Thursday, July 15, 2004
Mega-Pujols and the MVP
I think that everyone can agree that Albert Pujols had an amazing season in 2003. He had the MVP buzz for most of the year and made a run at the triple crown.
Still, he finished shy of Barry Bonds for the NL MVP. But suppose a mysterious package from BALCO showed up on Pujols' doorstep. Just suppose he ate the magic jellybeans that were inside...
Well, Albert had an annoying 65 strikeouts last year. Let's turn 17 of them into home runs. That would give Albert an even 60 on the year. In addition, between the added fear in the hearts of pitchers, and the magic jelly beans' amazing ability to improve strikezone judgement, let's just turn 25 of those remaining strikeouts into walks.
By turning 65 strikeouts into 17 homers, 25 walks and 23 strikeouts, this would have given Albert Pujols a 60 homer season. And that would have been the icing on the cake, the eye-popping number would have been his .405 batting average! His 60 homers, 400 batting average and 100+ walks would be great, translated into OPS that would be a .816 slugging season and an even .500 on-base season. That totals for 1.316.
But he wouldn't even be his team's MVP. The nicest thing you can say about Pujols' defense is that he does in fact own a glove. Meanwhile, his teammate, Scott Rolen, is one of the best defenders in the league, at an important position. In addition, he had a nice solid season with the bat – 286/382/528, to total to .910.
From what we are hearing from Cardinals fans these days, Scott Rolen's glove is worth more than .400 points in OPS. So last year Mega-Pujols' 60-dinger .400 average campaign would not have made him the most valuable Cardinal.
Who knew?
posted by David 10:08 PM
