November 20, 2011

How Old is Pujols?

Dan Le Batard writes about the Miami Marlins building a Latin brand, and how signing Albert Pujols instead of Prince Fielder fits with that business model. In doing so, he brings up Albert Pujols’s age (emphasis added):

The crown jewel on this construction, of course, is named Albert Pujols. What the Marlins are offering him only goes against almost every single principle they’ve ever believed. The total dollars are in dispute, depending on whom you believe, but the number of years offered is not. Nine years. That’s insanity, especially since, like a lot of teams, the Marlins believe Pujols to be older than the 31 he claims to be.

What, at this point, is the evidence that Albert is older than his given age? His best season came at seasonal age 23, a monster year Baseball Reference rates as a 10.9 WAR. His next best season comes at seasonal age 28, 9.6. From age 24 through age 29, Albert’s WAR comes in over eight each season, with that number falling off the last two years, age 30 and 31. If you believe Albert was seasonal age 25 in his peak year, then he posted a very long peak, lasting until age 31. That’s possible, but I can just as easily believe he had an outlier season at age 23, then played phenomenally well through his peak years (25-29), and started falling off at age 30. I see no real reason to believe Albert isn’t as old as he says.

1 thought on “How Old is Pujols?

  1. Pingback: The Marlins think Albert Pujols is older than he says he is | HardballTalk

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