Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

[PineGroveBully]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6189583

ESPN Insider not required to read entire article.

 

[lawdawg02]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

Lots of players were higher on our board.

/good article

 

[Todd4State]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

When the Cardinals drafted him, he led the JUCO's in batting average. He could always hit, and could hit with power. But defensively, he needed a lot of work and they didn't really know where to put him. This was when the Cardinals still had McGwire as well. He moved from third to left field and then finally to first base after they got rid of Tino Martinez. He also wasn't all that fast when he came up and most people didn't think he would be anything but average at best defensively.

A lot of people also don't realize this, but when Albert's family moved to Kansas City from the Dominican, he could barely speak English. And he struggled to adjust in school because of that, and also in part because of those struggles, he was seen as having "a bad attitude". That also hurt his draft stock.

But Pujols has an incredible work ethic- what has taken his game to the next level to me, is the fact that once they found a position for him, he turned himself into a Gold Glove first baseman, and he has also become a great baserunner who can steal around 10 bases a year. He has also made himself into an even better hitter. To me, Albert Pujols is proof that with hard work and talent, you can make yourself into a five tool player, and he's also exhibit A that scouts so often overlook a players work ethic and baseball IQ and way overvalue tools.

 

[boomboommsu]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

Is Pujols really that good defensively, or did he 'win' one like an AL 1B did once (Raffy?) when he played DH all year.

 

[Brutius]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

nm

 

[Sutterkane]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

You can win a gold glove for DH in the national league

Yesterday I learned that sophomores are available to be selected to the all-SEC freshman team for men's hoops.

 

[missouridawg]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

Watching him play about 140 gamesa year for the last 10 years, I agree. He makes all of the easy plays and makes a lot of tough ones. His only fault is that he can be too aggressive sometimes with his arm.

 

[boomboommsu]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

Like many players in both leagues have. I could have been more clear on that, but i was referring to the most egregious example ever.</p>

 

[boomboommsu]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1177&position=1B#value

2 good years (2006 and 8) and one great one (2007). average all other years. which of course doesn't align with his Gold Glove awards, because Gold Glove voting is a joke.

this is one of those "in his prime" or not discussions, i think. and it looks like, defensively, he's past his prime.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

They keep the grass tall at Wrigley to slow down ground balls.

 

[missouridawg]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

Kind of odd to see that he had his best fielding percentage last year of his career and was only considered average. 5 errors in 157 games.

I need to dive into the UZR ratings to see how they value speed, range, etc...

 

[Todd4State]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

First base is not and never has been really a glamor defensive position.

Gold gloves do have some politics involved- usually it's biased more towards the guys that have won one before.

If you look at UZR report, that kind of proves my point that he made himself into a good defensive player- all of his better years were some of his most recent.

 

[boomboommsu]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

I'd say it's fine to call him a "Gold Glover" defensively, as he played at that level in 2006-2008, which surprised me (Whenever i hear an offensive stud described asa Gold Glover, i'm instantly skeptical).

And he's certainly farbetter thanHoward or Fielder, fielding (no pun intended). though Votto looks to be just as good.

But after two years of average D, which seems to be coming from a drop in range, it's getting very close to when we should be saying he WAS a Gold Glover. He sure didn't deserve the one he got last year. but maybe he returns to peak form this year.

out of curiosity, i looked up RFs for last year. Jason Heyward is often described as a great defender, and i didn't really see it last year. To my surprise, he was ranked very highly. I saw him drop so many balls at the edge of his range, but UZR says very few RFs would have reached those balls anyway. (Though it ranked Jaun Pierre highly too, and from my memory he has a noodle arm, so i think it underates throwing.)

 

[missouridawg]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

It's no secret amongst Cardinal fans that he's worked extremely hard on his defense once he was assigned the full time role there after he played some LF and 3B early in his career.

Jose Oquendo does an amazing job with infield defense.

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

MLB scouts have always given precedent to California and Florida players. They have always looked for the negative on "thick bodied" players who don't run the 60 with blazing speed. Other than the Hall-of-Fame career, I know exactly what Pujols went through. Glad to see someone got past those idiots.

 

[Todd4State]

Excellent article on the Rays passing on drafting Pujols despite urging from one paticular scout.

baseball is presented on TV. A lot of times, you can't tell just how far someone went to go get a ball unless you are actually at the game.

I'm not a UZR expert and I don't use it a whole lot, but to my understanding, it measures range and how many balls a player gets to. So, I don't think it does take into account arm strength all that much.

Arm strength is something that can be sort of measured by outfield assists. Without looking, Pierre may not have a whole lot. I think accuracy is overlooked with that- Jim Edmonds didn't have the strongest arm in the world, but he could put it exactly where he needed to and he kept a lot of runners at bay just by being accurate.