Let's remember the magnificence of Albert Pujols' 1st decade
If you became a baseball fan in the mid-2000s, then the name Albert Pujols has always been synonymous with greatness. If you didn't become a baseball fan until after Pujols signed a long-term deal with the Angels, then maybe he's the poster boy of not being as good as your dad or older siblings claim.
Like, what's the big deal?
Obviously, anyone who winds up crushing 600 career home runs is pretty good at baseball, but it's easy to forget just how dominant Pujols was from almost the very first day he stepped on a major-league diamond.
Aside from perhaps Barry Bonds, no player in the last 20 years has been more exciting than Pujols, in terms of both statistics and in story. But before diving in, let's take a look at a particularly memorable home run.
That's a 21-year-old Pujols - in just his fourth MLB game - tattooing a pitch from Armando Reynoso. Prior to this game, Pujols managed to go only 1-for-9 in a three-game set in Colorado. He unleashed a taste of the future on Reynoso in the desert, going 3-for-5 with a double, this first career dinger, and three RBIs.
Related: Flashback to Albert Pujols' many milestone home runs
A 13-game hitting streak followed in which he would hit three more home runs and entrench himself as the Cardinals' clean-up hitter. He moved around the order a bit in his rookie season, but only hit lower than fifth once more; it just so happened to be in his first multi-home run game.
He finished with a .329/.403/.610 slash line with 37 home runs, 47 doubles, 112 runs scored, and 130 RBIs, easily winning the NL Rookie of the Year. There really wasn't a learning curve, and his career didn't begin with a midseason call-up. Even Alex Rodriguez made a pair of auditions before cementing himself in Seattle's lineup. Pujols' presence was immediate.
According to Baseball Reference, his WAR over those first 10 years was 81.2. As a point of comparison, once we ignore A-Rod's first two seasons in which he played only 65 games, Rodriguez had 81.1 WAR over his next 10 seasons. It's more or less on par with fellow Cardinals legend Stan Musial's first 10 years, not to mention Lou Gehrig's. But both of them had a cup or two of coffee at the MLB level before becoming a fixture. Not Pujols. He showed up on Opening Day in 2001 and never looked back.
But it kind of came out of nowhere.
The Cardinals picked Pujols with the 402nd pick in the 1999 draft. This is the same draft in which the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays took Josh Hamilton first overall. In the book "The Extra 2%," Jonah Keri writes about how one Rays scout, Fernando Arango, lobbied for the team to take a flier on Pujols. They didn't, Arango quit, and the Cardinals got a generational hitter with possibly the greatest draft day steal in baseball history - except maybe Mike Piazza.
Tampa brass apparently didn't think Pujols could play the field. While he's now predominantly a first baseman/designated hitter, he played the outfield and third base more often in his first few seasons. Mark McGwire was the team's first baseman in 2001, and Tino Martinez took over that role in 2002. The Cardinals, unlike the Rays, were willing to find a place for him.
His supporting cast is worth mentioning. Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Juan Encarnacion, Edgar Renteria, young Yadier Molina, and others were part of the 2006 World Series-winning team. Despite all that talent through the ranks, Pujols was the best of them all.
Through Pujols' 11 seasons in St. Louis, the Cardinals won the NL Central on six occasions, and made the playoffs seven times.
The 2011 season, his final year with the Cardinals, was the first in which the cracks really started to show. Before that, it was pure magic. Pujols' rise was the kind that creates lifelong baseball fans. He never played fewer than 143 games in a season. He hit 408 home runs over those first 10 years. He had a cumulative .331/.426/.624 slash line. He hit 426 doubles. He even stole 75 bases, including a combined 30 between 2009-10.
His 11th season wasn't without its share of highs. A pained Pujols managed to go out on top as the Cardinals had a storybook World Series run against the Texas Rangers. David Freese was the catalyst of the series with his hitting heroics, but Pujols smacked three home runs and drove in six through the seven games.
Albert Pujols' legacy will probably be dulled because of a lingering foot issue that has impacted his play throughout his Angels' tenure. Imagine a perfect world in which a top-form Pujols played alongside Mike Trout.
Speaking of baseball's new flag-bearer, even Trout struggled out of the gate. He hit only .220 over his first 40 games with five home runs. No player in recent memory has had the level of immediate impact on his major-league team that Pujols has.
Now that he's hit his 600th long ball, something only eight other batters have ever accomplished, he should be remembered at his absolute best. Even if he flounders through the rest of his contract, reducing his career slash line to more human levels, he has a real shot of entering the top three in all-time home runs.
Anyone who says Pujols is overrated never watched him during those first 10 magical seasons. Is he the best Cardinals hitter of all time? That title still belongs to Musial, but at his best, Pujols was a well-oiled machine who struck fear in the hearts of all pitchers who dared oppose him.