OC Register: Angels celebrate the skill of driving in runs as Albert Pujols nears 2,000 RBIs

[AngelsWin.com]

DETROIT — As Albert Pujols sits on the verge of reaching 2,000 RBIs, those around him have some news for anyone with the temerity to suggest that RBIs are more a product of opportunity than skill.

“A thousand percent, that’s a skill,” said Kole Calhoun. “You get hits, but the game is different when someone is on second base or guys are in scoring position. Watch any game. Guys pitch at 92 to 93 and then a guy gets in scoring position and they are 95 to 97. Pitchers step up and don’t let runners score. Guys who get RBIs, it’s 100 percent a skill. When (Pujols) comes up in those situations throughout his career, there are not many better guys to have up there.”

Pujols, who picked up RBI No. 1,999 on Saturday, doesn’t talk much about any of his milestones until he reaches them. He said recently that he’s proud of his RBI total, but conceded it’s a statistic that one does not reach alone.

“A lot of guys have been on base for me,” he said. “It’s something you don’t accomplish by yourself. You have to have a lot of pieces that have to go right, and I’ve been able to have that my whole career.”

Only four other players have recorded 2,000 RBIs, and only two of them since the statistic became official in 1920. The all-time leader is Hank Aaron, with 2,297.

The 2,000-RBI plateau has actually been reached fewer times than the 600-homer or 3,000-hit marks that Pujols passed in recent years. He’s coming up to this one with much less attention because, frankly, the reputation of the RBI has taken a hit in recent years.

While no one doubts the value of RBIs — runs, after all, are what wins games — the issue is how much individual credit a player deserves for racking them up. A hitter is on his own when he gets a hit or blasts a homer. But to get an RBI, a hitter generally needs someone on base, and he has no control over that.

So the question then is whether getting a hit to drive that runner in is a different skill than simply getting a hit.

Players believe it is.

“It is a skill,” Jonathan Lucroy said. “I’ve seen guys that in that situation they go up and they swing at everything. They try too hard and get themselves out. Other guys have really good at-bats and don’t chase. I definitely think there’s a difference between the two.”

Brian Goodwin said there is “a little different focus” that’s necessary in those spots.

“For him to have 2,000 of those driven in, to be able to do it consistently, over and over, for all these years, it’s hard to take away from the fact that it’s a skill he possesses that a lot of people would like to have,” Goodwin said.

Sure enough, Pujols had a higher batting average with runners in scoring position than he did with the bases empty in 12 of his 18 full seasons. He has only 31 at-bats this season with runners in scoring position, so his .194 average is in too small a sample to be meaningful.

In his last three full seasons — years in which his overall production had markedly declined — Pujols still had a higher average with runners in scoring position than with the bases empty.

Part of that is because in each of those years Pujols has a slightly lower strikeout rate with runners in scoring position. In 2016 and 2017, he also hit the ball to the opposite field slightly more often with runners in scoring position.

There are also chances to drive in runs without a hit, when a runner is at third and there are less than two outs.

Since Pujols has been with the Angels, he’s converted those opportunities 56.4 percent of the time. The major league average is about 50 percent. Last year, Pujols converted 73.7 percent, which was fourth best in the majors among hitters with at least 15 chances.

All of that gives support to the notion held by Pujols’ teammates: he knows how to drive in runs. Even though he’s no longer the Pujols of a decade ago, who regularly hit .330 with 30 homers, he is still picking up more RBIs than a player with his overall offensive numbers ought to get.

“I do think that there’s some hitters out there that do have an innate skill to drive a runner in,” Angels General Manager Billy Eppler said. “Usually it comes with high-contact hitters and hitters that can use foul line to foul line, who the ability to have some bat range and manipulate the barrel.”

Hitting the ball for power helps too. Manager Brad Ausmus said one part of the equation often not discussed is that the truly good run-producers don’t simply drive in runners from scoring position.

“If someone is at second base and you hit a single, that’s a little easier,” Ausmus said. “Put a guy on second every time for two different players and they have the same average, they’re going to get similar RBIs, but it’s when there’s a guy at first and he can drive him in with a double, or when he’s standing in the box by himself and drives himself in.”

Pujols has driven himself in 636 times, with his homers accounting for nearly one-third of his RBIs. He’s also ninth on the all-time doubles list with 645.

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Even this season, with a batting average of only .224, Pujols is tied for fourth on the team with 17 RBIs, thanks to five homers, six doubles and more sacrifice flies.

Ausmus enjoys watching Pujols drive in runs much more these days than he did for all of those years when he was a catcher for the Houston Astros, dealing with the the St. Louis Cardinals and Pujols 19 games a year.

“Albert was the best for 10 years,” Ausmus said. “I saw him in his prime and he was the guy no one wanted to come to the plate in a big situation, or anytime really.”

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Angels (RHP Griffin Canning, 0-0, 6.23) vs. Tigers (LHP Daniel Norris, 1-0, 3.47), 4 p.m., Fox Sports West

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[T.G.]

Good stuff... and it's contrary to what a lot of people might think.  I love getting the players' perspective...