OT – Pujols hits 600th home run
Last night, with two strikes, to outs, and bases loaded, Albert Pujols hit a hanging curveball over the left field fence for his 600th career home run. He’s the ninth player to hit 600 home runs and the fourth youngest to do it.
Along with power, Albert hits for average. He sits at 2,876 hits and a career batting average of .308. If (when) he gets his 3,000th hit, he will be one of three players with 600 HR, 3,000 hits, and a career batting average above .300.
Plus, he appears to be a great guy off the field. From Wikipedia: The Pujols Family Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to their "commitment to faith, family and others." The organization promotes awareness of Down syndrome and works to support those who have it and their families, aids the poor in the Dominican Republic, and supports people with disabilities and/or life-threatening illnesses.
I’ve been watching a lot of MLB Network recently as they have live look-ins on Pujols at bats. I stayed up late to watch the game last night and happy that I did. He will certainly be a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee.
"Pujols", not "Pojols". And yeah, this was a very cool milestone!
Albert Pujols???
Good ol Family Guy.
There was going to be some snark about this being somewhat old news...and the odd OP dedicated to it.
No mention of the no-hitter from last night or the 1-1 draw from the USMNT.
OT season, doesn't have to make sense.
but I saw the PTI guys talk about this and they were right- the trifecta of Sosa, McGuire, and Bonds all being steroid users killed the excitement of HR milestones for the public.
yea, at this point the only stats I care about are Miggy's.
But congrats to Albert he's always been a good guy
It's called guilt by association. That whole generation of steroid users destroyed everyone's credibility. Baseball records are now meaningless.
I think a comment above "Reply #9' must've gotten deleted. Seems like someone must've accused Pujols of roid use
No one really gives a shit as many of those bombs came during the steroid era. That doesn't take away from the fact that he is of the game's greats and will be in Cooperstown. 600 HR's today doesn't mean what it used to.
In st louis,,,,would be compared to Stan the Man.
All time Great.
Currently 16% of the Angels payroll for .708 OPS and he's signed through 2021. Imagine if LA had Cabrera instead, especially in 2014-2015. The window for success is tiny, and he pretty much sank the team.
It does change things a bit.
and now he gets to live in Los Angeles and DH for 162 games all while not giving a shit? Sign me up man.
If you're so glad about it, why does it seem like you're butthurt over it?
I suppose going for the bigger paycheck is literally selfish but I dn't think Pujols or any athlete deserves to be labeled like that for taking a bigger paycheck. The leagues and the owners show little loyalty towards the players. Why should players take a paycut to stay with a team that they oftentimes didn't even choose to be on in the first place?
Start watching the chase for 3,000 hits. Seriously.
Adrian Beltre is at 2,950, and he's going to get there either late this year or early next.
Pujols is pushing 2,900 will likely get there next season.
Miggy is over 2,500 and probably gets there late in 2019.
And after that.............that's it. It's going to be a while. There's NO ONE else in range for while. It's very possible that it might be 2030 before we see someone get to 3,000 hits again.
EDIT: There's 4 other guys over 2,000 hits: Beltran (he's 40 and stil over 330 hits away. Forget it), Cano (2,200+ at age 34. Outside chance at best), and Matt Holliday (just over 2K at 37. Uh-uh), and Jose Reyes (2008 hits at this point. He's almost done.)
Your last four words are the key.
He's barely over 1100 in his career. He's got an awful lot of water to haul before we can have this conversation. Same thing goes with Trout and Harper. At this point we can't count on anything. Once one of them gets to 2,500 we can talk.
Look at the players between 2,500 and 3,000. There's an awful lot of great hitters there. I mean, Rod Fucking Carew barely cracked 3,000.
Not aimed at you. Just a comment in general. Hits are not ovverrated. Look at the number of guys who get to 3,000 versus the number of players in baseball history. I think of the stuff sabermetrics guys are concentrating on is legitimate but some of it pure fucking nonsense to support a profession. It doesn't account for clutch hitting and adaptation to various conditions.
Hits (and batting average, to a lesser extent) are absolutely NOT overrated. The biggest component of both OBP and SLG is your ability to, well, HIT THE DAMN BALL. If you don't hit for a high average, you aren't going to be able to maintain a high OBP or a high SLG.
Yeah, walks and the ability to get on base without a hit here and there is a nice component, but it's only a small portion in the grand scheme of the game.
Look at your high OBP, high SLG and high OPS guys historically. Now go look at their career batting averages. Not too many .250 hitters in that mix, are there? Mark McGwire hit .263, but I think we all are aware just how he put up his numbers.