2010: New Decade, Same Name

Without belaboring the point, the 2000s were a very good decade for the Cardinals. Seven playoff appearances, six divisional titles, two world series appearances, one world series victory. Further, it will be known as the Decade of Pujols; since his improbable emergence in 2001, Pujols has in fact won the triple crown for the decade, leading the NL in HR, RBI and batting average. This is a decade, of course, where Barry Bonds would regularly hit 60-70 HR in a season.

I'm writing because Spring Training kicks off in 5 short days. With football over and basketball doing its interminable, endless thing, I need el beisbol more than ever. I'm not quite ready for a 2010 preview yet, as there are still probably some roster moves yet to be made and some freak injuries (hello, Brendan Ryan's wrist surgery) yet to occur.

But in a nutshell: the 2010 Cardinals are, on the whole, as good as the 2009 Cardinals that won the Central with ease. And the Central looks worse than it did a year before. Sorry Mike, prepare for another patented Astros season o' futility.

Pujols. That's it. Just Pujols.

Hey blog. It's been a long time since I blogged at you. But this morning I had a conversation with my dentist, a die-hard Cardinals fan displaced in central Texas just like me (big ups to Dr. Cordera!), about my lack of cavities and about The Pujols. At this point, he needs to be referred to exactly that way, just like you would some sort indomitable of force of nature, ie, The Tsunami, or The Himalayas. It's tough to quantify what he's doing, both in his career and in this season.

Let's start with career. Good news: two guys who are perhaps the best baseball writers alive, Bill James and Joe Posnanski, recently tackled this subject for Sports Illustrated. It's short and worth reading. Essentially, they conclude that there's never been a player who has opened his career with 9 seasons of dominance the way Pujols has, and in fact there have been two players who have ever put together 9 consecutive seasons at any time like he has thus far. Most recently, Paul Waner (1926-1934).

Within this unique career, 2009 may go down as his finest. What does the finest season by perhaps the best right handed hitter of all time look like? Through 81 games (half a season), 31 HR, 82 RBI, .336 BA. That half of a season would put him in MVP consideration most years.

But more interestingly, a friend of mine, Theosqua, wondered what half of Pujols' production would look like, including his slash stats (Batting Average, On Base Percentage, On Base Plus Slugging). Obviously, 16 HR and 41 RBI would be decent figures at the all star break. Is he truly twice the player of other guys in the league?

Here is the slash stats of Half-A-Poo

.168/.230/.370/.600

So, a 600 OPS - not very good. But stunningly, as good or better than a lot of players:

.168/.230/.370/.600 - Half a Poo
.234/.242/.359/.602 - Nick Stavinoha
.203/.240/.260/.500 - Aaron Miles
.219/.261/.324/.585 - Tyler Greene
.158/.256/.249/.505 - Andrew Jones (2008)
.232/.321/.278/.600 - Jason Kendall
.224/.276/.353/.628 - Jimmy Rollins
.267/.330/.337/.667 - David Eckstein
.214/.286/.359/.645 - Kelly Johnson
.244/.288/.301/.588 - Willy Taveras
.191/.277/.271/.548 - Brian Giles
.225/.302/.335/.637 - Garrett Atkins
.243/.276/.337/.612 - Jeff Francoeur