My unpopular opinion regarding Albert Pujols

[beatlesrule]

He needs to play everyday.  He will be 38 and owed 27 million in 2018.  He should be starting as many games at 1st base as possible.  With Ohtani here now, the Angels have a DH.  History has told us that Pujols will hit no lower than 4th so once again, he bats cleanup. You start him everyday at 1st or DH until he finally realizes that his negative WAR is hurting the team.  I don't think he realizes how bad he is compared to his salary.  Only one other player in baseball had a worse WAR than Pujols last year.  Pujols, of course, knocked in 101 rbi's last year but did so with almost 100 more runners on base than the average major leaguer over the same amount of plate appearances.  He is obviously trying to hit 700 home runs on account of his absolutely terrible plate vision/recognition and he needs 86 more home runs to get 700.  He is owed $28 million in 2019, $29 million in 2020, and $30 million in 2021. His continue decline will force Scioscia(I would hope) to move him down to 5.  We can all only speculate how Alberts' ego would take that or hitting 6th or 7th.  Maybe the boos and his terrible numbers will make him realize he needs to retire.  

I know I know, he would be giving up a lot of money and might be fine with hitting .220 with a hr and rbi here and there for the next 4 years so he gets paid.  I am merely suggesting that by playing a player you owe a lot of money to everyday, it might speed up the process of his suckage and get him out of town quicker.  Now, if anyone recalls here, I actually wanted to sign Fielder over Pujols and that was a disaster too but I don't think Fielder was as bad as Pujols when he did play.  I also don't know if the Rangers or Tigers are still on the hook for paying him and if it counts against the luxury tax     but I know insurance is paying for a lot of his salary.  My point is, his contract didn't turn out to be the disaster that is Albert Pujols.  Play him as much as you can and hope that he retires since he is a man of God and all and this franchise can put that money to better use.  I can't honesty sit here and type that I envision Pujols playing for the Angels another 4 years. 

Does he retire?  Arte just release him and pay him?  Does Pujols show up for another 4 years and go through the motions while watching his numbers and WAR go more negative and negative?  Would he be okay with being a bench player and making all that money?  Do the Angels want to be the team with a 30 million dollar bench player?  How bad do you think this contract is going to get for the Angels franchise?

[Chris]

I hope that he announces this will be his final season and retire.

I expect him to announce next year that 2019 will be his final season.

Bottom line Angels and Albert need to talk to each other and see where they're at.

 

 

[Pujols4MVP]

Here's a crazy way out of the Pujols situation that won't happen:

Weaver/GA/Salmon buy shares in the Braves or Rays, Salmon becomes CEO of one of those teams, Angels trade Pujols + cash + prospect to Tampa or Atlanta for Longoria or Freeman. By then its only like 4 years left on Pujols contract.

[Angelsjunky]

First of all, playing him every day increases the likelihood that he'll reach 100 RBI again, which only fuels his delusions about his remaining ability. Second of all, Ohtani probably won't start more than 2-3 games a week at DH, which leaves 4-5 for someone else.

The only way Pujols retires early is if the Angels win the World Series. Remember, he's not only playing for statistics and money - he also wants to win one with the Angels.

Now if he can't hit Mendoza, he'll likely be benched, and i can't see him sitting on the bench for years on end. At that point some kind of settlement would be worked out.

That said, as I've said elsewhere, I wouldn't be totally surprised that deadcat bounces back to 2016 level, which is decent enough to warrant a regular job.

[Jason]

Pujols still has stuff to offer the team but it's so frustrating when Sosh won't drop him in the order. As long as we don't have expectations based on his contract then we may be pleased with him. As far as playing everyday, no way he holds up.

[The_Outrunner]

What's concerning is the 10 minutes video of Pujols hitting into double plays. If we're lucky he'll retire. 

 

[Angelsjunky]

I'm not a fan of Pujols and have done my share of complaining, but he's still only one year removed from a decent--if overpaid--season. Considering his salary, I think you give him a couple months to see which Pujols shows up. If he hits like 2017 or worse, bench him and bring up Thaiss, or trade for Brandon Belt. 

In other words: short leash him.

[Hubs]

If they sign or trade for a leadoff hitting 2b, and signed Moustakas, Pujols will definitely drop in the batting order.

FA 2b

Ohtani DH

Trout CF

Upton LF

Moustakas 3B

Pujols 1B

Calhoun RF

Maldonado C

Simmons SS

 

or when he's the DH

2B

Calhoun RF

Trout CF

Upton LF

Moustakas 3B

Pujols DH

Valbuena 1B

Maldonado C

Simmons SS 

[nando714]

The guy has played around 30 games at first base the last 2 years COMBINED!! Only starting 6 games last year at first 

there is no way he can play 50+ in 2018. 

All of a sudden he’s gonna go from 6 to 50+. No way

[DMVol]

3 minutes ago, nando714 said:

The guy has played around 30 games at first base the last 2 years COMBINED!! Only starting 6 games last year at first 

there is no way he can play 50+ in 2018. 

All of a sudden he’s gonna go from 6 to 50+. No way

My thought too...if Ohtani is the real deal as a hitter, things are going to get ugly, I’m afraid....we’ll see....

[UndertheHalo]

Why should they get ugly ?  Pujols is an adult.  Seemingly a good guy.  He knows what his performance has been.  Im confident he’ll be a good team guy and accept his role.  IMO, inevitably as a bench bat.  The Angels have been great to Albert Pujols and he’s making a fucking vast amount of money.  Any butt hurt would be completely unacceptable. 

Edited December 12, 2017 by UndertheHalo

[DMVol]

1 hour ago, Chris said:

I hope that he announces this will be his final season and retire.

I expect him to announce next year that 2019 will be his final season.

[nando714]

3 minutes ago, UndertheHalo said:

Why should they get ugly ?  Pujols is an adult.  Seemingly a good guy.  He knows what his performance has been.  Im confident he’ll be a good team guy and accept his role.  IMO, inevitably as a bench bat.  The Angels have been great to Albert Pujols and he’s making a fucking vast amount of money.  Any butt hurt would be completely unacceptable. 

So the angels are on the hook for 27m in 2018 for a bench bat lol

the gift that keeps on giving 

I’m so happy that isn’t my money

[UndertheHalo]

Just now, nando714 said:

So the angels are on the hook for 27m in 2018 for a bench bat lol

the gift that keeps on giving 

I’m so happy that isn’t my money

I mean, we all knew eventually it was gonna come to this.  Guy is old. 

[DMVol]

2 minutes ago, UndertheHalo said:

Why should they get ugly ?  Pujols is an adult.  Seemingly a good guy. 

Proud guy who won’t want to quit....and his manager isn’t crazy about benching veteran guys...just my opinion....

[UndertheHalo]

1 minute ago, DMVol said:

Proud guy who won’t want to quit....and his manager isn’t crazy about benching veteran guys...just my opinion....

He may well get more AB’s then we’d like.  But I do believe his role is going to start being wound down this season. 

[Warfarin]

Unfortunately, the problem is two-fold:

1.  Pujols still considers himself "The Man" and won't happily accept a demotion in the batting order and/or less playing time

2.  Scoscia is loyal to veterans and will honor Pujols' request

In an ideal world, we could do something similar to what the Dodgers have been doing to Adrian Gonzalez.  AGon has been declining the last few years, but flat out ran out of gas this year.  Bellinger came up and played great, effectively displacing AGon from his role.  They basically DL'd AGon and kept him there, not really allowing him to truly return.  He got a shot at the end of the year to play some games and show what he had, but when it was clear he didn't have much, they just DL'd him again and moved on without him.

Optimistically, I am holding out hope that we do the same with Pujols.  If he starts playing this year and doesn't have it, I hope we DL him to allow him to "recover" and rehab his foot injury, or whatever it is they want to say the issue is.  This way, it at least frees up the active roster space and enables us to play the best lineup possible.

This, to me, is probably the best we can truly hope for out of this unfortunate situation.

[UndertheHalo]

I suspect this is what will happen with Albert.  It really is sort of ridiculous to think that the Angels are gonna just eat shit because it might make Albert mad. 

Scoiscia wants to win games.  If we have a superior option at 1b that’s what he’s going to go with.  When Cron started hitting he played. 

[Rico]

If we paid 75% of his contract would another team take him? Because at this point I think Cron is better, and I'm no fan of Cron

[nando714]

At what point do the angels just cut their losses and pay Pujols to not play?

[tomsred]

30 minutes ago, UndertheHalo said:

I suspect this is what will happen with Albert.  It really is sort of ridiculous to think that the Angels are gonna just eat shit because it might make Albert mad. 

Scoiscia wants to win games.  If we have a superior option at 1b that’s what he’s going to go with.  When Cron started hitting he played. 

This ^^^.  When a better alternative becomes available, Pujols will be toast.

[laagamer]

I agree with nando. There's simply no way he can handle 1B anymore. That's why they removed him to begin with. I thought we should've DH'd him when we first signed him for fuck sake to save his legs. 

Playing him at 1B the whole season will run his knees into the goddamn ground. He's gonna end up on the DL. And the worst part is, that would actually be advantageous for us.

Piss poor way to end a career for a really awesome guy. 

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

3 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

He is obviously trying to hit 700 home runs on account of his absolutely terrible plate vision/recognition and he needs 86 more home runs to get 700. 

He has a shot at 3000 hits and 2000 RBIs but if he wants to retire with his career .300 BA intact he needs to retire after this season. He won't get 700 HR he just won't unless he finds a fountain of youth.

[ten ocho recon scout]

3 hours ago, Chris said:

I hope that he announces this will be his final season and retire.

I expect him to announce next year that 2019 will be his final season.

Bottom line Angels and Albert need to talk to each other and see where they're at.

 

 

I agree with the 2019 part. I think he (and the team) do everything they can to pad his stats to thr magic numbers (hits/rbi), then he does his retirement tour next year.

[Erstad Grit]

4 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

He needs to play everyday.  He will be 38 and owed 27 million in 2018.  He should be starting as many games at 1st base as possible.  With Ohtani here now, the Angels have a DH.  History has told us that Pujols will hit no lower than 4th so once again, he bats cleanup. You start him everyday at 1st or DH until he finally realizes that his negative WAR is hurting the team.  I don't think he realizes how bad he is compared to his salary.  Only one other player in baseball had a worse WAR than Pujols last year.  Pujols, of course, knocked in 101 rbi's last year but did so with almost 100 more runners on base than the average major leaguer over the same amount of plate appearances.  He is obviously trying to hit 700 home runs on account of his absolutely terrible plate vision/recognition and he needs 86 more home runs to get 700.  He is owed $28 million in 2019, $29 million in 2020, and $30 million in 2021. His continue decline will force Scioscia(I would hope) to move him down to 5.  We can all only speculate how Alberts' ego would take that or hitting 6th or 7th.  Maybe the boos and his terrible numbers will make him realize he needs to retire.  

I know I know, he would be giving up a lot of money and might be fine with hitting .220 with a hr and rbi here and there for the next 4 years so he gets paid.  I am merely suggesting that by playing a player you owe a lot of money to everyday, it might speed up the process of his suckage and get him out of town quicker.  Now, if anyone recalls here, I actually wanted to sign Fielder over Pujols and that was a disaster too but I don't think Fielder was as bad as Pujols when he did play.  I also don't know if the Rangers or Tigers are still on the hook for paying him and if it counts against the luxury tax     but I know insurance is paying for a lot of his salary.  My point is, his contract didn't turn out to be the disaster that is Albert Pujols.  Play him as much as you can and hope that he retires since he is a man of God and all and this franchise can put that money to better use.  I can't honesty sit here and type that I envision Pujols playing for the Angels another 4 years. 

Does he retire?  Arte just release him and pay him?  Does Pujols show up for another 4 years and go through the motions while watching his numbers and WAR go more negative and negative?  Would he be okay with being a bench player and making all that money?  Do the Angels want to be the team with a 30 million dollar bench player?  How bad do you think this contract is going to get for the Angels franchise?

Except fielder refused to retire and took a spot on the rangers 40 man roster