Saturday, September 18, 2010

If the Pirates only had Pujols…

After watching another 5-2 Pirates loss on our collegiate “hand-me-down” big screen, I turned to Mike Anderson (friend of the podcast) and said, “If the Pirates only had Pujols, we would be really good.” Sneers and laughter ensued. For good reason, the statement was quite elementary. If you add the best player in the league to any team, of course they will be better.

My point was more of the effect that a Pujols caliber player has on the lineup and how opponents approach a team. The Pirates at the time had some solid role players: Nate McClouth(he could actually hit in Pittsburgh); Freddy Sanchez (’06 batting champ); Jason Bay; Xavier Nady; Ryan Doumit; Jack Wilson; Jose Bausita (before the Canadian steroids transformed him into a modern day Brady Anderson). Insert Pujols behind Jason Bay in the lineup and the Buccos suddenly have a scary good lineup. Bay would have received a countless amount of “o crap, Pujols is on deck, I better make Bay beat me” fastballs. Bay would hit at least 40 homers. And before you refute that, his career high was 36, so yeah it’s possible! The Pirates jump from the bottom 1/3 to the top 1/3 in offense production in the National League. A playoff run would have ensued, but with Zach Duke as the ace of the staff, pennant dreams would fizzle. Irregardless, a “Pujols caliber player” is an essential piece of a championship team.

So what qualifies someone as a “Pujols caliber player?”
They need at least 40 HRs and/or 120 RBIs during the regular season. (During King Albert ‘s 10 year career, he has averaged .331/41 HRs/122 RBIs with a career slugging percentage of .624) True, the number of players that put up these kinds of numbers is rare, but World Series championships are quite common for teams that have them. 8 of the last 9 WS champs have had a player that qualifies as a “Pujols caliber player.”

Let’s check out the list:

2001 – Arizona: Luis Gonzalez – 57 HRs, 142 RBIs
2002 – Anaheim: Garret Anderson – 123 RBIs
2003 – Florida: Won on great young pitching (Beckett, Penny, Pavano, Willis)
2004 – Boston: David Ortiz – 41 HRs, 139 RBIs and Manny Ramirez – 43 HRs, 130 RBIs
2005 – Chicago: Paul Konerko – 40 HRs
2006 – St. Louis: Albert Pujols – 49 HRs, 137 RBIs
2007 – Boston: Mike Lowell – 120 RBIs
2008 – Philadelphia: Ryan Howard – 48 HRs, 146 RBIs
2009 – New York: Mark Teixeira – 39 HRs, 122 RBIs

Bottom line: To win it all, you need a player that can and will carry (aka hit) the team towards a championship. The Pirates do not have that player. Garret “G.I.”Jones currently has 20 HRs and 77 RBIs for the Buccos. (Yikes, not even close!) Jones is leader on a below average team full of prospects and solid MLB talent that have potential. If we only had Pujols to add to our lineup…

2 comments:

  1. It's definitely true that having a big slugger helps, but I think you see from your post that it's not everything. Garrett Anderson and Mike Lowell are hardly legit sluggers. They drove in alot of runs because everyone in front of them got on base.

    The teams you listed won because they pitched well. That's the X-factor. Remember the rangers and indians of the late 90's-early 2000's? Or how about the rockies (who had 4 players hit over 40 homers in a single season)? Never heard a peep from them come october. I'm sure if you had a list of the key pitchers from those world series teams it'd show that pitching win championships (the Johnson-Schilling combo for D-backs comes to mind, the bloody sock for the red sox, etc.)

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  2. I agree that you need at least one "ace" pitcher to win a World Series(Hamels in 2008, Beckett in 2007, etc). The last team to win the WS without an "ace" would have to be the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays. So you are correct.

    But, think about the Braves in the 1990s. Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine. 3 stud pitchers. Only 1 World Series Title. Just a thought...

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