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How Does Albert Pujols' Fantasy Season Stack Up Historically?

Through 80 games, Pujols has 30 homers and 10 steals, putting him on a pace to be the majors' first ever 60/20 player.

Baseball's had 20-plus homer/double-digit steal totals exceed 80 before. Jose Canseco was the first 40/40 player, and ARod, Barry Bonds and Alfonso Soriano, the only possible non-steroid user to accomplish the feat, followed suit.

But Bonds also put up a 73/13 season in 2001, and Sammy Sosa went 66/18 in 1998. Babe Ruth also came close, going 59/17 in 1921. (Ruth also scored 177 runs that year and drove in 171, while batting .378). Larry Walker had a 49/33/.366 season in 1997, making him the only player in major league history to go 40/30/.360. ARod also had a 54/24 year in 2007.

Ken Griffey, Jr. had back to back years of 56/15 and 56/20, and then a third of 48/24 in the late '90s, Willie Mays had a 51/24 season in 1955 and Brady Anderson had a 50/21 season in 1996.

Ricky Henderson had a 24/80 season in 1985 and a 28/87 one in '86, the latter accounting for 115 HR/SB, the most among players with 20 or more homers. And Joe Morgan went 26/67 in 1973, 22/58 in 1974 and 27/60 in 1976. Say what you want about him as a broadcaster, but you'd have spent top dollar on him for your fantasy team.

More recently, Hanley Ramirez went 29/51 in 2007, just falling short of becoming the second 30/50 player ever. The only one to do that was Eric Davis, going 37/50 in 1987.

So while Pujols is having a monster year, and has a decent chance to win the Triple Crown, his season will probably fall just short of the top-10 all time for fantasy. (I'm also leaving out some other monster seasons like Ty Cobb's 83-steal .400-plus one, Hack Wilson's 56/191/.356 year or Chuck Klein's 40/170/.386 year with 158 runs scored.)

Make no mistake, however, a 60/20/.340 Triple Crown would belong in the conversation.

Comments

By: schoenke
On: 7/1/2009 9:31:00 PM		 What about Eric Davis 27/80 in 1986. We'll probably never see that again.
 
By: Chris Liss
On: 7/1/2009 9:35:00 PM		 Right, missed that one. But Ricky Henderson went 28/87 that same year.
 
By: Scott Pianowski
On: 7/1/2009 9:44:00 PM		 It took Eric Davis a little while to get his sea legs in 1986, he was at .200 for the first two months with just three homers.

His last 104 games in 1986: .299/.403/.571, 86 runs, 24 homers, 62 RBIs, 69 steals. That's just obscene.

Pujols was walked intentionally the first two times up tonight. It's time for him to start getting the Bonds treatment.
 
By: Mark Stopa
On: 7/1/2009 9:49:00 PM		 The craziest part about Davis is that he didn't play more than 132 games in either of those seasons.
 
By: Dave Regan
On: 7/1/2009 10:27:00 PM		 What about Billy Hamilton's .404/98 SB season? Different era..yeah yeah.

I made a killing on Eric Davis cards in college. I must have sold 50 of them at $20 a pop at one point. A classic sell-high.
 
By: kennruby
On: 7/2/2009 9:51:00 AM		 I think when we talk about the greatest fantasy seasons of all-time, it should be separated into the "fantasy era" (i.e. when Rotisserie was invented, in what, 1980?), and the "pre-fantasy era". None of us "owned" Babe Ruth in 1921, so I wouldn't want to call that the greatest fantasy season of all time. Stuff in the last 30 years is in play. I think it begins with Larry Walker in 1997, but the Davis/Henderson seasons would be right up there. Bonds' 73-homer season also included a .328 batting average (in 476 at-bats), 137 RBI and 129 runs. I'd probably put that ahead of both Davis and Henderson.
 
By: Chris Liss
On: 7/2/2009 10:48:00 AM		 I used 1900 as the barometer as we don't really even consider records from the 19th century. But if you think the hitters are out of line - the pitchers are more so: Ed Walsh had the greatest fantasy season ever in 1908: 40 wins, six saves, 1.42 ERA, .860 WHIP in 464 IP. That's far more valuable than anything any hitter has ever done.
 
By: kennruby
On: 7/2/2009 9:35:00 PM		 Yeah, what do you think Ed Walsh went for in the 1909 AL-only draft? You think his owners were disappointed that he had "only" 15 wins and his 1.41 ERA and 0.94 WHIP were in only 230 innings?
 
By: Dalton Del Don
On: 7/2/2009 10:54:00 PM		 I disagree to an extent Chris. While Walsh's fantasy season was no doubt impressive, in some formats (like my main one, which is daily and has an 1800 innings cap), his K rate would actually have been a pretty big hindrance. I give the overall nod to some of those hitting seasons.
 
By: Chris Liss
On: 7/3/2009 2:44:00 AM		 Well, only in a league with an innings cap - yes, his K rate would kill that category. But in a standard league, he has plenty of Ks, and his ERA and WHIP over that many innings, not to mention wins and throw in six saves crush every hitter. That's like having Ty Cobb get 1200 at-bats, hit .400 and have batting average count double.
 
By: Dalton Del Don
On: 7/3/2009 10:47:00 AM		 Yeah, nearly 500 innings of a .86 WHIP would be pretty helpful.
 

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