Angels Official Website: Pujols says left foot is '99.9 percent healthy'

[Halos of Anaheim]

Only 99.9%? 

 

Looks like we'll be having another sub .900 OPS season.

[tomsred]

Something must be accounting for that 0.1% to not say he is 100%.  So what is it?  Does he not have feeling in his little toe, does he not feel his wife tickling the bottom of his foot, or maybe every 7th day he get a sharp pain in his heel?

Edited November 17, 2013 by tomsred

[Redondo]

Something must be accounting for that 0.1% to not say he is 100%.  So what is it?  Does he not have feeling in his little toe, does he not feel his wife tickling the bottom of his foot, or maybe every 7th day he get a sharp pain in his heel?

 

This. It's like everything is okay, except....

 

Really pulling for him to get to !00%

[YouthofToday]

I'm actually cautiously optimistic number 5 will return to being an All-Star 1B in 2014. I don't think a OPS of .950+ is unrealistic.

The foot issue has been bothering him for years.

Edited November 18, 2013 by YouthofToday

[Ohtaniland]

I'm actually cautiously optimistic number 5 will return to being an All-Star 1B in 2014. I don't think a OPS of .950+ is unrealistic.

The foot issue has been bothering him for years.

 

Albert Pujols also has a history of hamstring problems and he hasn't really ran full speed since August of 2012 (hamstring, calf, knee, foot). So every healthy day that Albert Pujols has on those legs could still be numbered.         

Edited November 18, 2013 by Hamiltown

[Docwaukee]

while I have no problem with the theory that Albert is declining based on the numbers given, and that he will never be the 1.000 ops guy that he was, there are specific occurrences that account for those numbers being how they are. 

in 2011, he was playing thru injury early in the season and then turned into his usual self

in 2012, he was with a new team in a new situation trying to live up to a new contract and then turned into himself

in 2013, he was playing thru an injury that severely limited his ability.

 

Don't get me wrong, I know you can't just exclude things that happened as if they never did, but my point is that it's not like he just stopped performing like usual without any extenuation circumstances and while those things can't totally be disregarded, it gives me some optimism that he has a much better chance at being close to his former self than the guy we saw last year.  Granted, he seems to be somewhat injury prone but I think a healthy, happy Albert can still be a .950ops guy.  Maybe we never see that, but at least we might. 

[Brent Maguire]

Yup I don't think a .950 OPS season is unrealistic but I'm guessing he settles more into the upper .800's, which would be awesome. Our offense is going to be very very good next year.

[Troll Daddy]

It's nice that he's finally healthy. David Ortiz is 38 years old and still producing. Pujols should be able to trump his numbers easily, right?

[Ohtaniland]

It's nice that he's finally healthy. David Ortiz is 38 years old and still producing. Pujols should be able to trump his numbers easily, right?

 

Better yet, 39 year old Hank Aaron .301 / 40hrs / 96rbi's / 1.045ops

[Ohtaniland]

Vlad was a 5-tool player in his younger years. He had absolutely no problem changing leagues as he was an All Star MVP (no adjustment) and continued to be a fierce competitor.

Vlad didn't disappoint.

[YouthofToday]

Vlad will always be a total anomaly.

Dude had almost zero plate discipline. His ability to be effective at the plate was entirely reliant on bat speed.

No 5 is a completely different player.

[Hollyw00d]

Vlad will always be a total anomaly.

Dude had almost zero plate discipline. His ability to be effective at the plate was entirely reliant on bat speed.

No 5 is a completely different player.

I agree, he is a lot closer to David Ortiz than he is to vladdy. He knows the strike zone and guys like that tend to be able to hit into their late 30s.

I think a healthy Albert still has it in him to be an elite first baseman. The foot injury really made him a shadow of himself. Nowadays, a .900 ops out of him would be more than sufficient. There aren't a ton of slugging 1Bs anymore

[sneaky_flute]

Vladimir Guerrero didn't have poor plate discipline. His walk rates ranged from average to great.

Edited November 18, 2013 by sneaky_flute

[YouthofToday]

Vladimir Guerrero didn't have poor plate discipline. His walk rates ranged from average to great.

Dude swung out 40.3% of balls out of the strike zone for his career.

No. 5 has swung at roughly 23% of balls outside the strike zone in his career.

... ...

[sneaky_flute]

He had the unusual ability to hit balls outside the strike zone but it's not like he was rocking a 3% BB rate. His career average was 8% and was brought down a little by the last two or three years in which he really did have poor plate discipline.

[YouthofToday]

The O swing data does not support your theory. The reason he actually drew walks is because pitchers knew they really had to throw the ball way outside the zone for Vlad to actually not swing.

When a guy can line a ball of the fence that skips off the dirt you are not inclined to throw anything remotely near the plate.

[sneaky_flute]

So why were his walk rates so low in his final three years? I highly doubt pitchers just decided to change that approach. There's no way to prove pitchers were throwing stuff way out of the zone to avoid giving up hits. It's more likely that he was fairly selective about which balls to swing at.

[Stradling]

He wasn't be intentionally walked as often.

[m0nkey]

Something about walks and false stats

[stormngt]

While some players are able to defy the natural aging process and still produce at an incredible rate, the majority aren't so lucky.  It should be fairly obvious by now that Pujols falls into the majority.

 

Take Vlad for example: who on here kept insisting that he would "figure things out" or "get healthy" in his mid 30's and become the hitter he was when he was 27?  We all seemed to understand and accept that although he was one of the greatest hitters year after year for the previous 10 years, age and nagging injuries had caught up with him and that he'd never be close to the type of player he was in the past. What makes Pujols any different?

 

If I am not mistaken, Vladdy had one bad year.  And that was due to injuries and he was still our best offensive performer in the second half of the season.

[stormngt]

He didn't disappoint at all.  My point is that when he hit .295 with 15 HR as a 34 year old everyone knew it was because he was older and beat up.  I don't think anybody thought he would turn around the next year and hit .330 with 45 HR.  People are in denial about Pujols.

 

He did bat 300 and hit 29 HR's the following year!

[Angel Oracle]

I wasn't expecting this fluff piece to come out until December. Color me impressed.

Not as impressive as the fluff piece in the OCR on Scioscia's wife back in 2012, when the hounds were howling over the team's bad start to the season. 

[19HALO71]

I have to be honest. Given that he was shutdown some time in July, I would be much more optimistic if he just had had the surgery. Keeping fingers crossed though!!!

[Brent Maguire]

I have to be honest. Given that he was shutdown some time in July, I would be much more optimistic if he just had had the surgery. Keeping fingers crossed though!!!

He didn't need the surgery. He tore it, which is the same thing surgery would do. 

[Jimmag]