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Albert Pujols homer-happy as he makes MLB history


Albert Pujols is one of the most famous players in baseball in the second half of the season.

Albert Pujols is one of the most famous players in baseball in the second half of the season.
image: beautiful pictures

Last night, Albert Pujols ignited a Twitter fire about the baseball team, beating the 699th and 700th home runs of his career in the same game, the same feat he has achieved for himself. 499th and 500th home runs. It was an incredible run for the Pujols. Something that not many people see coming, unless you’re Greg Amsinger.

I mean, 15 runs in the second half?! Those are nuts! Fourteen of them come in his 130 previous appearances?! Incredible. Apparently, something inside Pujols was awakened when he was sent back to St. Louis this season. However, after just six home runs in its first 90 games, the Pujols are unlikely to hit the legendary 700 mark. After the All-Star break, Pujols started training. Only Aaron Judge and Eugenio Suarez have had more shots since then. So, when was the last time the Pujols played incredible baseball like this?

Now, the Pujols hitting 14 home games in 39 games is nothing new. He has had a lot of such traces throughout his career. However, the Pujols are 42 years old this season. He doesn’t play every game like he used to. His 14 home games from August 10 to September 23 have come in the course of just 130 appearances and 116 wins. In other words, every other 39 games where the Pujols hit 14 or more home serves requires at least 160 appearances and 127 catches. It was also Pujols’ peak period, as outside of his current stint, the last time Pujols made 14 or more home runs in a 39-game span was 2015. Before that hot streak , it happened in 2012. It’s been seven years since then. Pujols has played as good as this, and he has done it with fewer club and disc appearances than he had to in 2015. Are the Cardinals simply delivering good things? absolute best in Pujols?

Had 81 cases in the baseball history of a player hitting 14 or more home throws in 39 games at age 40 or older. Thirty-one of them belonged to Barry Bonds. 21 of them belonged to Nelson Cruz. However, Cruz never did this after turning 42. Only Bonds and Pujols. Raúl Ibañez went through an amazingly energetic time in 2013, but he is 41 years old. As with every other case of this magnitude, Pujols need fewer plate occurrences than anyone. The only person that came closest was Jim Thome, who in 2010 needed 135 number plate appearances to earn 14 bucks. Thome really only needed 108 at-bats too, which is actually less than Pujols, but overall Pujols did it the fastest. Although Ibañez has scored 16 home goals in 162 appearances, Cruz has 15 in 150 and Bonds 15 in 151, the Pujols still have the best percentage of home appearances in the group.

Now, what about just hitting home runs in the second half? Historically, Pujols has always been a much better second-half hitter than first-half. His average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS-plus, walk rate, and strikeout rates are all superior after the All-Star break, but that hasn’t always been the case. Since 2017, Pujols has only had one season (2019) where his OPS has been higher in the second half than the first. In fact, prior to 2022, 2019 was the only season where Pujols even had an OPS higher than .700 in the second half. Pujols’ on-base percentage has been lower in the second half of every season since 2017. Yet, somehow, in 2022, he has managed to record an on-base percentage over 100 points higher than his first-half split, an OPS greater than 1.000, and an OPS-plus of 198, meaning Pujols has been nearly 100 percent better than an average player in the second half. To put that in perspective, Aaron Judge’s OPS-plus in the first half was 173. Yeah, Pujols’ second half has been better than Judge’s first half, and need I remind you, Pujols is 42 years old.

I don’t know how he’s managed to turn his fortune around since the All-Star break, but Pujols is on one of the hottest streaks of his career, more than half a decade after everyone thought he was done for. Obviously, there are going to be some people who assume PEDs are at play here, and I find that notion ridiculous. Pujols pushed through the steroid era entirely clean. I know hitting 700 home runs is a legendary feat worth striving for, but why would he muddy his Hall of Fame chances just for one-half of great baseball? Hitting 700 home runs doesn’t guarantee your place in baseball’s immortal Hall, as evidenced by Bonds and probably Álex Rodríguez in a few years as well. If Pujols did that, he’d be one of the stupidest people alive. He’s not.

That said, something about St. Louis just brings out the best in The Machine. If you’d asked Dodgers or Angels fans whether or not they believed Pujols could hit 700 this year prior to the season, they probably would’ve laughed at you. Given the Pujols that they’d seen over the past seven or so years, 700 had been out of the question for half a decade, yet The Machine found a way. He channeled his prime self for one last “Hoorah!” and it was exhilarating to experience. I haven’t felt this ecstatic to be a baseball fan since the ad ‘Re2pect’ aired when Derek Jeter retired. Imagine if he won a World Series now. That will be special. Cherish these moments while we have them. We’re tracking the second unanimous Hall of Fame entry in his final season.



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