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Albert Pujols heading to Anaheim

Albert Pujols has apparently agreed to a deal with the Anaheim Angels, in the amount of $250-260 million over ten years.

So...Texas wins back-to-back A.L. championships while Anaheim stays home, and the Angels react by moneywhipping one of the best players in the game.

They mad.

But before everyone starts hitting the panic button here and says the Rangers need to trade everyone and rebuild, let's think through a few things with this move.


First of all, the Rangers finished 10 games up on Anaheim in 2011. Albert Pujols isn't a 10 win player...he's probably a 5-6 win player the next couple of years, a 4-5 win player the next couple of years after that, and then who knows. Albert Pujols, alone, doesn't make up the difference between the Rangers and the Angels in 2011.

Secondly, let's be clear that this isn't the Albert Pujols of the mid-aughts. Pujols had a 150 OPS+ last season, a 906 OPS, a .385 wOBA, a 148 wRC+, and a 5.1 fWAR. All of those are career lows for a guy who turns 32* in January.

* Assuming that he is 32, which, as has been discussed ad nauseum, many folks in the game question.

And the Angels aren't "buying low" for a 32 year old coming off his worst season (a worse season that was still pretty damn good, of course). They are paying $25 million per year for a decade.

Look, there's no question this makes the Angels better in the next few years than they would be otherwise. The road to the A.L. West title just got a lot rockier for the Rangers, at least over the next few years.

But this is one of those deals that is likely going to look really bad by 2015 or so. And realistically, it probably doesn't even make the 2012 Angels better than the 2012 Rangers...the Angels have spent $250 million to simply narrow the gap between them and the best team in the division.


Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB
2000 20 STL-min A,A+,AAA 133 544 490 74 154 41 7 19 96 4 5 46 47 .314 .378 .543 .920 266
2001 21 STL NL 161 676 590 112 194 47 4 37 130 1 3 69 93 .329 .403 .610 1.013 157 360
2002 22 STL NL 157 675 590 118 185 40 2 34 127 2 4 72 69 .314 .394 .561 .955 151 331
2003 23 STL NL 157 685 591 137 212 51 1 43 124 5 1 79 65 .359 .439 .667 1.106 187 394
2004 24 STL NL 154 692 592 133 196 51 2 46 123 5 5 84 52 .331 .415 .657 1.072 172 389
2005 25 STL NL 161 700 591 129 195 38 2 41 117 16 2 97 65 .330 .430 .609 1.039 168 360
2006 26 STL NL 143 634 535 119 177 33 1 49 137 7 2 92 50 .331 .431 .671 1.102 178 359
2007 27 STL NL 158 679 565 99 185 38 1 32 103 2 6 99 58 .327 .429 .568 .997 157 321
2008 28 STL NL 148 641 524 100 187 44 0 37 116 7 3 104 54 .357 .462 .653 1.114 190 342
2009 29 STL NL 160 700 568 124 186 45 1 47 135 16 4 115 64 .327 .443 .658 1.101 189 374
2010 30 STL NL 159 700 587 115 183 39 1 42 118 14 4 103 76 .312 .414 .596 1.011 173 350
2011 31 STL NL 147 651 579 105 173 29 0 37 99 9 1 61 58 .299 .366 .541 .906 150 313
11 Seasons 1705 7433 6312 1291 2073 455 15 445 1329 84 35 975 704 .328 .420 .617 1.037 170 3893
162 Game Avg. 162 706 600 123 197 43 1 42 126 8 3 93 67 .328 .420 .617 1.037 170 370
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/8/2011.