Fantasy Baseball Player Spotlight: Albert Pujols

Photo courtesy of Sports On Earth

     Last time out, I released a ranking of the top ten first baseman. In that list, I mentioned how Albert Pujols is actually one of my favorite players. This may seem a bit biased (but it's February and there is gonna be nothing of current news to talk about until Spring Training games start), but I also feel like Pujols is also an intriguing fantasy player. Why you may ask? Well, right this way.
     It is no secret that Pujols has started to show his age since signing with the Angels. However, it was seen that going into last season, his numbers were declining across the board for years. Pujols was able to reverse this trend by having a very good season. In fact, Pujols finished among the top 10 ranked first baseman.
     To be honest, if there was a player who could fight father time and experience a career renaissance, Pujols was the guy to do it. This is because even coming off the worst season in his career, he still wasn't even that bad. He still posted a wRC+ of 112, while managing to hit 17 home runs in less than 100 games (99 to be exact), while barely even being able to get out of the batters box with Plantar fasciitis. Essentially, even battling through an injury, Pujols was still the same player.
     I find Pujols to be intriguing because not only is he seemingly holding up a very nice front against father time, but he is also a player that can hold up that front for much longer than it seems.
     One thing that Pujols has always done right is his ability to consistently make contact, as evidenced by the fact that even as he is aging, he still does not whiff very often. In fact, Pujols only struck out in 10% of his plate appearances. With that, he was the ninth most difficult player to strike out in the league last year. Because of this, Pujols was able to put more balls in play, and as a result, has more of a chance to garner base hits despite his lackluster speed.
     Another factor that was behind Pujols' productive season was how he rediscovered hitting balls to the other side of the field. 2014 was the first time since 2009 that he posted a wRC+ of over 100 to right field. In fact, it was the first time since 2011 that Pujols had an ISO of over .100 on hits the other way. This was because Pujols was finally healthy and we all know that when he is healthy, he can spray his hits to all fields.
     From strictly a fantasy baseball standpoint, Pujols can almost be seen as a poor man's Edwin Encarnacion. I mean that in the sense that they both can be counted on to hit 25+ home runs, while posting respectable batting averages and not hurting the team via the punchout.
     I will conclude the spotlight by saying this, Pujols seems to finally be healthy again. For how long that will be, I'm not sure. However, to whoever owns him for the season, he will prove to be a big time contributor for that owner. This is because good power low strikeout players are very rare, especially those who will also have good protection in the lineup.