Albert Pujols: How His Worst Season Compares to the Greatest Ever

Many have argued that this is Albert Pujols worst season yet. The thing is, when you refer to Pujols worst season, you actually should put quotation marks around it because his "worst" season is still a pretty amazing season. 

I wanted to see just how good his "worst" season was and even took it up (or should I say down) a notch. I looked at his worst slash numbers plus triple crown numbers and compared them with the rest of major league history. 

If you take Pujols' "worst" numbers from every year of his career, a .304/.372/.554 slash and added in his worst 98 RBI (and counting) from this year, as well as his career low 32 home runs from his rookie year. A total of 109 players have combined for a total of 265 seasons which matches Pujols worse, 11 of those coming from Pujols of course. 

If you factor in his projected RBI, those numbers move down to 251 total seasons by 104 players. 

To put that in perspective, there have been 13,485 total season which qualified for the batting title. That means that Pujols' "worst" season is better than 98 percent (based on the larger 265 number) of all seasons which qualified for the batting tittle. 

The next thing I wanted to know is how many players other than Pujols averaged his career worst numbers over the course of his career. The answer is surprisingly low. As of this moment, there are only two players in major league history other than Pujols who have averaged Pujols "worst" slash plus triple-crown numbers. 

Those players are Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron—not bad company. 

However, Ruth averaged 100 RBI per season and Ruth 101. Pujols has 98 presently. If he has three more RBI, then neither of them would average Pujols "worst" numbers across the board. Also, if you add either runs or hits to the equation, neither has averaged Pujols career worst of 168 and 99.

When your worst numbers are better than the averages of everyone else in the history of the game that says something about consistency. And his averages? Don't even think about it.

Only three other players in major league history have even averaged his slash numbers. Those players are Ted Williams, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. None of them even come close to Pujols' average of over 40 home runs per year. With 117 RBI per year, only Gehrig even comes close to Pujols' average of 120 RBI per year.

To put it in perspective, just exactly how far are his averages in RBI and HR above everyone else, even if Pujols does not hit a home run or an RBI for two years, his HR averages would still exceed the other three, and only Gehrig would average more RBI. 

None of those whose careers matched his season "worst" slash touch his home run or RBI averages either. 

In other words, even when he's at his worst, only the best players in major league history can stand next to him. When he's merely being average (for him), in terms of consistency and across the board hitting, no one, not even Aaron, Williams or Ruth can compare with Pujols. 

It's enough to make a person think he's worth what he's asking, whatever it is.

How do you know Albert Pujols is in the MVP race? Because it's Opening Day. How much is that worth?