If You Needed More About How Unusual A Player Albert Pujols Is

There was an interesting thing I noticed over the course of that last little study I did. The Cardinals have essentially had five first basemen that stand head and shoulders above the rest: Keith Hernandez, Jack Clark, Gregg Jefferies, Mark McGwire, and Albert Pujols. Of course, they aren't all created equal. Jefferies lags behind Hernandez, Clark, and McGwire, worth about 1 win less per 162 games than each of them. And those three are well behind Albert (worth about 3 wins less per 162 games). But what was interesting was you can sort of group them as players, Hernandez and Jefferies, Clark and McGwire.

Clark and McGwire are the more traditional 3 True Outcomes (HR, K, BB) sluggers with limited speed and defensive abilities. Over 162 games, Jack Clark would average 688 plate appearances. And 311 of those would end with one of the 3 True Outcomes (45%). For McGwire, it's 365 of 665 (54.9%). In contrast, only 25.4% of Hernandez' PAs ended with one of those outcomes (178 of 700), and just 18.3% (128 of 701) of Jefferies' PAs. Both Clark and McGwire were poor defensively, Clark being 11 runs below average total over his 3 years as starter, McGwire a -28 over his 4 years. They had limited speed (2 SBs/162 for Clark, 1 for McGwire), and both were injury prone. Clark played fewer than 2 full seasons worth of games in three, and McGwire played in just 57% of the Cards' games his last two seasons (several of those in 2000 as a pinch hitter).

In contrast, Hernandez and Jefferies are more limited power, high contact hitters, who supplement their value with speed, and in Hernandez' case, defense. Jefferies was a .335 hitter, Hernandez .306. But their ISOs were both around .140 or .150, compared to Clark's .248, and McGwire's .411. But Hernandez averages about 18 SBs (albeit a 65% success rate), and Jefferies 38 SBs, with an 80.55% success. Jefferies is a slightly minus defender (-4 runs over 2 seasons), whereas Hernandez is excellent (+36 across 3 years).

What's most interesting is how Albert is some odd amalgamation of all 4 of them. In his 8 years as starting first baseman, Albert had a .326 average (Jefferies), but he walked an average of 99 times in 711 PAs (Hernandez, who averaged 97 in 700 PAs). But combined with his batting average, that gives Albert a .422 OBP, halfway between Clark (.413) and McGwire (.429). His slugging is .620, which is still over sixty points behind McGwire's, but almost 100 points ahead of Clark's. His ISO is .294, which is much further behind McGwire's but still well ahead of Clark's. Even so, Albert's Three True Outcomes score is only 29%, much closer to Keith Hernandez than the other two. Defensively, Albert was worth 98 runs above average over his 8 years. That's +12.25 runs per season, which is slightly better than Hernandez (+12), and much better than the others, who are all varying degrees of below average (from -2 to -7). Albert only averaged 10 SBs per 162 games, but his success rate is 73.8%, basically exactly halfway between Hernandez and Jefferies.

Also, it's worth noting the Cardinals didn't run as much during Albert's years. The Hernandez Cards stole 405 (135 per season) bases from 1980-1982, 45 (15 per season) by Hernandez, and that's with Herzog not arriving until partway through 1980, and 1981 being shortened by a strike. The Jefferies' Cards stole 229 in 2 years (115) - one of which was also strike shortened - and Jefferies accounts for 58 (29). The Albert Cardinals stole 593 in 8 years (74), of which 76 were by Albert (9.5). Going by that, Hernandez accounts for 11% of the team's SBs, Jefferies 25%, and Albert 13%.

So he hit for contact like Jefferies, drew walks and played defense like Hernandez. He got on-base and hit for power better than Clark, but not quite at McGwire's level. Compared to his team, he stole bases like Hernandez, but at a better success rate. And he stayed healthy pretty much throughout, or healthy enough to keep playing.