Friday, December 9, 2011

Pujols, Angels Agree to Blockbuster

Talk about surprising. Yesterday it was revealed that Albert Pujols will be joining the Los Angeles Angels and not the Miami Marlins or St. Louis Cardinals like many expected. The deal was for 10 years and $254 million dollars. The deal also comes with a full no trade clause so Pujols won't be going anywhere.

We all know how good Pujols is so there really isn't a need for a huge explanation. He's the best first basemen in baseball and one of the best overall players. He's coming off his worst year, posting an ISO of .242, a .385 wOBA, a 148 wRC+ and a 5.1 WAR. Not bad for your worst season. Pujols did suffer from some injuries this season so if he come's back healthy he should easily post 6.5+ WAR.

Over the first six years of the contract Pujols should be relatively solid, more so the first four. The last four probably won't be as good but with Pujols the good massively out ways the bad. Let's take a look at what kind of value Pujols should provide during his tenure with the Angels. The salary is in millions.

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For the most part my prediction was fairly accurate. The first five years Pujols is giving the Angels some really good value. You could say he is his sixth year as well but after that he begins to declines, which is only natural. Overall I have Pujols giving the Angels roughly $240 million dollars worth of value, a number that's ridiculous and given the circumstances the Angels should be ecstatic to get that out of Albert. In Albert's case overpaying for him isn't as bad as overpaying for someone of much lesser talent because of how good he is and his potential, so in this case we can call his actual deal and his projected value a push.

Pujols does come with his share of injury concerns though. Even though he has the concerns he's still managed to play more than 150 games per season except two and has played 140+ games ever since.

Pujols will be a massive improvement over Trumbo next season as well.

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While traditional statistics may show that Trumbo had a good rookie campaign, if we dive deeper we realize that he's essentially league average. His offensive production was only 5% better than league average, his WAR was pretty much league average as was his wOBA. Pujols was obviously much better, something that shouldn't come as a surprise.

I could keep going on and posting statistics but it would be a waste of time, you all should know (I hope) that Pujols is pretty much a machine. The Angels are easily the winner of the off-seasons, oh yeah they also got C.J. Wilson. The Angels will be a force to be reckoned with next season and shouldn't be taken lightly at all.

4 comments:

  1. Very nice post. What a shocker to see Albert Pujols go to the Angels. I thought after the Marlins were out on him he was going to lock up with the Cardinals but I guess not. The Angels are definitely a serious contender for the next couple of years but if Wilson and Pujols go on the decline things might not be too happy in LA LA land. This is a very intriguing move that shakes up the AL West big time. The Rangers now have some serious competition. Also, you think you could check out my blog because I’d really love to know what you think http://chrisross91.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/thank-you-albert-pujols/

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  2. You have 11 years in your contract forecast now, though your total is correct for the first 10 years. Otherwise, it was pretty good analysis.

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  3. Thanks. LA should be good for years to come.

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  4. Whoops, thanks for catching that. I'll fix that. Thanks though!

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