SocraticGadfly: Albert Pujols 2019 milestones season preview part 2

April 09, 2019

Albert Pujols 2019 milestones season preview part 2

In part 1 of my career milestones 2019 season preview for Albert Pujols, I looked at career power stats. But Pujols, certainly the best roiding-free batter in all of baseball his first decade, has other statistical milestones in his crosshairs this year. And, with three years left on his contract, counting this one, he has possibility for significant movement up the ranks in several major career statistical areas in front of him beyond the power statistics.

Let's focus on 2019 and see what might be possible by the end of this year, given his current stats and reasonable projections. In this part, I'm going to look at power-related states.

On runs scored, Pujols, batting cleanup much of his career, is further down the list, in "just" 22nd place with 1,773. But, 57 runs scored this year will vault him all the way to 15th, passing, from bottom to top, Charlie GehringerPaul MolitorTed WilliamsCarl YastrzemskiEddie Collins and Frank Robinson.

On hits, Pujols is currently 23th with 3,090. (ESPN sez 22nd, but ESPN and baseball are sometimes only loosely connected.) Already this season, he passed the just-retired Ichiro Suzuki, who was seven ahead of him. Just 103 vaults him past Dave WinfieldAlex RodriguezTony GwynnRobin YountPaul WanerGeorge BrettAdrian Beltre and Cal Ripken into 15th.

Bonus: Albert gives his side of post-2012 free agency talks with the Cardinals. He's probably right that they didn't give that much imperative on keeping him. But, it was the right decision.

2 comments:

runrunkak said...

I believe Pujols will be the first person in baseball history to record 650 doubles and 650 home runs.... if, of course, he has a somewhat decent year.

Gadfly said...

Believe you're right. Can he do 700/700 before his career ends?