Pujols career .620 slugging%

[fenrir]

do you think it stays that high by the time he retires? he's only 27, and while he's had a great season every year since he's been in the league, he might soon reach his peak. most players reach their peaks around 27-30, and pujols could be one of them. then again maybe we've seen his best...and he just stays consistent for a long time, till he declines. anyone think he has a shot at retiring with a career slugging% over .600? that's obviously hard to do, mostly the oldtimers were the only ones to accomplish it, and bonds is there thanks to "flaxseed oil"lol...toss out bonds...and you've only got ruth, ballgame, gehrig, foxx, and greenberg. and greenberg's career was short...and foxx was helped a lot by his homepark.

[brett]

I would bet against it though I wouldn't count him out.

Thomas was above .600 and he's fallen to .561 and hasn't even hit 2300 games yet.

Pujols has an advantage in that he had a better first 2 full years, so he didn't need to make up for as much to get past .600.

The problem as I see it is that a guy can slug .630 for 10 years and then start slipping but he can still be very productive with a .520-.540 slugging for several more years. .630 for 10 and .540 for 6 is gonna be under .600.

Next year might be the critial year. If he goes .590, not a chance, if he goes .650, he has a chance. If he has a total breakthrough season and goes .700 then yea.

[Blackout]

unless he retires early no.

maybe if he has a few .700 seasons in the future though?

[Sultan_1895-1948]

unless he retires early no.

maybe if he has a few .700 seasons in the future though?

Only way that has a chance of happening is a Pujols for Holliday and Fuentes deal.

[bob]

As much i like pujols (and he is my favourite active player) i dont see him maintaining his slugging average for the rest of his career, although through age 27 he's in touch with all those who DID hit .600 for their career.

Slugging % up to and inc aged 27
Rank	Player	  	SLG	  	PA
1.	Babe Ruth		0.696		3130
2.	Ted Williams		0.647		3287
3.	Jimmie Foxx		0.640		5239
4.	Lou Gehrig		0.639		4024
[B]5.	Albert Pujols		0.620		4741[/B]
6.	Hank Greenberg		0.616		3313
7.	Johnny Mize		0.611		3035
8.	Joe DiMaggio		0.607		4417
9.	Frank Thomas		0.593		3491
10.	Willie Mays		0.591		3981

As you can see, only 7 other players in history have had a .600 SA at the same age, and of those only Foxx had more PA. So based on that he has a very good shot. Nobody has had a higher SA at this point and then NOT gone on to stay above .600 in their career.

[stejay]

I would be extremely surprised if it was near that when he retires. He is good enough to have it near there, but not that high. Where he ranks in the list of all time slugging % is interesting, and impressive.

[willshad]

the only way he will end up over .600 for his career would be to retire before age 30. Players like Pujols, besides the steroids guys, start to show serious decline and/or injuries entering their 30s. He wil probably end up with about the same career stats as Frank Thomas, minus all the walks.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

I agree whole-heartedly. And think, it would be .700 if you went from 1918-1935...it would be .705 if you went from 1919-1935...and it would be .708 if you counted 1920-1935. If you started in 1920 and someone had convinced him to retire after 1933, you're looking at a .720 career SA. Pretty filthy.

Here's another way to look at Ruth's .690. I'm a big Sadaharu Oh fan. In his career he hit 868 HRs ,drew 2,390 walks, slugged over .700 NINE TIMES, had thirteen 40+ HR seasons (playing 120-140 game seasons), had 16 100 walk seasons, and played in a lower quality professional league. Yet, even Oh ended up with only a career .634 slugging percentage. Ruth's .690 is just insane!

[brett]

As much i like pujols (and he is my favourite active player) i dont see him maintaining his slugging average for the rest of his career, although through age 27 he's in touch with all those who DID hit .600 for their career.

Slugging % up to and inc aged 27
Rank	Player	  	SLG	  	PA
1.	Babe Ruth		0.696		3130
2.	Ted Williams		0.647		3287
3.	Jimmie Foxx		0.640		5239
4.	Lou Gehrig		0.639		4024
[B]5.	Albert Pujols		0.620		4741[/B]
6.	Hank Greenberg		0.616		3313
7.	Johnny Mize		0.611		3035
8.	Joe DiMaggio		0.607		4417
9.	Frank Thomas		0.593		3491
10.	Willie Mays		0.591		3981

As you can see, only 7 other players in history have had a .600 SA at the same age, and of those only Foxx had more PA. So based on that he has a very good shot. Nobody has had a higher SA at this point and then NOT gone on to stay above .600 in their career.

Is not Todd Helton on that list?

[Blackout]

the only way he will end up over .600 for his career would be to retire before age 30. Players like Pujols, besides the steroids guys, start to show serious decline and/or injuries entering their 30s. He wil probably end up with about the same career stats as Frank Thomas, minus all the walks.

its very odd pujols hasnt had a 100 walk season

[stejay]

the only way he will end up over .600 for his career would be to retire before age 30. Players like Pujols, besides the steroids guys, start to show serious decline and/or injuries entering their 30s. He wil probably end up with about the same career stats as Frank Thomas, minus all the walks.

Considering he is 28 years old, I think he may keep it until he retires aged 35. I have calculated this, and this is my findings.

[Blackout]

Is not Todd Helton on that list?

he was at .622

[bob]

he was at .622

Yea but the list i used from baseball-reference listed a min of 675 games, Helton fell just short at 665 games. Not sure why they did minimum games rather than AB or PA. But yes Helton was at pretty much the same level as Pujols, although Helton had only 4 complete seasons up to that point and 1,700 less PA, and although his SLG has never come close to what he was doing in '00 and '01, he stayed above .600 until he was 31.

[Bothrops Atrox]

Prior to 2010, he was a SUPERFREAK!

[ATTACH]126901[/ATTACH]

You mean through 2010? He led the league in WAR in 2010 with an OPS+ near 170 while chasing a Triple Crown into mid-September.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Pujols is right at .599 SA. His BB numbers are decreasing which isn't helping matters.

Has there ever been talk of Pujols actually being older than he says?

There's been some talk. I researched this topic a few years ago and I found no credible evidence that Pujols is older than he says he is. Although, a few years ago SABR Matt made the argument that Pujols decline in defensive numbers was a clear indication that Pujols was older than he claims. Matt had a strong belief that a player declines on defense before the decline on offense due to age.

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?84212-Albert-Pujols-age