Boston.

[Blarg]

Hey Bob, how many games are you going to go to in 2018? Health issues and work have kept me out of the stands for two years running but I hope to catch a dozen to see this new team play. 

[IheartLA]

Ten games into the season and Pujols is once again our worst player. The man is negative war already and the only hitter with 10+ PA to be negative. He is second on the team in PA, this is sad and needs to stop.

And for those of you that want to take away the DH defense penalty he's:

- negative offense runs above average (which doesn't factor in position)

- below 100 wrc+ 

- OBP below .300

- SLG below .400

- negative BsR

- is walking less than 5% of his PA

- negative UZR first base defense

and some posters on here think he's been performing well so far... 

When does this nightmare end?

[JarsOfClay]

He's usually a slow starter though. Id give him till May to turn it around. If he doesn't its time to get rid of him.

[Lou]

He has a higher BA than Trout, Cozart, Valbuena and Calhoun.

Unfortunately, he's become a slap hitter. 

[Cdaniel]

On 12/15/2017 at 5:01 PM, makepeac said:

Bonilla as a verb. 

Tustin Tiller English dept. must be proud! 

Who went to Tustin?  I graduated in 96.  

[yk9001]

I figure this will be the week when Ohtani's performance is somehow linked to Pujols' leadership.

[ksangel]

8 hours ago, JarsOfClay said:

He's usually a slow starter though. Id give him till May to turn it around. If he doesn't its time to get rid of him.

I believe there are 112,333,332 reasons he'll be batting clean up four more years...called dollars...unless Artie wants to pay him off to leave and face humiliation of cutting a 1st ballot Hall of Famer

[Stradling]

4 hours ago, yk9001 said:

I figure this will be the week when Ohtani's performance is somehow linked to Pujols' leadership.

Well he did talk to Ohtani about getting rid of the high leg kick.   

[yk9001]

15 minutes ago, SuperTroopers said:

Well he did talk to Ohtani about getting rid of the high leg kick.   

Link?

[JarsOfClay]

52 minutes ago, yk9001 said:

Link?

Honestly it makes sense.  Pujols copied Edmonds stride when they were in St Louis together. Pujols also tried to get Trout to do that same stride for a while back in 2012 or 2013, but Trout went back to the leg kick.