Albert Pujols released...

[T.G.]

One funny thing I took away from all of this is Minasian saying something like... "I wouldn't best against him."  Well, Perry - you DFA'd him, so you are betting against him.  It's a solid bet too.  Just own up to it.

[Taylor]

3 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Albert seeing the lineup card that day

 

LOL

[Taylor]

3 hours ago, Jay said:

I'm glad Pujols is gone but I guess I'm not as happy about how it went down as some of you guys are.

 

I agree. Albert could have made it so much better by not being delusional about what he still has left in the tank. It's unfortunate he forced the Angels' hands like this.

[T.G.]

I wrote this back in 2012 on my blog...

I picked up something early on that bugged me about Albert. It was the third game of the season against the Royals. It was the bottom of the first and Howie Kendrick was on second base. Albert was up to bat and Jonathan Sanchez uncorked a wild pitch. As the catcher was scrambling for the ball and Kendrick was making his way to third base – Albert had his head down, scratching the dirt with his feet to prepare for the next pitch.

In other words – he was NOT giving any direction to the base runner; instead he was focused on his at bat and nothing else. It seemed odd to me...

I've never forgotten that moment.  And when the article came about Torii Hunter's confrontation with Albert, I thought back to what I wrote.  It reinforced my belief that he really is about his statistics.  I think some of this changed over his time with Anaheim and he became a better teammate, but I also think that "selfishness" is a part of who he really is.  Just my opinion. 

[Taylor]

2 minutes ago, True Grich said:

I wrote this back in 2012 on my blog...

I picked up something early on that bugged me about Albert. It was the third game of the season against the Royals. It was the bottom of the first and Howie Kendrick was on second base. Albert was up to bat and Jonathan Sanchez uncorked a wild pitch. As the catcher was scrambling for the ball and Kendrick was making his way to third base – Albert had his head down, scratching the dirt with his feet to prepare for the next pitch.

In other words – he was NOT giving any direction to the base runner; instead he was focused on his at bat and nothing else. It seemed odd to me...

I've never forgotten that moment.  And when the article came about Torii Hunter's confrontation with Albert, I thought back to what I wrote.  It reinforced my belief that he really is about his statistics.  I think some of this changed over his time with Anaheim and he became a better teammate, but I also think that "selfishness" is a part of who he really is.  Just my opinion. 

Great clip from the TG archives. You're a great writer.

[Justin]

3 hours ago, Lhalo said:

The tag up at 2nd on a popup to RF had me enraged. It was so stupid that I actually questioned Albert's mental capacity.

I had turned off the game by that point. I know the play happened because I read about it later on AW, but I had not seen it until I Googled it just now.

Holy crap. My favorite part is when he looks up and realizes that it will be a close play and tries to take it to another gear... only he doesn't have another gear so he kept on going the same old-man speed. 

[T.G.]

1 minute ago, Taylor said:

Great clip from the TG archives. You're a great writer.

I'm waiting for the punchline.

[Taylor]

Just now, True Grich said:

I'm waiting for the punchline.

There isn't one. Take the compliment.

[Lhalo]

44 minutes ago, Don said:

Honestly that will be one of the lasting memories for me about the end of his career. Trying to be clever, but not having the physical ability to execute/also looking like he was a 60 year old running. And I can't speak for PM/the FO in general, but it's possible that was actually the final straw for him in an Angels uni.

To top it off he grounded into a double play to end the ballgame.

Classic Angels Albert.

[ten ocho recon scout]

43 minutes ago, Justin said:

I had turned off the game by that point. I know the play happened because I read about it later on AW, but I had not seen it until I Googled it just now.

Holy crap. My favorite part is when he looks up and realizes that it will be a close play and tries to take it to another gear... only he doesn't have another gear so he kept on going the same old-man speed. 

Was one of the few plays i caught this year. What got me was him figuring out he was out... so he slowed up... before trying to up it...

[ten ocho recon scout]

1 hour ago, Don said:

Honestly that will be one of the lasting memories for me about the end of his career. Trying to be clever, but not having the physical ability to execute/also looking like he was a 60 year old running. And I can't speak for PM/the FO in general, but it's possible that was actually the final straw for him in an Angels uni.

Its possible

Someone posted it here 20 pages ago. But the final straw may have been that grounder that scooted right past him. 

May have been separate games that series, or one game. But in short order was getting nailed at second, botching the grounder, and the game ending DP

[JustATroutFan]

44 minutes ago, Lhalo said:

To top it off he grounded into a double play to end the ballgame.

Classic Angels Albert.

It's going to be really hard for another hitter to move pass Pujols on all-time career leader for double plays grounded into. Miggy is like top-5 in that category but he's still like 55 double plays behind Pujols. And it's likely that Miggy doesn't play that much longer. Pujols would still had a career .300 batting average if he had some speed, Zodiac Killer speed. 

[jsnpritchett]

15 minutes ago, JustATroutFan said:

It's going to be really hard for another hitter to move pass Pujols on all-time career leader for double plays grounded into. Miggy is like top-5 in that category but he's still like 55 double plays behind Pujols. And it's likely that Miggy doesn't play that much longer. Pujols would still had a career .300 batting average if he had some speed, Zodiac Killer speed. 

Cabrera is 78 behind Pujols.  He "only" has 72 GIDP since the beginning of 2016, so there's no way he'll play enough over the course of his career to surpass Pujols.  Next up on the active (sort of...) list is Robinson Cano, who's 119 behind Pujols, so no chance there, either.  Among other active players, MAYBE Manny Machado has a very outside chance--but even he's only sitting at 144 GIDP at age 28. 

Edited May 10, 2021 by jsnpritchett

[Justin]

18 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Someone posted it here 20 pages ago. But the final straw may have been that grounder that scooted right past him. 

I can't remember if I posted it or just thought it, but that was the one for me - Kiermaier's dribbbler that ended up a double to shallow right. 

I didn't expect Albert to dive for it, but he didn't even bend over. He took a couple of steps to his right and then just gave up on it. 

If you did that in my beer & softball league, you would get yelled at. 

[Justin]

12 minutes ago, jsnpritchett said:

Cabrera is 78 behind Pujols.  He "only" has 72 GIDP since the beginning of 2016, so there's no way he'll play enough over the course of his career to surpass Pujols.  Next up on the active (sort of...) is Robinson Cano, who's 119 behind Pujols, so no chance there, either.  Among other active players, MAYBE Manny Machado has a very outside change--but even he's only sitting at 144 GIDP at age 28. 

The difference between Pujols (403) and second place (Ripken Jr; 350) is 53. That is a massive difference. 

(The difference between #2 Ripken Jr. and #11, Harold Baines, is only 52.)

In other words, Pujols is WAAAY ahead of the field. It's going to take a combination of someone to be be both 1) almost as great a hitter as Pujols AND 2) as slow as Pujols, and they will probably have to play 20+ seasons. I doubt I will see it in my lifetime. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

Id always read people complain about his DP groundouts kn here, but didnt realize until this weekend that hes first all time

Shazaam

[jsnpritchett]

7 minutes ago, Justin said:

The difference between Pujols (403) and second place (Ripken Jr; 350) is 53. That is a massive difference. 

(The difference between #2 Ripken Jr. and #11, Harold Baines, is only 52.)

In other words, Pujols is WAAAY ahead of the field. It's going to take a combination of someone to be be both as great as Pujols AND as slow as Pujols, and they will probably have to play 20+ seasons. I doubt I will see it in my lifetime. 

Yep, that's a great way of looking at it.

And if you look at the young stars who've come into the league in the past few years (e.g. Acuna, Soto, Tatis, etc.), none of them give any indication that they'll put up anywhere near the rate of GIDP to even be in the same universe as Pujols.  I think he'll hold the record forever.  Congrats, Albert!

[Justin]

1 minute ago, jsnpritchett said:

I think he'll hold the record forever.  Congrats, Albert!

And, as with all of his accomplishments, he had more with St. Louis (61 more, to be precise). 

[Slegnaac]

Hopefully this was the final mentoring lesson for Trout.

How to NOT end a long career.

[JustATroutFan]

4 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Id always read people complain about his DP groundouts kn here, but didnt realize until this weekend that hes first all time

Shazaam

It feels like all the MLB records that no player wants to have are from guys who were once Angels. Most strikeouts, Reggie Jackson, most walks allowed, Nolan Ryan, and most double plays, Pujols. 

[Slegnaac]

I woild like to see someone with skills put the Puig tag-up and his last tag-up together in a video, just see a comparison of his running abilities then and now.

[Lou]

1 minute ago, Slegnaac said:

I woild like to see someone with skills put the Puig tag-up and his last tag-up together in a video, just see a comparison of his running abilities then and now.

Please, no. 

That's like telling people you banged Salma Hayek ...

 

 

and Margaret Cho.

[Slegnaac]

4 minutes ago, Lou said:

Please, no. 

That's like telling people you banged Salma Hayek ...

 

 

and Margaret Cho.

Everyone love a train wreck!

[yk9001]

The Puig tag-up wasn't exactly Usain Bolt running down the basepaths.

[Lou]

5 minutes ago, Slegnaac said:

Everyone love a train wreck!

Tell that to our bullpen.