Pujols Versus the NL Central

by AndyB83 on Apr 6, 2010 11:42 PM EDT

It seems that every series the Cards play in the NL Central FSN-MW flashes a graphic about how Pujols dominates that particular team. This always confounds me because the numbers, as impressive as they inevitably are, just mirror Pujols' career stats... which made me wonder whether I was being overly cynical or if this was actually the case. The table below shows the various numbers Pujols has put up against his NL Central foes to this point in his career. It's a fitting time to take a look as he's roughly put up a full season's worth of ABs (all numbers provided by Baseball Musings' Day by Day Database).

Team Versus	ABs	AVG	OBP	SLG	HRs	RBIs	SBs	BBs	IBBs	Ks
Milwaukee	515	.342	.444	.616	30	111	6	94	26	64
Cincinnati	540	.365	.441	.687	42	121	6	74	13	37
Pittsburgh	526	.373	.456	.694	40	122	2	73	21	52
Chicago	528	.290	.384	.576	40	109	6	77	18	59
Houston	536	.312	.409	.569	36	90	2	85	27	60

There are some interesting observations to be had. Pujols has accumulated more HRs against Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Cincinnati; these teams are much less likely to issue Pujols a free pass be it intentional or otherwise. His average is clearly lower against the Cubs and Astros. I'd be interested to see a pitch f/x image plotting where these clubs attack Albert in the zone. Regardless, it's not like they've been effective at containing him as his production is still impressive. Boy, Cincinnati just can't get a third strike against him, can they?

It really is remarkable how consistent Pujols grinds out numbers regardless of the year, opponent, constant nagging injuries, you name it. But, as you can see, it's not that he particularly dominates one of these teams... it's just that he owns the entire freaking league. No exceptions.

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Comments

can anybody explain the significance of "v. x team" stats?

they’ve always seemed suspect to me. does how a player hit against the astros when they had clemens and pettitte say anything about how they’d hit against them today? either you’re taking many seasons together, in which case you’re almost certainly including stats that include performances against players no longer on the team, or you’re taking stats over a season or so, in which case the sample size makes the stats meaningless.

unless there’s some effect on a player of pitching or hitting against a player in a particular colored uniform, i doubt there’s any significance to these stats.

"We were men - flesh and blood - and we played baseball in the sunshine. We hit doubles off the wall, slid hard into second base. We had fights, and we made love. We sang songs and prayed on Sundays. . . . We felt pain. And we felt joy. There was a lot wrong with the world. But we weren't sad, man. We had the times of our lives." Buck O'Neil, from "The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America."

by tom s. on Apr 7, 2010 12:47 AM EDT reply actions

i'd agree with that

the only thing i could really see factoring into one’s batting performance against individual teams would be a park factor – if some stadiums are more suited to a particular player’s stroke than others. but i don’t think it matters with pujols.

"Some days I feel like the hypotenuse in a love triangle; others as if my lucky number is pi."

by cardball on Apr 7, 2010 12:57 AM EDT up reply actions

batter's eye at certain stadiums could impact things

and, in some cases like Safeco, you’d expect park effects to creep into the smaller sample.

Think; It's not illegal yet.

by azruavatar on Apr 7, 2010 7:59 AM EDT up reply actions

Agree 100%

I’ve had the same thought for some time now; I think that’s half of what motivated me to look up these numbers in the first place… I was doubtful there would be any discernable difference when you compared Pujols’ numbers across the different teams.

Even if a team somehow kept the same pitching staff over several years, there’s been studies done that show that it’s a myth to suggest that a certain pitcher “owns” a certain batter or vice versa (save for Pujols/Lidge of course… okay, probably even then).

But I can see how a given organization might approach an iconic hitter like Pujols differently from year to year… which is why I mentioned the difference in BBs & IBBs.

by AndyB83 on Apr 7, 2010 8:44 AM EDT up reply actions

Interesting

At his “best” (Pitt) against NL Central teams he’s Ted Williams. At his “worst” (Chicago) he’s Chase Utley.

Albert Pujols does not have "down" years. He has "~6 WAR" years.

by mattybobo on Apr 7, 2010 10:10 AM EDT reply actions

this phenomenom

is not even peculiar to this context. I remember doing some digging through Albert’s stats in his worst months as a pro, then I averaged those out. I can’t remember the exact numbers, but I think Albert at his very worst was about a .280 hitter. Pathetic!

by mattyp on Apr 7, 2010 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Albert Hits + Hits + Hits

He hits righties, lefties, home, away it doesn’t matter. When you here old timers talk of the incredible accomplishments of Stan Musial you can now identify with their admiration. By the time Albert’s career is over he will be in the category of Ruth,Mays, Williams and Musial. The head of the class in the H.O.F.

by D4 on Apr 7, 2010 10:12 AM EDT reply actions

Pujols is worse against the Cubs and Astros than the other teams

because they actually have decent pitching compared to the other teams

"they make an adjustment or look into it, ultimately, somebody's going to get hurt" Carp was seen yelling at the home plate umpire

by Cards Fan in Chitown on Apr 7, 2010 12:31 PM EDT reply actions

wannndddddyyyy

Lick that shoulder—you're in the doghouse now.
"But listen, and understand: more Molinas are out there..." - THT

by Yadi2Second on Apr 7, 2010 12:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, I think that's probably the most salient observation

(or, at least, they have been over the course of Albert’s career, on average).

It would be interesting to see the average wOBA against each of these teams over the course of Pujols career vs his ACTUAL wOBA against them. Then we could actually determine if there’s a significant outlier there.

Actually, to say that the Cubs play in a very hitter-friendly stadium, and have not historically had great defenses, I’d say that, even though their pitching has been generally solid over the last 9 years, that looks a bit of an outlier to me. It seems (just intuitively) that the Cubs may have done better against Albert (or, conversely, Albert has underperformed against them compared to other teams) over his career than you’d naturally expect.

Of course, the only way to really show that would be to compare his production against the quality of their run prevention unit for the last 9 seasons, and see if there’s a more significant gap than there is against other teams. There’s also the added complication that, even though he now has a full season’s ABs against each team in the NLC, that’s STILL not a very large sample size and can be prone to random fluctuations of luck.

And, obviously, I pretty much agree with Tom’s comment above.

RELEASE THE CENTIQUID!!!!

by Felonius_Monk on Apr 7, 2010 1:00 PM EDT up reply actions