Originally Posted by
JasonEvans
I am sure we all thought the same thing when, at age 33, Randy Johnson left Seattle for Arizona. Well, which cap does he wear? He was with Zona for a long time, won a ton of games there, and his team was arguably more successful than the ones in Seattle.
Greg Maddux started his career in Chicago and spent 10 years there (2 at the end of the career). He spent 11 seasons in Atlanta and I suspect there is no question he will wear a Braves hat.
Now, a better comp to Pujols may be Junior, who 29 when he left Seattle and went to Cincy for the next 9 years. But his Cincy years were often marred by injury and he was never the player there that he was in Seattle. He will wear Mariners hat in the HOF, right?
Vald Guerrero will be an interesting one. He played 8 seasons with Montreal and 6 with the Angels. He is now bouncing around some other teams and would seem to be certain of making the Hall when he is done (2500+ hits, 450+ homers and he seems to have a few more good years in him). Is he an Expo or an Angel in the Hall?
Mike Piazza (who may not make the Hall) -- would he be a Dodger or a Met?
-Jason "this could go on and on" Evans
Well, in the cases of Maddux and Unit, both got much much better after leaving their original teams. I think it's basically implausible to think the same will happen with Pujols, so that's a good reason for their caps being different than their original team which won't apply to him. Both also had more post-season success after changing teams, which is not implausible, but given baseball history, certainly isn't terribly likely for Pujols. Vlad and Piazza (who, by the way, I think is a lock for the HOF unless someone shows up with receipts signed by Piazza for home delivery of ped's) both had their best years with their original teams, and I think will probably have those caps. Piazza did however play considerably more games in NY than in LA, which might change that, and which I think is unlikely to be the case for Pujols. Griffey Jr, as you pointed out, basically fell apart, which one can only hope won't be the case with Pujols. That would resolve the question very quickly.
At any rate, I think there's a pretty material difference between Pujols and any of these guys. He has been, more or less, as good a hitter as there has been in baseball history. None of those guys was anything close to that in their early years. We'll see what the future holds, but I think it's very unlikely he will continue to be that outrageously good over the next 10 years. I think it's unlikely he will continue to be as rock-solid healthy in his 30's as he was in his 20's (though being able to "rest" at DH will be a nice difference moving to the AL). And I think when he retires, his resume will have some truly outstanding years in LA (and quite possibly some nothing special years), but across-the-board historic years in St Louis, and the choice will be plain as day.
Demented and sad, but social, right?