Some players are prone to struggle when they have a career milestone in their sights. Whether the pressure starts to get to them or they just end up over thinking things, a prolonged drought as the world anxiously awaits the breakthrough moment that makes history isn't unusual. Albert Pujols is not one of those players. On the verge of one of baseball's most cherished milestones, the Angels slugger went deep in three of his past five games, including a pair of homers last night, to become the 26th member of the 500 Home Run Club.
Rumors of his demise have been greatly exaggerated. Concerns of Pujols' decline began to grow from the moment he signed an outrageous 10-year, $240 million deal with the Angels. In his first two seasons in LA, Pujols battled injuries and saw his production sharply decline. This year he's been healthy so far (knock on wood) and appears poised to remind us how great a hitter he is.
How great has Pujols been in his career? He's the third youngest player to reach the 500 HR mark (34 years, 96 days) and only seven players joined the club in less at-bats than the 7,390 that it took Pujols. He's also on the verge of joining even more exclusive territory. Of the members of the 500 HR Club, only three of them (Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx) hit over .300/.400/.600 for their careers. Pujols currently sits at .321/.409/.599, barely missing the cut. Granted we're only 20 games into this season, but he's slugging .619 so far, so if he keeps it up at anything close to that rate he'll join that group by season's end. Of course some inevitable decline at the tail end of his career could drag him back down under those thresholds. Hey, there's a reason only three guys have ever done it! But the fact that we're talking about it as a possibility is pretty amazing.
