LA Angels Series Preview: Albert Pujols returns to St. Louis

A Tale of Two Legacies

.328/.420/.617 with an average of 40 HRs and 41 doubles, 121 RBI’s, and 89 walks to 64 K’s a season.

Those were Albert Pujols’ season averages across his 11 years with the St. Louis Cardinals from 2001-2011. On the other hand his numbers with the Angels have told the tale of a completely different ballplayer.

Pujols’ slash line for the Angels reads .260/.314/.453 with 27 HR’s and 93 RBI’s with 72 K’s to 43 walks and 26 doubles across an average season for Pujols with the Angels over the last 7 full seasons. His last two years prior to 2019 saw him hit under .250 and post an OBP under .300 and this season has seen him post a slash line of .231/.304/.439 with 12 HR’s and 40 RBI’s.

Pujols is having one of the more productive seasons he’s had in the last few years, but it’s still vastly underwhelming and so full of holes it’s hard to latch on to the few things he does decently nowadays.

Especially when he’s being paid close to 30 million a year to post replacement level stats with a little extra power. Over the last two weeks Pujols has his .207/.278/.345, I really don’t think Pujols will be heating up his bat this series unless he takes a torch to it and sets it ablaze before games.

Actually, he should probably try doing that, it might change up his luck. He’s going to want to change it up as much as possible before celebrating his weekend-long homecoming in St. Louis.

It would be great to see Pujols lighting up Busch stadium for what may be one last time in his career. On the other hand it’s almost expected for him to stumble through the series. It would be nice to see Pujols remind St. Louis, Anaheim, and himself of the glory days. Fingers crossed that we get the best of Pujols that we have in the last 8 years.